Had to visit the emergency room again Sunday night. I started passing a fair amount of blood and clots through my bladder. Since 99% of the urine drains into the nephrostomy bags, this caught us off guard a little. We called the on-call doctor and she advised, with my low blood counts and the fact we did not know where the blood was coming from, that we had better get it looked at. After our visit with the Urologist today, we are going to see if begins to let up or gets worse. Today was better with the blood, so hopefully this was something that began to bleed from the Lovenox and drained to the bladder. So we will stay the course for now and hope that it continues to lessen and stop.
B.

Yea Kidneys!!

Nothing that exciting about my kidneys this month, just trying to give them a little encouragement. The hemoglobin dropped a little this week and I will have to have it tested next week again. It dropped from 10.0 to 9.4. If it gets back down into the 8's, then I will have to borrow some more blood. This will likely settle down into a quasi-scheduled activity. It is an amazingly different energy level from the 9's to the 8's, and especially the 7's where I found myself a few weeks ago. The creatinine that monitors kidney function is holding very steady at 1.0, which is a normal reading, and exceptional considering my right kidney is non-functioning and very likely to remain so. The big battle that wages in the back of my mind tends to be the potential for bloodclots. I have been injecting Lovenox for the last 6-7 weeks. It is a twice a day injection in your stomach and will need to happen for at least 4-6 months. It is a small needle, so it is more of a nusiance, like a small bee sting, but it does get old pretty quick. I will go back on Wednesday to the doctors who implanted the bypass (nephrostomy) tubes from both kidneys. I have a tube coming out of my back at each kidney. The tubes each drain to a bag. That is how I have to urinate now. Since we can't shrink the lymph nodes at this point, removing these tubes could lead me to a repeat of my weeklong hospital stay in December of last year. So, while I wish they could install stents and make this an internal deal, it is not likely to happen. Not now, and most likely, not ever. Other than that, things are going pretty well here. I am still writing for the kids, and trying to take one thing at a time, one day at a time. I wish all of you my very best!
B.

There isn't much to report lately. My hemoglobin has been maintaining betweeen 9-10, which for most people would be low, but I seem to do okay with. I don't have a ton of energy, but enough to do the things that I need to. I still get tired in the evening and I need the extra sleep. But at least I am up when I want to and need to. The kidney seems to be operating fine. I will go back in to have the Nephrostomy tubes looked at in early Feb to see what the long term solution for drainage will be. The retaining of the fluid from extreme swelling of lymph nodes is what caused that part of the problem, so unless we know that the swelling has decreased drastically, which we don't right now, then we need a backup plan to make sure that I don't retain fluid and end up back in the hospital. Other than that, things are pretty quiet right now and I like it that way.
B.

I vant your blood!!!

This week all seemed to be going pretty well except for some strong fatigue on Monday and Tuesday. I was in anyway for blood work so they checked kidney function and hemoglobin to see if I was still anemic for some reason. The kidney function looked great. Better than it had since before the hospitilization before Christmas. The hemoglobin, however, for some unknown reason dropped to 7.1. I definitely noticed a drain in energy. They decided to give me 1 unit on Tuesday and one on Wednesday. I started to feel a little better after the first one, and a lot better after the second one. Hopefully, we can get my body to make the adequate number of red blood cells and get away from the transfusions, but at least I have a good option if I need it. It is a great reminder to me, even though I can't donate now, please help to keep these blood banks full. It is a great way to help your fellow man, even if you don't know who it might be. It is used for so many emergent and non-emergent situations, but it truly saves lives. If you see a blood drive, and it's been awhile, and you have a couple extra minutes, picture someone you know or love that might depend on this type of gift and give a little bit of yourself.
All my love and thanks!!
Brian.