It's Been Two Years Since My Last Blog Post

First up, the good news: Everything is going great with my transplant!

Okay, now that I've got that out of the way, I can share a few other things with everyone. I've been seeing my transplant doctor (the nephrologist) now about four times a year since my transplant. They are very pleased with my health, and my creatinine is always very good for someone with a replacement kidney.

Also, I've still got my old kidney. You know, that one with the Polycystic Kidney Disease? It's hanging out in my right flank (lower back) where it's supposed to be. It doesn't do a whole lot, except hurt sometimes. A few weeks ago, it hurt A LOT. For two or three days. Then, it stopped hurting, and I began passing blood in my urine (not all that wonderful, I tell you).

This went on for a few weeks, until I saw my nephrologist. As part of my exam, before I had even mentioned any symptoms, they had me scheduled for a sonogram of my native kidney and a bone density test. I haven't checked the results of the bone density, but it's probably pretty good since the doctor didn't mention it while I was there. The sonogram, however, is a different story.

The doctor saw what he believed to be blood clots hanging out in my sonogram. Now, he's not the doctor that actually reads sonograms (not sure what that title is). He just looked and didn't like what he saw. He thinks that there are some blood clots hanging out in that old, bad kidney, and he wants to have it looked at my my urologist.

So, I am scheduled to see my urologist on Wednesday afternoon. I'll find out there if there are blood clots in the kidney and if we need to start talking about having that kidney removed. This would not be my preference, as the recovery will not be fun, and the cost will also be NOT fun. This is one of those times that I need to be part of the US Senate or House of Representatives. That way, I could actually afford surgery. But, I don't see "being a Federal elected official" in my future.

I'll know more Wednesday. Maybe I'll post again Wednesday, or maybe Thursday? We'll see.

Prayers would be for a good outcome on Wednesday from seeing the urologist. Blood clots would be bad.