Chaos and Conundrums of Health Kerfuffles

I am so excited to see Dr. Sandy. Today is the day that she is going to release me back to work. I am going to work and I am going to drive my car! We get to the appointment and I introduce her to Steve. We talk about my BP, it's getting lower and she is happy about that. She is content with my blood sugar. I am borderline but she tells me to keep eating healthy and I should be okay. She doesn't think that my Anemia is from my kidney disease so she did an blood test for my iron. (She is right by the way, I am taking iron supplements). We get to the reason for the visit and I am excited.. until she tells me that I have to go to physical therapy and she cannot release me back to work until after I do some therapy. She put me off work until 8/7 and she will reevaluate me at that time and oh, I also can't drive... are you kidding me? Yep, sure as shit is serious as all get out. I am off work and going crazy. I am dizzy, can't drive, cooped up in the house, making everyone...

Who knew what could cause my vertigo to act up? Well I was about to find out. I thought they were being a bit melodramatic when they put me off work for the rest of the week and told me that I couldn't drive. On Wednesday after being release from the ER, Steve had to drive me to Walgreen's to get my Meclizine for the Vertigo. On the way to the pharmacy, he had to stop fast and that flung me forward a bit in my seat. Let me tell you, that causes a bout of vertigo. I was grateful to be getting the Meclizine. We got to the pharmacy and I was never more grateful in my life to take medication. It helped and gave me so much relief. I didn't have another issue until the next day. Tyler was napping and I thought I would get a nap in at the same time so I curled up to catch some Z's. I rolled over and bam.. another episode of vertigo. I was laying there like I was on a rolling wave and my ship was going down and he was waving at me from the other room in his crib. All I could ...

Monday morning, I am feeling good and it's a new week. I hit the ground running. I go see the GYN and he is awesome! He tells me that the cysts on my cervix do not look like cancer but he is going to do a pap and an internal ultrasound on 8/21 to be sure but not to work. Great doctor's appointment, I am happy and feeling good and head to my office. I have supervision and then begin typing case notes. Bang, all of a sudden I am dizzy, feeling like I am going to pass out, pain in my chest, my arms are tingling and numb, facial twitching. Amazing Stacy comes to sit with me and she can't find my pulse right away (lol great I died!). I really think it's time to go to the ER. I am not taking the BP meds so we can't blame them anymore. My boss is amazing and drives me to Borgess where Danni is the first to arrive to meet us and Steve soon after. The hospital begin running test on my end organs because of my blood pressure. They are worried that I have end organ damage wh...

July 18th.. a typical Thursday? Not in our lives. Today I had an ultrasound scheduled at the hospital for 9:00am and then a 10:00am appointment with the nephrologist (that is the coolest sounding word.. it should be a different doctor though..more fun than kidney). I arrive at the hospital on time and decide I can get all my blood work as well since I will have time and I am already there. I check in at the outpatient kiosk. It was a pretty cool experience however, I am a bit salty because I really think we are taking people's jobs away and it takes away the customer service. After checking in on time, they made me report to registration and hand in all my insurance information again where they detain me for 25 minutes. Finally at 9:25am, they send me to my ultrasound where the check in lady is upset that I am arriving late. I am flabbergasted because I was on time but detained! I go back for my ultrasound and she can only complete half of the test because I have to get to the ne...

So at the doctor visit on June 28th, my fabulous Dr. Sandy prescribed me the almighty blood pressure medication called Amlodipine. I took that for several days before I started noticing tingling in my hands and feet and then my feet and ankles began swelling. I have never had a reaction to a medication before but this was crazy. We called the doctor and they switched me to Lisinopril. 

So the bad news is over and I am relaxing again.. getting used to the news that I have one good kidney. Okay, so I am not getting used to the news but I am kinda dealing with it, you know, crying off and on. It's a Friday morning and I have a visit with the family doctor for a minor issue that is NOT kidney or thyroid related. I wasn't going to share but well screw it.. this is so trivial at this point but important I suppose. I got a plantar wart from a hotel pool when I had been traveling for work. I had tried OTC remedies and I couldn't get rid of it, it just kept coming back. Well, if you ever hit your deductible and it's only June.. yep you guessed it.. you get everything possible taken care of medically. I check in with my new family doctor that I never met before. Steve and I had just transferred to the practice in February. I go into the room and my vitals are taken, I explain why I am there and they get the doctor. The doctor starts freezing the wart (for any...

Fast forward to the present... In October 2018 I was in a car accident and shortly afterwards I moved some furniture. I started having some lower back pain on the left side. Steve and I thought that I might have pulled something in my back. I couldn't take the pain any longer and went to get checked out. I was diagnosed with a kidney infection but I was referred to a urologist. This was confusing and concerning since if it was just an infection. I thought that I'd get antibiotics and be on my merry way. To say that I was scared would be an understatement. Steve and I went to see the doctor in early December. At this point we found out that my test results showed thinning in the ureter and they wanted to see how much function I had in the kidneys. The thinning could be from a stone that they couldn't see, scar tissue, or other reasons. Also the scan showed some other information, and depending on the functioning level, they would decide if the kidney would ...

 ** Disclaimer - This blog is not for us to get sympathy or pity.  Please know that we are always looking for positive feedback and suggestions along the way. However, the journey is confusing and we cannot promise that we can follow all of the suggestions given to us. This is more of a place where Steve and I can put our thoughts down so we can process what we are going through individually and as a couple. This is the first post and it will probably come out like verbal vomit because I have been holding so much inside. I have not wanted to burden many people with my medical problems so I have not shared a lot. The past..  I got my first kidney stone in 1991. I honestly didn't know what it was but it hurt badly. From 1991 until 1997, I suffered so many kidney stones that we stopped counting. There were times that I even had multiple stones in one month. I had stents put in, I had stents removed, I had pain meds.. it was horrible. I even went to Northwest Communit...