It's Monday morning now (I have been in the hospital for a week). I have received at least 17 needle sticks- more if you include the numbing needles for my biopsy and catheter...I really hate needles.
After I was here a few days, they did a biopsy of my kidney (Friday). The results were rushed, so we received them Saturday evening. The sample had been sent out for analysis to a lab in Alabama. Dr. Rose called us Saturday with the news. My kidneys are 60-80% fibrosis (scarred up), which means that it is highly unlikely they will start functioning enough to filter my blood again. I do not have a secondary issues, at least. The cause of my kidney failure is just my IGA Nephropathy increasing in unheard of strides (yup, I'm always a freak of nature- a fascination of medical science). Ultimately this means I will be on dialysis until I can get a kidney transplant-not the news I was hoping for, but at least there isn't a larger system-wide issue. Apparently I am healthy aside from my kidneys.
I did more dialysis on Saturday, and we started to talk about going home to NC again. I have been getting tired of feeling generally fine, but not allowed to leave the hospital. I might have to do a hospital transfer (they take me to NC on a helicopter). This makes me crazy because a- I don't want to get into a helicopter, and b- I FEEL FINE! I just want to take a plane home- to my house. I can go to Duke for dialysis, but I want to go home. I'm learning that there are administrative issues with this, and that I will need to be an inpatient at Duke at least briefly in order to gain assistance applying for MA.
I've been told that I will get to leave today, but we still have to coordinate with Dr. Middleton- my Dr. at Duke- to make sure there is space for me there. I still don't know if I can take the plane or if I will be stuck on a helicopter. I have a sneaking suspicion that they won't let me go home today, but I guess I'll have to wait and see. No one seems to know what's going on right now. One nurse came in and took my blood sugar- another poke- but I don't know why. It has been normal, and I'm not diabetic so what's with the useless extra needle sticks!?
Right now I'm waiting for them to take me to a surgical room to put in a more permanent catheter because the one in my neck is only temporary (and it's starting to really irritate me).
No comments:
Post a Comment