Hospital admission

After the chest x-ray, I eventually headed to dialysis.  While I was there (feeling awful- intense headache, struggling to breathe), I think I slept.  I was moved to a private room in the hospital since they determined that I would be here awhile.  I was assigned a general physician Dr. Patel, and a Nephrologist, Dr. Rose. 

The hospital in Tampa allows visitors to stay 24/7, so when my mom arrived, she set up shop on a couch in my room. For the first two days in the hospital, I was in a lot of pain. I kept getting painful shots in my belly- to avoid blood clots, and to increase my red blood cell count.  My headache was excruciating and Tylenol didn't seem to put a dent in it.  I was nauseous a lot- I think from the hydrothorazine (?) they were giving me to reduce my obscenely high blood pressure.  After 4 administrations of this pill, I was finally able to convince them to give me an alternative because it was making me sick- and with such little appetite, I was dry heaving.

When I first entered the hospital, my creatnine was a 10.4 (this is supposed to be 1 in a normal person), after my first round of dialysis, it went down to 6.  The next day it was back up to 8- so the dr. explained that my kidneys aren't filtering like they are supposed to, and I will probably need to be on dialysis every other day.  Due to my low blood count, I was given a transfusion, and this increased my energy.  For the first time since coming to the hospital, I was feeling like a person again!  I had spent two days in a miserable fog, so this was a welcome change.

Dr. Rose stated that she wanted to do a biopsy because the speed with which my kidneys crashed was very uncommon.  She wanted to see if there was a secondary reason that caused this.  I was really hesitant to agree to a biopsy since I had very painful internal bleeding when I got a biopsy done two years ago at Duke.  I was finally feeling better too, so it was hard to agree to a procedure that I knew would make me feel crappy again, but she emphasized the importance of understanding why my kidneys were acting this way.

In the meantime- I spoke briefly with someone from financial aid, who got my information and helped me to apply for charity- since I do not have health insurance at all, and I am not even receiving treatment in my state of residence.  A case manager also stopped by to briefly discuss coordinating a transfer so that I could go to Duke- the hospital close to my home.