Hello from Mercy

So I didn't end up getting chemo Wednesday. My blood counts were messed up again. I was anemic, low potassium, low magnesium, and creatinine levels were too high. They gave me a ton of fluids to try and flush my kidneys and had me come back to check again and get more fluids Friday.

But Friday my labs were even worse. More anemic and worse kidney function (creatinine.) The doctor said I needed to be in the hospital and we needed to figure this out

Went to the ER at Mercy here in town, did a CT scan, and found that both of my ureters were getting pinched off and therefore my kidneys were not draining like they should be. I was still peeing, but not enough, so things were getting backed up and not working properly, basically. So my kidneys were kinda enlarged. This would require a fairly simple procedure to place stents in both of them.

From the ER I went to the OR for the procedure. I was put under a light sedation, thank goodness we didn't have to go full blown anesthesia. The last thing I remember was telling the crew yes, it was finally making me sleepy and it sounded like a loud whoosh like it was pouring rain on a metal roof. In a half hour, they were done and I was moved into recovery. It was late in the day and I was the only patient.

After that they brought me to my room on the floor. After some time we started the other thing I needed: a blood transfusion. My red blood cells/hemoglobin has been too low and since this has been the case for a bit now, I guess it was time. I've never had one before and fortunately that went fine and there were no issues.

They're telling me I'll probably have to stay a couple days until my creatinine levels get back to normal. If they don't, then something else is up that needs to be diagnosed. But I think everyone is pretty confident the ureters were the problem, and that's been fixed now.

Man, I tell ya. What a day. What a whirlwind. I'll be hanging out here at little Mercy if anyone wants to come say hey. Just text me first.

Update: I got to come home this afternoon (Saturday)! My hemoglobin was on its way up and my creatinine was on its way down (from 7.1 to 8.6, and from 3.5 to 3.1 respectively.) Not drastic changes in the numbers yet, but the doctor said it takes a bit and doesn't happen overnight.