427) In which Jack's Pink Urine is Studied

March 20, 2012
Tuesday

Early this morning I called Patti, the new transplant coordinator... since Bernadette has moved up to a higher position.  I left Patti a message to call me and then tried Bernadette's phone.  She answered and I explained to her about my burning urination, going to see Dr. Krienke last Wednesday, getting a culture done, and how my urine started getting pink last night around midnight.  This morning its murky red and still burning to urinate.

She recommends I find out about the culture and then call her back... so, I called Krienke's nurse, who, after some hemming and hawing (Krienke is on vacation), reports the results were negative and she will fax them right over to the transplant clinic.  I call Bernadette back and leave her a message.


Later Bernadette calls me back and tells me to come in to the clinic right now; sign in, get labs done, get an ultrasound, and come over to see Dr. Lewis.


At the Clinic
After these tasks I get to the transplant clinic, where Maxine takes my BP and it is 190/86 and I know that is really not accurate since she is talking to me and asking me questions throughout the measure.  Then Patti the Nurse and new Transplant Supervisor comes in to hear "the story" one more time, check my list of BPs I've been keeping and comment that they look good and "see how it goes down when you are doing yardwork?",... and then, Dr. Lewis gets to hear the story.  He takes my BP and it is really 155/72.  He pokes and prods me and decides I need a CT scan before he make his diagnosis.


Jump to Conclusion
Before going for my CT at 2 pm, Nicole shows Patti how to do an ultrasound of my bladder... and then drink a lot of water and then do another one and they measure the difference... not much difference.  Of course, after I leave for the CT unit, I pee all the way...

I meet Gayle, the CT scan tech and we talk about socialized medicine, waiting times, and how many docs send people for CT's unnecessarily (according to a tech) and then I traipse back to the clinic where I wait for the CT results...


I have a 1.1 centimeter kidney stone that has moved out of my kidney, down to my bladder and it didn't 'kill' me with pain cause  Mordechai has no nerves attached... smart on the doc's part.  Now it is in my bladder and Lewis thinks it is too big for me to pass naturally so tomorrow I will come in and he'll do a cycstoscopy.  And as long as he is in there, he'll also possibly do a bilateral urethral pylogram, a transurethral bladder biopsy, and maybe even a cystolitlplexy!  I have little idea what all this is, but I did get Patti to write it down on some nurse stationary (ala paper towels) for me to look up on google.


More to come!