Brain MRI, Bronchoscopy, and Rising Creatinine (Kidney Disease)
My coordinator called me last Tuesday to say that she realized my bronch was scheduled for the following Monday (Today) and I would also have a clinic visit that Wednesday. She offered to have the clinic visit postponed and told me I could do the Brain MRI that was scheduled for Wednesday, locally instead. She didn't want me to have to come to the city twice. I liked the sound of that. So I had my MRI last Thursday. For this MRI they put a little plastic cage or covering over your face and two things that slide in to cover your ears to secure your head. I know I'm claustrophobic so I just closed my eyes as soon as I laid my head down. Then I went head first into the MRI machine. I started to panic for a minute because of the claustrophobia and I almost pressed the button they give you in case you have trouble. However, I realized I needed to get this done and if I came back out I would have to come back in at some point so I just sucked it up and kept my eyes closed tight so I couldn't see the small space I was in. Twenty minutes later it was done and I was free!
I already had my blood work that Tuesday as I mentioned as my coordinator needed to check my cell counts before my bronch. I emailed her on Friday, the last day I could talk to her before the bronch. She was able to find the results on Labcorp's website. For some reason, despite the fax number being on my script, the labs haven't been making it to the database at my hospital. The blood work was good enough for the bronch. My creatinine was 2.32 though. It had been holding steady at 1.9 for a while but it has been creeping up again. My coordinator said that next week I will need to do a urine test and some other kidney labs to check on things.
Today my mom and I woke up early and headed in for the bronch. It was an 8am procedure time and we got there for 7am as we were told. I didn't have to wait too long. The doctor doing my bronch informed me that she had ordered two meds to be given intravenously that she usually uses on patients with kidney disease. These meds are supposed to help minimize the bleeding when biopsies are taken. I wasn't originally supposed to have biopsies but since my first bronch did not culture anything, I thought we needed as much data as possible to identify whats going on and I asked if we could do them. I was really hoping she would biopsy any nodules she saw. I'm not sure if she was able to or not. She was gong to take more biopsies than the 8 she did take but she said I as bleeding too much so they had to stop. I'm just glad she was able to get some. She said I had a lot of mucus in both lungs. I got my X-ray and it was really quick. I oddly remembered her talking to me and I even remembered getting the X-ray, usually I forget everything and ask my mom a hundred times what the doctor said. I slept from 10:30 to 2pm and I would have continued to sleep but I wanted to make sure I would be able to sleep at night. Results will take a few days to come in. I haven't been going to yoga classes still due to the fact that I have trouble breathing due to the lung infection and the fact that due to kidney disease, my belly has been distended with fluids.
I did go for a few hikes in a large state forest yesterday with my sister and our friend. We walked a moderate trail through the woods and it was very pretty, but a little chilly at 55 degrees. Because there was a bit of uphill hiking I was huffing and puffing trying to catch my breath. It was about a mile long. Then we drove to a lake where there were four swans. We also saw lots of salamanders in the water. It was a gorgeous spot with lots of warm sun. We stayed there for a while. Next we walked a trail around a lake that didn't have as much lake as we were hoping to see. It was another mile trail. We had to look down a lot as there were tons of rocks in the trail. We did get to see several trees that were gnawed on by beavers and we saw the beavers' lodge that they had made out of fallen branches and dirt. That was the coolest part of the walk. We then were a bit hungry and my sister had made us delicious sandwiches and I was getting both hungry and thirsty. So we began driving some distance to the top of a mountain and we saw a scenic overlook and pulled over. Their were two picnic benches and we at our lunch there. After that we drove the rest of the way up, we walked a short distance to the edge of the mountain that had a beautiful view of the land, forest, and hills below. There were tons of lady bugs flying around and landing on us too. A perfect way to end our day. I should mention there were bathrooms at our various stops and I was able to pee a lot which is a plus, again that is due to kidney disease.
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