ROUND 467

THIS IS A HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH THAT HAS BEEN GOING ON SINCE AUGUST 2006.

In the red corner, from parts unknown. height and weight unknown, with a record of 40 billion and 0, the current ruling heavyweight champion of the world 

Death.

In the blue corner hailing from the great fighting city of Philadelphia, home of Rocky Balboa, standing 6.'4" tall weighing in at 197 pounds with an undefeated record of zero wins six ties and zero losses, 

me...

the current round of this bout started approximately 2 weeks ago with a trip to visit my primary care physician. I was having some swelling in my foot, so I checked into the waiting room and waited my time until a friendly nurse came in and escorted me back to the examination area. Once I was in the examination area the nurse asked me why  was I there? I told her I was experiencing some swelling in my foot… She replied only the one? I said "Well DUH, that's all I have is one" and she finally turned and looked at me and apologized. About 20 minutes later I got to see the doctor and she completely ignored my complaint about my foot being swollen and ran down a long list of tests she needed me to do. When she got to the one where she was trying to assign me to get a colonoscopy that's when I was pretty much done with everything she had to say. I let out a really frustrated sigh and reminded her for the sixth time since she became my primary care  doctor two years ago, that I don't have a colon, it was removed seven years ago, so would she please put in big red letters somewhere in my record that I do not have a colon.

 She did however convince me go get a blood test.  So, off to the lab I went. With that mild unpleasantness behind me I went to my occupational therapy lessons and was about to head home when received a notice on my phone someone had left me a voicemail. As I checked it, it was from my primary care physician and she sounded like she was almost hysterical telling me how important it was that she speak to meas soon as possible, in fact she said the word emergency. I tried return a call but because the VA uses a PBX system the number they call you from, you cannot just click call back there so I went upstairs to visit the doctor  again. This time my heart was in my throat because all I can imagine was that for some strange reason my leukemia had returned. It had not! But what had happened was my creatinine levels were high indicating that my kidneys were failing. The second set of tests performed approximately 12 hours later show my creatinine levels had gone down slightly so the doctor sent me home with a caveat, if I start to have a fever or experience any low back pain I need to get back to the emergency room immediately. This past   Tuesday I had a low-grade fever and intense pain throughout all the joints of my body so Wednesday morning I went to the emergency room and they admitted me for observation and testing.

I'm very used to having the absolute best medical staff treating me and the young interns and the old warhorses at the VA are no exception. Over the the next three days I was poked and prodded examined and measured almost constantly to the point of aggravation as they tried to gather information to find out why my kidneys were shutting down. 

The facts as they stand are;

as per sonogram there are no stones are blockages in my kidneys.

there were a few occasions over the three days my blood pressure was on the high-end of normal but nothing to suggest it is causative.

My A1C's are all under control so that doesn't appear to be a cause.

So the doctors think it might be a urinary tract infection causing the problem. This acute problem on top of the other incidences which occurred during my chemotherapy reaction seemed to explain why my creatinine levels are so high (4.7) and now I am at home waiting for appointments to be followed up by the nephrologists. I'll post more as I learn.

God bless you all especially those who I have been able to reach out and ask  for prayer support.