Robin's Hospital Story Part 2

I apologize for not writing yesterday- the computer battery was dead and the cord was at home.  But we're back up and running today!

After my pneumonia diagnosis, not much actually changed.  I was already getting huge doses of 2 broad spectrum antibiotics, so they just kept giving me those.  One of them, Vancomycin, made the IV machine alarm go off every so often, usually in the middle of the night.  The IV machine thought there were air bubbles in the lines, but there weren't really.  It was really annoying.  Also annoying was the fact that they had to draw blood every night at midnight to make sure I didn't have too much of the drug in my blood stream.  Why midnight?  No idea.  Probably just so I wouldn't get too much sleep. :)  They also have drawn blood every morning at 5 and even one day brought in an X-ray machine and did a chest X-ray at 5 am.  I'm starting to get a little grumpy about not getting much sleep.  :)

A pulmonologist, Dr. Wamba, came to see me several times.  She is an adorable, little tiny woman from Thailand.  She was incredibly sweet and just kept touching my bald head. :)   It was very cute.  I also got to see the same hospitalist for several days, Dr. Sharma.  She was also very kind and commented often about my good attitude and my great relationship with my husband.  My third consistent Dr.  is Dr. Abu Alfoul.  He is also really kind.  He's the infectious diseases doctor.  It always made me laugh when we referred to him as the infectious doctor. (NB- I just found out that Dr. Abu Alfoul is the one in charge of whether I get to leave today or not).  One other person I have to mention at this point is Andrew, the transport guy from the imaging department.  He came to get me for every test I had.  Finally, there was one where someone else had to take me back to my room.  That tech told me that Andrew always insisted on taking care of me and was upset when he was already on a call and couldn't take me back.  It was very cute.  He was a really nice guy and did a great job helping me stay comfortable amidst all the back and forth.

All this gets us to Friday, when I actually started to feel human again.  My parents were almost constant figures throughout Wednesday and Thursday.  They were so worried.  I hate causing them such stress- they should be beyond taking care of me.  (though I know we're never done caring for our children).  I'm just so blessed to have amazing parents, and amazing in-laws.  Colleen was here pretty much everyday, too.  She and I cried together a couple of times.  It's such a blessing to have family in town, and to be so close to them.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday things really kept improving.  We got to the point where they thought they would let me go on Monday or Tuesday.  Then my kidneys decided they needed some attention.  One of the CT scans required me to drink a contrast dye, which is hard on kidneys.  That, combined with all the illness, antibiotics, and ibuprofen for the fevers, pushed my creatin levels all the way to 2.49.  That's really high and meant my kidneys were functioning at about 25%.  Enter Dr. Cogdill, the nephrologist.  (Kidney doctor).

He recommended a kidney biopsy right away.  He said it could just be kidney injury due to all the stuff that had been going on, but it could be much more serious.  So- here comes the funniest story of the whole adventure.  He was explaining how the biopsy would work, and that it would be on the CT table.  He said, "You'll lay on your stomach on the table, and since you are frumpier than a skinny person. . . ."  I didn't laugh right then, but oh, I cracked up later!!!  "Frumpier than a skinny person!!"   I immediately dubbed him Dr. Frumpy. ;)   I am fully aware that I am no Twiggy, and I was not at all offended.  It still makes me laugh to think of it.  And there's more to come!!

But first- the biopsy.  I was scared to death.  I was sure it was really going to hurt.  Your kidneys move every time you breathe, so it's difficult to even do a biopsy and actually get kidney tissue.  What they didn't tell me was that they give you IV sedation, so I actually didn't feel anything other than the initial shot of lidocaine in my back.  I was awake because I had to breathe in and out and hold my breath when they told me to.  Apparently, it took 10 tries to get 3 samples, and they caused a renal hematoma (bruise on my kidney).  That wasn't actually a big deal.  It hasn't hurt too much, other than yesterday when it was hard to go for our second walk of the day.   It doesn't hurt at all when I'm sitting or laying down, but walking jostles the kidneys around more.

Here's the second Dr. Frumpy story.  He came in to talk to us about the biospy and said that the 7 misses just pulled out "some chubbiness."   I told him they were free to take as much of that as they wanted. :)  The biopsy ended up showing that I had acute tubular necrosis, which sounds way worse than it is.  Basically, it just means that my kidneys took way too much abuse, but that they would get better on their own.  I might not get back to 100%, but they should get close.  The creatin number has already started dropping, though very slowly.  We'll keep a really close eye on it.  Lord willing, the kidneys will fix themselves up and I won't have to worry about it again.  There is a possibility they won't heal as much as they should, and then I'll see Dr. Cogdill or another nephrologist and we'll figure out what to do.  So- you can pray the kidneys will improve enough on their own.

Alright, this is already a very long post, so I'll save the rest of the story for tomorrow.  Hopefully I'll know the end of it by then!!