This past Monday I was scheduled for my kidney biopsy. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s an all-day thing. For whatever reason, there is always confusion as to what time I’m supposed to actually show up before these procedures. The orders from the nephrologist said to show up an hour before. The myChart check in thing said thirty minutes before, and the pre-registration person was adamant that I be there ninety minutes before. So… I showed up at 7:30 for my 9:00 appointment.
The procedure itself is fairly quick. Well, the first one I had was. The technician does a kidney ultrasound in the room with the handheld wand thing. The doc comes in and numbs the area with a local, and then he takes the samples through a needle jammed into the kidney. (Okay, maybe not jammed.) There is also a pathologist in the little room who analyzes the samples to make sure there is enough material in there to send off to the lab. Including the ultrasound, it probably took around fifteen minutes. (Well, fifteen minutes followed by six hours laying on my back to make sure I didn’t bleed out.)
The second biopsy I had was really terrible. I know I’ve whined about this before but honestly, I think of all the procedures and pokes and prods I’ve had done over the years, this was the worst. It wasn’t done by a nephrologist but by an internist through interventional radiation, whatever the hell that is. It was a big production. The ultrasound was not done by the handheld gizmo but instead in a very large machine that the table I was laying on moved in and out of. There were so many people in that room. I have no idea who they were or what they were all doing. And it was loud; the machine was really noisy. And I was somewhat sedated, which I didn’t like.
Each time the doc would take a sample, back I’d go into that machine. Then back out again and another sample, all the while as he was nearly shouting at me (over all the noise), “DON’T MOVE! LAY STILL!” During this time, I was hopped up on steroids that were making me shake uncontrollably. And I was dizzy from the sedation. No fun at all. And it took such a long time, well over an hour.
I anticipated this third biopsy to be like the first since it was being done by the nephrologist. I was moved to a sort of holding area where a nurse put an IV in my arm. He told me that the ultrasound department was backed up a little bit so it might be closer to 10:00 before they got started on me. No biggee; my day was spoken for.
A short while later, the nephrologist showed up with a medical student in tow. I asked why I had an IV since I wasn’t going to be sedated. “That’s only if there are complications. There won’t be any complications,” he said. I told him about the delay. “I guess you can go get some pancakes,” I said. “I have other procedures I need to do today. I have to be up at Rust in a while. I’m going to go see what’s going on and why this is taking so long.” And off they went.
Sometime later they showed up again, and he said, “Well, this isn’t going to happen today. They’re still behind in ultrasound, and I can’t wait around for them.” He was really ticked off, and I think if he hadn’t had the medical student with him, he would have been more vocal about it. A young woman came up, and apparently she was from the ultrasound department to get me rescheduled. At this point, the doc said to me, “Well, this isn’t YOUR fault (uh, duh), and it isn’t my fault.” He was obviously trying to make it known that it was clearly the department’s fault for running behind. What are you going to do. Things happen. And on the bright side, I had a day off I didn’t have to spend in the hospital. So…it’s rescheduled for mid-August.
I’ve been off the nifedipine (blood pressure medication) for about six weeks. I’m still on lisinopril and metoprolol. No issues since going off the nifedipine though. The day of the cancelled biopsy, my blood pressure was 110/80, and Wednesday at the lab it was 108/71. I may try going off the metoprolol too. Before all this started, I was only on the lisinoprol. It would be nice to get back to that. But of course kidney disease itself raises blood pressure so it’s possible the lisinopril itself won’t cut it. We’ll see.
My hemoglobin was 11.2. It’s been in the 11’s for nearly three months, and for me, that’s really good.
My creatinine was a bit higher than it’s been, 1.5. But then I remembered I had slacked off drinking water earlier in the week in preparation for biopsy. Of course I couldn’t have any water the day of the procedure but the previous day I also didn’t drink as much as I normally do because I was trying to avoid having to pee in a bedpan. (Seriously, once was enough for me.) I’m going to bet it’s improved when I’m back at the lab in a couple weeks.
I’ll be back mid-August!
A feel-good story:
“Celebrating the remarkable 50-year life of a transplanted kidney”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/06/11/father-daughter-kidney-transplant/
A father donated his kidney to his daughter when she was just 14. It has lasted twice as long as expected: 50 years.
Low, Low, Low 