Well, I’ve made it through the day alive. Blood work and surgery-a nightmarish combination! A total of 6 needle sticks today; 5 of which were from the blood work. The nurse at the hospital used the magic vein that the Phlebotomist showed me last Friday. I tell you, I want to hunt that woman down and pledge my eternal love to her for finding that vein! If only there were a way to make her follow me from blood test to blood test, so she could be the one to draw my labs. How wonderful life would be!

Surgery was a big shock, because I wasn’t given anesthesia. Yep, I was awake the whole time, so I could hold my breath when they needed me to. See, the kidney was under the ribs, so they needed me to take a deep breath to push the kidney down with my lung. With my kidney away from the ribs, they could put the tube in it. I tell you that hurt like hell! Since the tube was being pushed through muscle, the muscle would spasm every time I took a breath.

Dr. Schwartz did order something to calm me down before we started the surgery. I still ended up panicking towards the end of the surgery. I had two nurses-one on each hand-talking and comforting me. Dr. Schwartz also tried to talk me through it. He really is a wonderful doctor.

Ok, it’s now Tuesday. I was so exhausted last night that I fell asleep trying to type this. LOL So I’ll just pick up were I left off.

After the surgery, I was in a lot of pain, so Dr. Schwartz let me have 2 Vicoden and I had to lie still for 4 hours. The Vicoden helped most of the pain, but I was still a bit sore. I did get a meal at the hospital, which was good, because I was starving.

I’m not moving around too well. I hurts to walk, move, and there is no way I’m bending over or squatting. I’m lucky to get in and out of bed, or get up or down off the couch. It’s a suck. Dr. Schwartz is hoping that the tube will be less painful for me than the stint was. He said it should get less painful for me in a few days. I’m hoping it gets better, because it feels really sore to me.

So now I wait so to see what I am able to catch in the bag on my hip. I’ll be wearing the bag for about 3 to 8 weeks and measuring what comes out. I’ll be measuring what I pass from my bladder as well, and comparing the two measurements. It what comes out of the bag is at least 30% of what is coming out of my bladder, then the kidney can be saved. Dr. Schwartz said he will find a way to get rid of the blockage, so the urine can get through and the kidney can start to recover. If it’s less than 30% then the kidney is not worth saving, and we will have to remove it.

There was a positive sign during the operation that showed the kidney might still be saved: the urine that came out was clear. This showed there was no infection and that the kidney is filtering the urine. So if it is dead, it must have just died. But there are chances that it is still alive.

I’ve also talked to my caseworker from Medicaid about changing my doctor today. The process has been started. For the next few 45 day I’ll still have to put up with the doctor I’ve been seeing, but after that I’ll be set up with my new doctor. She’s in the same building as Dr. PineMattas(my doctor in Illinois), so when Dr. PineMattas get’s set up on my Medicaid program I’ll be able to switch over to her with no problem and almost no wait.

So there might still be hope, gang. Keep your prayers and good vibes coming. Thanks for sticking with me. You’re all awesome! Peace and blessings to you all. <3 <3