Dad Update and A Piece of Shiny

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Hello everyone....

The last 96 hours have been a blur.

A quick recap in case you’ve missed any posts.

Since the last week of August my dad hasn’t felt well. He would get nausea after eating and always had gas. Burping very often and barely eating. He went to his internist, they sent him for an endoscopy.
The results from the endoscopy showed deterioration of the lining of his esophagus where it meets his stomach. This is from the baby aspirin regimen he is on for his TIA strokes.
My dad immediately stopped the baby aspirin and was given a prescription to remedy the esophagus/stomach lining issue. He was also told by the doctor to take Beeno for the gas issue.

Fast forward two weeks....

My dad has not gotten better at all since the doctor visit. Is a matter a fact he had gotten worse. He was going to bed at 7pm at night, not walking (he typically walked 1-2 miles a day), wasn’t eating, always tired, fatigued, his belly started getting distended, and his legs and feet were swelling.

Last Monday I wanted to take him to the ER he concerned me that much. But my mom said that he had an appointment on Tuesday with his kidney doctor and she would explain everything to the doctor.

The kidney doctor after doing a bunch of tests and examining him. He has a mass in his lower left abdomen and his blood pressure was low. She took him off of his blood pressure medication and was awaiting the test results before determining what she wanted to do.

Thursday evening just before 5pm, the doctor called. When my mom answered the phone the doctor said “Get him to the ER now, or he’s going to die”. Both of them broke down in tears as I rushed them to the ER.

They immediately ran an EKG, chest X-Ray, and a CAT scan. The EKG came back fine, the chest X-Ray and the CAT scan determined that my father had many kidney stones and a mass in the lower abdomen. In the right kidney one was as big as a large peanut. In the left kidney one was the size of a large pea. The right was completely obstructed by the stone and that kidney was in complete failure. The left was barely functioning.
They were surprised that my dad was still urinating that’s how bad the blockage is.

On Friday they scheduled a procedure to put stints in to bypass the stones in his kidneys to relieve the uric acid level in his kidneys and take a biopsy of the mass.

After the procedure we finally got to speak to the doctor. She told us that his kidneys were working at around 10%, his creatine level was a 7.9 which is toxic to all of his organs. (A normal creatine level in men is between .84-1.4) So he was five times the normal level. His blood pressure was down to 73 over 55.

When they checked to see the mass in his lower left abdomen, it was not a mass at all. It was actually his prostate gland which had more then quadrupled in size and was growing into his bladder. The doctor did not see any tumors on it though.

His low blood pressure was due to a combination of him retaining the water in his legs, feet and abdomen and the fact that he was actually very dehydrated as well. His blood pressure reading on the chart as of this morning was 118 over 71 much better.

Initially they said that he would be released on Monday, which is not happening. His uric acid level is still too high and so is his creatine level. The creatine level was down to a 4.3 which is much better but it’s still roughly three times higher then normal.

He still doesn’t want to eat, still has gas and is still fatigued. Now that he is not dehydrated he is looking a little better, and the swelling in his legs and feet are about half way back to normal.

They are not going to even talk about the prostate issue or the stomach issue until his uric acid level and creatine levels come down. They want to laser blast the stones, but they won’t until his levels are close to normal.

The doctor is hopeful that it was caught in time to keep his kidneys working. If not he will be forced into dialysis for the remainder of his life.

I appreciate all of the support that you have all commented and the prayers for him. Thank you very much.

While is making progress it is very slow progress at that. I am hoping that he will not need dialysis and can get back to his normal routine someday soon.

I am taking turns with my mom at the hospital, and I’m keeping a close eye on her as well. Making sure that she is eating and taking he prescriptions as well.

This has been a very humbling experience. My dad has been through A LOT already. Three separate bouts of cancer,(which he has been in total remission from for over 15 years now), two TIA strokes, he’s had stints put in his heart.

Now to cheer things up a bit.....

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9 comments
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You received an upvote of 95% from Precious the Silver Mermaid!

Thank you for contributing more great content to the #SilverGoldStackers tag.
You have created a Precious Gem!

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Man, what a tough few days, hope he keeps getting better.

Posted Using LeoFinance

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Thank you. In time I’m hoping he will be ok.

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Sorry to hear about the condition of your dad... not fun, and hope he recovers fully.

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Thank you. It’s been tough, but his numbers are slowly coming down

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Getting a firm diagnosis is more than half the battle and hopefully your father can recover from this soon. Continuing the prayers my friend 🙏

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He has several issues all at once, the only one they are focusing on right now is the kidneys. His creatine level is now down to 3.2, which is still very high but it’s better then the 7.9 when admitted. Thank you

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Keeping your fam in my thoughts. Hope he gets back to his old routines @silverd510!

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His numbers are getting better VG. Still not where they need them, but hopefully soon. Thanks bro 👍

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