Hello All,
This is my first post. Like many of you reading this, I have been in denial for many years; until February 18th, of this year, that is. I went to work that day, but I didn’t feel quite right. Within a half hour of arriving, I began to have a great deal of pain in my lower abdomen. Waves of pain would literally wash over my entire body, working their way up. I rarely miss work, but I called the main office to have them cancel my appointments for the rest of the day.
It’s a twenty-five minute drive home for me; it was twenty-five minutes of pure hell. The pain level increased. Everytime a wave of pain would strike me, I would begin salivating. I swallowed so much of my own saliva, that just a few miles from home I pulled over to vomit.
As soon as I arrived home I went to lay down for a while, to see if it would pass. A normal person would have went to the emergency room. However, I hated seeing doctors because they always chided me about losing weight. My blood pressure was normal, as was my blood sugar. I could be fairly active. Long walks of five or more miles didn’t bother me. Walking around all day at a zoo or amusment park was easy for me. I fooled myself into believing I was a “healthy fat-man”. In sum, I was in denial; I was a ticking timebomb.
After being home for ten minutes, in excrutiating pain, I decided to go the the clinic (not the emergency room). I was sweating profusely and hunched over in pain. The nurse led me to the scale, which of course had a difficult time reading my weight. The doctor didn’t make it past the doorway before she advised me to go down the hallway (it’s a small town) to the emergency center.
They took a urine sample and determined that I was dehydrated. They called to the next town to determine if I exceeded the weight limit for the MRI. I did. They took a time-series of X-rays of my kidneys to establish if the pain was from kidney stones. Only my right kidney showed on the X-ray. There were no stones.
The next day I had an appointment with a young urologist. After reading my chart and listening to my experience, he told me he didn’t know if he would be able to perform an ultra-sound or MRI. He needed to check with the technicians, so he left the room. When he came back in the room, I could tell he was frustrated. He sat down and stated that until I could get under the 500 pound weight limit, the only thing he could do was check my levels once in a while, and that I should be very concerned. After making those statements, he thought he might have another solution, but then he literally put his head down and cradled it with both hands, as though he were some sort of twisted version of “The Thinker”.
From tests, it was determined that I had a urinary track infection. They don’t know how long it’s been since my left kidney stopped working, or why. They won’t know what caused it to stop until I can get in for an MRI, which won’t happen until I’m below 500 pounds. I’m only twelve pounds away from that goal now.
My creatinine and BUN are still good, and there’s no blood or protein in my urine. I may have a chance at living a longer life. I may be able to keep one kidney healthy, if I can get my weight under control. If I can’t, I’m as good as dead; or worse, on kidney dialysis.
That was my wake up call. That is my motivation; life.
I’ll try to keep the blog updated as I find out more information.
Best Regards and God Bless,
Wayne
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