We’ve been together for 47 years, but things started to get rocky over 30 years ago. Since that first terrible episode, which landed me in the ER, it’s been steadily downhill. And it’s time to give up and call it quits.
Yes, folks, I’m talking about my right kidney. It’s been trouble for 32 years now. But now, now it’s worse than ever before. My urologist has talked to me before about the idea that it would have to go eventually. The time has come.
Almost a month ago, I went to the urologist’s office with what I knew was a kidney infection. They tested, and yep, I was infected. They started me on Keflex, an antibiotic. Three days later, I wasn’t feeling any better, so they switched me to Levaquin, an even more potent antibiotic. Levaquin is usually prescribed in 5-day courses, but over the years, I’ve become so desensitized to most antibiotics that they gave me a 14-day course. When they got the culture back, the results said that the infections should have responded to the Keflex, and certainly should respond to the Levaquin. And yet, at the very end of the Levaquin regimen, I was back in the office, with sharp, stabbing pains in the vicinity of my right kidney. The only reason I didn’t end up in the ER the previous night was that I had some Percocet still hanging around from my previous go-around, and got through the night on that.
The CNP at the practice, Audra, tested me. Even after 14 days of Levaquin, I was still infected. She sent me for some blood work and CT scans with contrast. She was talking about putting me on three days of Gentomycin, an IV antibiotic.
But the next day she called with the news: first the good news, my blood work showed that my general kidney function is still good, meaning my left kidney is still doing just what it’s supposed to do. My right kidney, however, is further atrophied; it is estimated to be functioning at about 12%. There is a large stone in the right kidney. My doctor theorizes that the reason the infection is not responding to treatment is that the infection is inside the stone, hiding there, just waiting for me to finish up a course, then, bam! Back into my body again, making me feel like crap.
In short, there’s no way to fix this infection without getting that damned stone out, and the stone has gotten so large, while the kidney has steadily atrophied, that the only reasonable thing to do is take the whole kidney out.
So, within the next month or so, I’ll be bidding my right kidney farewell, and I can’t say I’ll be sorry to see it go.
My hubby worries about this, in terms of “what happens if your left kidney goes bad?” but I figure we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.
