Garden Tour

[seedcorn]

Good to hear you are doing better. Morphine pumps are the most asinine things in world. They give you pain killers and tell you to hit button when you feel pain. After being relieved of pain, you fall to sleep. Once asleep, you don't hit the pump until PAIN wakes you up. The pump can never catch up to take away the pain. If it does, once again you collapse asleep only to be woke up by the pain again......
The inventor must be a sadist.

 

[bobm]

Well, I had my Dr. appointment yesterday afternoon... got chest and lower body x rays, EKG, tons of blood work and a complete physical. I was wrong about the weight gain... it actually was 23.5 lbs from last Wed. to yesterday. I was told to stop some medication and add a few more to get rid of the fluid bloat. Last night, I spent more time in the bathroom than in bed . I got a set of crutches so that I could shuffle off better and stop every 10 ft or so to catch my breath. Since none of my clothes fit now, I am wearing a bed sheet tied at the waste with a cotton rope ( yes, I streached into some underpants too ) ie. TOGA . This will come in handy after I once again can fit into my clothes as I can then use that sheet over my head after I cut a couple small holes in it so that I can see and then cast my revenge with the cotton rope on that dispicable impersenator of a doctor. I will go back for more blood work on earlyFriday morning followed up with another Dr. appointment at the end of the day. Then I will get back to :watering so that I can get my body back into svelte shape for that upcomming tour.

 

[bj taylor]

bobm, that sounds just plain scary. make them watch your potassium while all this fluid is being pulled off. you gotta keep the ticker in action & that potassium (critical to heart function) is going to fluctuate like crazy

so impressed your garden is going to be in a tour. that's been a fantasy of mine, but not to be. look forward to pictures.

 

[baymule]

Poor Bobm

 

[MontyJ]

Wow Bob, what a rough time! Not taking the Dr's side or anything but isn't Prednisone an immunosuppressant? That may explain his reluctance to prescribe it immediately after kidney surgery. One of my co-workers suffers gout and psoriatic arthritis. The poor guy is only 44.

 

[bobm]

BJ, Thank you... I am taking Potassium supplements now. Montey... I don't know if it is an immunosupressant or not, however he has NOT communicated any information other than instruct the nurses to give me medication. ( he has the personality of a wet dishrag with a god complex to boot) The nurses were quite conserned on how fast I was deteriorating and voiced their opinion to him. I am NOT only a kidney, but a complex combination in interconnection of organs, bones, muscles , etc. that need attention when drugs that are being used to treat the kidney create a mutitude of problems to ME as a whole organism. I have lost another 4 pounds of fluids yesterday and am now not as congested in the lungs. My hands have lost enough fluid that I can now start to see my knuckles. Also, this morning , I can now get up our of my bed and easy chair and very SLOWLY walk to the bathroom without help from my very carring wife.

 

[ninnymary]

Oh bobm, I'm so glad your doing better. Keep up the good work. Maybe in 4 more days, you will see a big improvement.

Mary

 

[bobm]

Well, I saw my Doctor late yesterday afternoon.... I have now lost all of the 23.5 lbs AND 4 pounds more ! I am starting to feel like a humin been again !

 

[baymule]

YAY!! I am so glad you are not all puffed up anymore!! My sister holds water weight sometimes and it is miserable. I am glad you are feeling better and have lost the water weight AND 4 pounds more!! :weight

 

[Jared77]

Prednisone is an immunosuppressent.

I see both sides of this here so please hear me out.....

I see it as 2 separate issues.

Issue 1) Weighing the risk of infection against the pain of your gout flare up is a no brainer. You were already on IV antibiotics so the risk/concern of infection is already there. That's why he was trying to get you comfortable with pain management rather than treat the gout. A gout flare up is a lot less dangerous than an infection that could very easily get dangerous quickly given what you just had done.

Imagine how you would feel be if you'd had a flare up, he treated it and suddenly you've got a serious infection causing you to stay longer? Possibly moved to a more serious floor for management? Because of his treatments you were even more sick? Pain is one thing and he tried to manage it. I'm not trying to belittle your condition but if a therapy he prescribed made you more sick there would be more people asking for his head on a stick at the entrance to the hospital instead of you and probably your wife/family.

Issue 2) Not knowing the ins and outs of the case its impossible to really assess the situation. Without knowing what your IV was set at, or your fluid input/output, any changes on the cardiac monitor, your blood pressure, oxygen saturations, blood work, etc. its impossible to know what was going on there. Maybe you were in the correct range for fluids in vs out and had the expected amount of retention given what you had just gone through. I would believe given the function of the kidneys that some fluid retention is expected. As much as you expected? I don't know I'm not a nephrologist or internist . The fact that he didn't follow up with you given the concerns raised is cause for concern and should be looked into.

As I said I see it as 2 separate issues. I'm not by any means taking the Dr's side on this. They can be wrong too. Considering the Urologist and the surgeon were already gone he may have been trying to manage your condition till they were available and express their opinion about your treatment. Or maybe the Dr was waiting for a Rheumatologist to consult with. Again I'm just tossing out thoughts here. No idea what the thought process was.

I'm sorry to hear you had to go through all that. I'm glad your doing much better and hopefully this is something you never have to experience again. Hope you keep getting better and I look forward to your pictures of the garden tour.