Fear of Rejection, More than Just a 'No'

Hello again. Seems like life's been real normal lately. The weeks have their routine and seem to slip by ever so quickly. It's been a long time since I went eight months with only 3 doctor visits.

Until a couple of weeks ago. I somehow hurt my foot moving case stacks of wine around the store. After a couple of days of limping through increasing pain I waved the white flag and sought medical attention. The doc at the 'urgent care clinic' noted my history of ESRD and and said she would look closely for a fracture due to the possibility of ESRD related osteoperosis. After the X-ray she said there was nought but contusion, gave me an ankle brace and said to take two tylenol and come back the following week.

Skip forward a couple of weeks to my three month check up at the Transplant Clinic. It was time for my annual bone density scan which showed that my bone density has actually increased over the last year (4% in the hip bones!) So much for notions of osteoperosis. 

The doctor wanted to x-ray the foot to make sure the swelling was injury related and not kidney-related edema and sure enough, there was a small fracture in the first metatarsal. Which didn't come as a surprise since the foot was still painful and extremely resentful of being strapped into a shoe! (In defense of the first doctor, the foot was really swollen and the fracture is tiny which no doubt made it difficult to read the x-ray.)

But of much more serious concern was the elevation of creatinine in the blood. It was up three months ago and mo' up on this visit. Tested twice, with consistent results. (For the record 1.7 in March, 2.2 in June.) A sonogram test this week showed good blood flow through the kidney. There was a thought that I might be slightly dehydrated, so I drank gallons over the next couple of days before labs today. But the results showed no change.

So, tomorrow the fun starts. I check into the outpatient lab for a biopsy of the kidney to see just what's going on. The biopsy is taken with a large needle guided by the light of the sonogram under a local anesthetic. I'll be held for a few hours to make sure there's no bleeding and then be released in the afternoon. The treatment plan will be determined by what the biopsy reveals. Apparently different types of rejection show different types of cell structure. For information (and photos!) follow this link.

So, that's the up-to-the-minute situation. Will post as soon as I know something new!