(Revised/Updated on Sep. 12, 2020)

Up’s and Down’s

Finally, some time to write this post.
I was already planning to write this for several weeks, but I was a bit too busy.

As it is already saying, life has its ups and downs.
You have your good and bad day’s
For several days in a row, things are working out for you.
Your happy and it looks like there are no worries.

But then suddenly you have your regular checkup for the kidney.
I had good hopes that things would be okay.
I had watched what I was eating, because of salt.
Also looked at what I was drinking.
I even had a special herbal tea for my kidney.
I drank this every other day.

During my visit to the specialist, he told me that the kidney stone had grown over the past year.
Not the news I was hoping for.
The measurable size had grown from 31mm to 38mm
That’s 7mm in one year’s time.
According to the specialist, it looked like it would still grow further, with an average of 7mm per year.

For a “normal” person, they would decide now that it is the time to operate and remove the stone.
But in my case, it is a bit difficult.
Every procedure will involve blood.
In case of an operation, I would need to stop one of my medications for a week.

But it is not advisable for me, to stop this medication, because of my heart condition.
And he is not sure if the heart will be able to handle it.

The other option is maybe by ultrasonic sound waves.
This will crush the stone.
The risk in that is, that maybe the pieces that will break off, are too big, and then they could block “the exit”

Another option is to let the stone grow.
Until it is so big, that the kidney will stop working.
But because of the second kidney, it should not be a problem.
According to him, there are enough people, that only have one kidney and they are fine.

But because I also have a reduced kidney function, this is also not really an option.

So things don’t look that nice.
We agreed that I will also try to discuss the situation with my cardiologist.
And see what he thinks about the situation or maybe he has some other idea.
In the meantime, he also will discuss this with his team.
And he will call me back a few days after my heart checkups and see how to go on from there.

In the coming days, I have my appointments for my regular checkups of the heart.
A whole morning in the hospital for several checks and a talk with the cardiologist, to see what the situation of the heart is at this moment.
If things are stable or getting better or in the worst case if things had gone backward.

For my self, I have the feeling that it is stable and that there is no improvement.
But every improvement that could be there, would be a small one.
So, I only can wait and hear what the tests will show.
But maybe it is also the warm/hot weather from the last day’s, that gives me the feeling that there is no improvement.

The only positive thing that had happened in the last few days is, that I am allowed to drive again.
So I was able to renew my driver’s license.
Got a part of my “freedom” back again.