INtroduction

I was looking through the introductions and could not find mine, so maybe I never did the introduction. So here goes.

In November of 1989, Thanksgiving day, I did not feel well. My sister was living with me, and she had to work, so I stayed in town and cooked us a Thanksgiving meal. Neither one of us ate it. The next day I noticed some sore places in my legs and went to the Dr. and was told I had blood clots and needed to keep my legs elevated. Then the next day my back started to hurt. Along in the evening I realized I was very sick. Much too sick to drive to the neighboring town to the hospital but I needed to be there. My friend drove me to the hospital and I was in so much pain I could not either sit or lay still. When the Dr examined me and touched my back I screamed. They soon found that I had blood clots also in my renal veins. The left kidney in particular was in trouble. I rode an ambulance about 75 miles to the nearest big hospital. I was very sick for awhile. They dissolved the clots and I returned home. The recovery was long and slow, but I did recover. I knew I had less than normal kidney function, but was doing OK and getting on with life.

August of 2006 I went into the hospital with a MRSA infection on my face and in my eye. The infection kept coming back and eventually the antibiotics by mouth was not working, so the Dr started giving me these shots. Sometimes every other day for a week or so to control the outbreaks. This continued for more than a year. Each time I got the infection it was harder and harder to get rid of it. I was getting sicker and sicker as well.

Then November of 2007 I got a bad case of bronchitis. Dr's. treated it but it didn't get better. I developed an extremely bad cough and just continued to get sicker. I ended up with a lung specialist in December. He was not doing any better at clearing up my problems. Finally the first part of January he put me on Oxygen. I had been telling him since I first started seeing him that I had a lot of nausea, but I couldn't get him to pay attention to that symptom. He didn't treat stomach aches he just treated lung problems. He ordered blood work and asked me to come back in two weeks. I couldn't get an appointment until about two and a half weeks. I got the blood work done on my way home from the Dr. The results set on his desk for two weeks until I had me next appointment. I was trying to work. Was on Oxygen 24 hours a day and it was a major job for me to walk the short ways from my desk to the bathroom. When I got to the Dr. office He looked at my blood test results and got a strange look on his face. He said, "You are in Kidney failure." All the pain and sickness of the winter of 89 flashed through my head. He said I needed to be in the hospital as soon as possible. I drove home and had to find places for my dog and daughter and pack a suitcase. It took me several hours, but I got to the hospital that evening.

Ignor a Perm- catheter placed early the next morning and started dialysis immediately. In a few days the cough got better. After a week they pulled the catheter and sent me home. I tried to go back to work but they wouldn't let me. They said I had to have a note from my DR, giving me permission. Before I could get my note I got sick again. This time I went into the hospital through the ER. The Perm-catheter was replaced and I went back down to dialysis. I have been on Dialysis ever since.

The cause of my right kidney shutting down was an allergic reaction to the antibiotics to treat the MRSA infections. I have been MRSA free for about a year now. Knock on wood!!!

The surgeon found cancer in my right kidney. It has been treated with Lazar and chemo treatments. In the process scar tissue as blocked of the uretha. So a Nephro tube (A tube from the kidney out my back to drain the urine) was placed. It lasted a few months but I was still getting infections and it was causing skin problems around the exit site. One day it just fell out.

Now there is no was to access the right kidney. Because I could still have some cancer in it and I am getting a lot of infections in that kidney, I am going to have the kidney taken out later this month. I am tired of being in the hospital. It has been my second home. I know too many of the nurses, and other staff people. I will have to stay in for about a week after the surgery. I hope that after that I can stay out of the hospital for years!

I love this sight. I hope I can encourage others and in some small way help them through their rough spots as I have been helped through some of mine.

Loretta