Friday, January 06, 2017

The not fun part of November...

So November started off fantastic, with Nashville but soon turned not nearly as great. I got a cold, or so I thought, then I started to get very strange symptoms. I was off and on good and not good. When my legs started swelling very badly, I knew something was up and finally went to the dr. He got very worried and sent me to the lab at the hospital to do blood work and urine tests. He was thinking it was my liver, my kidney or an autoimmune disorder. I went back to see him that afternoon, and the next day and he said based on some of the results that had come in, something was wrong with my kidneys. He wanted to put in a request to see a specialist. Well I got a call from the specialist the very next day and he wanted to see me THAT afternoon (which was also my 30th birthday!). I saw my dr that morning and he told me that my kidneys were shutting down but they didn't know why. How's that for a 30th birthday present!! Happy Birthday to me! I cried for a while, then went to have brunch with my girlfriends that we had planned. Brian took the whole day off when he heard the morning news about me, and went to see the specialist with me that afternoon.
The specialist said on a scale of mild to severe kidney problems, I was a medium. He gave me water pills to help them out. My parents also came down to meet us at the appointment in Red Deer and took us out for my birthday dinner. Another of my symptoms was ZERO energy. Just so lethargic so I had my head on Brian's shoulder most of dinner, but it was nice to see my parents. My great friends in Olds had picked up my kids and taken Kennedy to piano and fed them dinner. They are AWESOME.


More doctors, more blood and urine tests over the weekend, then back to see the specialist on the 30th. My blood pressure was too high because of my kidneys not working right and he wanted to do a biopsy and needed my blood pressure lower to reduce the risks of bleeding out. So then I started pills to lower my blood pressure. The side effects of those were leg and face swelling- hey, just what I already had!! (My face was VERY puffy!) so he upped my water pills to counter act that. In the meantime, things got a bit better while I waited on more results. I got a renal ultrasound and the biopsy will hopefully be soon, in January. I'm feeling a million times better now, but still don't know what happened. The thought is that when I got a cold at the beginning of the month, my body created antibodies towards my kidneys instead of the virus. Its very rare, but it fits. It could be a one time thing that never happens again, or when I get a cold, my body could do this again because it will remember the antibodies. November and December were very difficult. My biggest symptoms being fatigue and crazy painful headaches.

Not having your health is crazy and scary and VERY INCONVENIENT!!! I'm a mom! I can't just stop! But I'm thankful I didn't have a job to deal with and very thankful for my fantastic family and friends, especially Brian. I felt so loved throughout this. I know people were putting my name on the prayer roll, keeping me in their prayers, offering to bring dinner or take my kids. Brian switched lots of patients around to try to be home as much as possible and my parents were there to listen to me whine or to get in the van to get kids. and my kids were SO good throughout this as well. So helpful and caring! I'm very lucky to have family and friends like I do!!!

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