Happy New Year 2019!
If you've been hanging out with me here for any length of time, you know that I have kidney stone disease and have made two different types of kidney stones in the past almost two years.
From mid-October until yesterday, I dealt with a kidney infection (left kidney - it's always the left one) that required a visit to the ER; a 7mm uric acid stone the following week that required another ER jaunt, admission to the hospital, and a surgery; a stone fragment that was left inside me after surgery; and then another 4mm uric acid stone that I was, thankfully, able to pass on the Thursday before Christmas. I was left with a forniceal rupture and elevated kidney function that required more blood work last Friday.
Yesterday I got the results of last Friday's blood work - my kidney function is back to normal (huge sigh of relief - can't even tell you how happy I am about this), and the levels of uric acid in my blood are in the normal range (I believe that means this is dietary). The rupture was explained to me as something that sometimes happens in situations where this is a blockage - it's one of the body's ways of protecting the kidney when something like this occurs - and as long as I was feeling OK it was nothing to worry about. I feel OK :-) In other good news of the day, my latest CT scan - from that last wee beastie before Christmas - showed that it was the final stone. There is no more calculus (stones) in my kidney (even bigger sigh of relief).
Now it's up to me to not make any more.
I think I told you guys that I decided to rejoin WW in mid-December. I'm a lifetime member returning to goal. The return journey will take some time, if you get my drift . . . ;-)
Thankfully, I have the help of a super-great kidney stone prevention coach. After I was given the all-clear from the fragment (and before the last stone shook itself loose), I was finally able to do my next 24-hour urine collection. My results were nowhere near as bad as they might have been. Lowering salt again, and more water are always givens. My urine pH has been all over the board - it was OK on test day, but it was low shortly thereafter again. My dose of potassium citrate has been raised from 15mg 2x/day up to 20 twice a day.
Preventing more stones of either of the two types I've made so far (calcium oxalate and uric acid) is all dietary for me, and getting back to a healthy weight is very much part of preventing more uric acid stones. I had already made the decision to return to WW (online only), and did so on 13 December 2018 and am down just over 6 pounds for December. I felt that I would be able to work with my kidney stone diet within the framework of WW and create my own "food rules" with the help of my coach. It's working very well. Yay!
This is, indeed, a Happy New Year for me. I'm well again after months of kidney craziness. My left kidney is finally calculus-free, and my kidney function has returned to normal.
And now, I'm headed out for a walk around the Retention Pond :-)
From mid-October until yesterday, I dealt with a kidney infection (left kidney - it's always the left one) that required a visit to the ER; a 7mm uric acid stone the following week that required another ER jaunt, admission to the hospital, and a surgery; a stone fragment that was left inside me after surgery; and then another 4mm uric acid stone that I was, thankfully, able to pass on the Thursday before Christmas. I was left with a forniceal rupture and elevated kidney function that required more blood work last Friday.
Yesterday I got the results of last Friday's blood work - my kidney function is back to normal (huge sigh of relief - can't even tell you how happy I am about this), and the levels of uric acid in my blood are in the normal range (I believe that means this is dietary). The rupture was explained to me as something that sometimes happens in situations where this is a blockage - it's one of the body's ways of protecting the kidney when something like this occurs - and as long as I was feeling OK it was nothing to worry about. I feel OK :-) In other good news of the day, my latest CT scan - from that last wee beastie before Christmas - showed that it was the final stone. There is no more calculus (stones) in my kidney (even bigger sigh of relief).
Now it's up to me to not make any more.
I think I told you guys that I decided to rejoin WW in mid-December. I'm a lifetime member returning to goal. The return journey will take some time, if you get my drift . . . ;-)
Thankfully, I have the help of a super-great kidney stone prevention coach. After I was given the all-clear from the fragment (and before the last stone shook itself loose), I was finally able to do my next 24-hour urine collection. My results were nowhere near as bad as they might have been. Lowering salt again, and more water are always givens. My urine pH has been all over the board - it was OK on test day, but it was low shortly thereafter again. My dose of potassium citrate has been raised from 15mg 2x/day up to 20 twice a day.
Preventing more stones of either of the two types I've made so far (calcium oxalate and uric acid) is all dietary for me, and getting back to a healthy weight is very much part of preventing more uric acid stones. I had already made the decision to return to WW (online only), and did so on 13 December 2018 and am down just over 6 pounds for December. I felt that I would be able to work with my kidney stone diet within the framework of WW and create my own "food rules" with the help of my coach. It's working very well. Yay!
This is, indeed, a Happy New Year for me. I'm well again after months of kidney craziness. My left kidney is finally calculus-free, and my kidney function has returned to normal.
And now, I'm headed out for a walk around the Retention Pond :-)
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Janice H.