For the past two years Shawn has
been fighting kidney stones. Mass amounts of stones. 9 in a year. When we tried
to figure out what causes the stones every test came back saying...nothing.
Every test comes back saying that there is no reason for the stones. The stones
that were analyzed came back as regular run of the mill kidney stones. The 3
different 24hr urine test all came back saying that Shawn doesn’t output any
abnormal amount of anything that his kidney stones are made of. But like I
said, he had 9 stones in a year. Unable to pass the stones Shawn had 2
lithotripsy operations, the operation uses sonic waves to break up the stones
in the kidney and make the stones passable through the ureters, the tubes that
go from the kidney to the bladder. Somewhere after the second surgery the pain
started or rather never went away.
The first doctor thought that maybe
some particles from the stones were stuck in the ureter. To add to everything
Shawn’s ureter gets really narrow at one point, most ureters are able to pass
2mm stones but not Shawn’s apparently. That wasn’t the case anyway. So then the
doctors thought maybe it was another stone. But no, all the scans said no there
was no stone in his kidney or ureters. Through all of this the pain was getting
worse, going from his right kidney and down the inside of his groin. Every time
Shawn would stand up or sit up he got instant pain in the kidney and sick to
his stomach. The only time he was able to get relief was laying down. But it
wasn’t very long before even that wasn’t working and the pain was constant
weather he was sitting, standing or laying down, and growing in intensity.
School dropped him because he was missing too much class, and work told him
come back when he was better and able to work on a regular basis. They actually
really understand and have a job waiting if Shawn wants it when he is released
back to work. Test after test and nobody knew what was going on.
Finally after a year, we were
somehow referred to OHSU and Dr. Fukes. Our first visit with the new doc and he
was able to tell us...nothing, but he believed Shawn and told us to make
another appointment and he would have something for us. A week later we go a
phone call, it wasn’t an answer but a kidney function test was ordered this
would let us know if the kidney was working right or not. The test came back
normal, perfectly normal. Text book perfect even. This did give him an idea,
sometimes a kidney can drop, it’s usually happens in really skinny people,
woman people that is, so another test was ordered. No sagging dropping kidneys
here go figure.
Dr. Fukes said not to worry; at
least we know what’s not wrong. Somehow that wasn’t very comforting. This did
give him yet another idea, the kidney function is perfect, but there is pain in
the kidney. Maybe it’s not in the kidney... Another test was ordered, this time
a renal block, a syringe of lidocaine was filled with an 8 hour dose and with
the help of CT imaging was guided in to the nerve cluster for the kidney. As
soon as the lidocaine drip started the pain went away instantly. 8-9 to a 4-5,
hey it’s not a lot but after 9 months of constant debilitating pain a 4-5 is
like nothing. The pain stayed away for about 2 weeks before coming back full
force; however the pain down into the groin never came back.
The results from this test lead us
to where we are now, facing an auto transplant of the kidney. The surgeon’s determined
that the connective tissue and the nerves to the kidney are bad. The theory is
that the damage happened from the lithotripsy. Somebody with absolutely no body
fat and about as big around as a telephone pole, shouldn’t have had a
lithotripsy, let alone two so close together. The auto transplant is the transplantation
of your own kidney to the pelvis area. I didn’t know that when one receives a
kidney transplant it gets put in the pelvis where the muscles naturally protect
the organ, but now I do.
The surgery is on Monday. We were woken up by a phone call
bright and early this morning with phone call and a rundown of what’s going to
happen. The surgery will consist of one big incision down the middle of the abdomen
and will last about 8 hours of. When Shawn comes out he's going to have a drain
tube, urine cath., and pain pump. Inside, going from the kidney to the bladder,
will be a stint, I hear those are really uncomfortable I think it’s the part
Shawn is least looking forward to. Then a 7-10 day stay in the hospital, and
6-8 weeks of recovery. It will take up to 2 months to know if the surgery is
going to work.