Why Surgery?

     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.