I walked in and shook his hand, sat down and started talking about my stones. It was when I told him the date I was released from hospital and this was my first follow up appointment, he looked a bit angry.
“So you had no treatment for your stones for over a year, have you had any more problems?” he asked, “Just over 13 months. And I have not had any more since” he walk around the desk, “ Well that very lucky that you have been OK, thank god. Over a year for a appointment, that is just disgraceful!!*”
He takes a seat and carries on “ So how are you getting on with your renal fusion?” “My what?!”
“your Horseshoe kidney,” paused at the blank look on my face “ they did not tell you” “um, no” I replied. He did not look impressed.
He pulled up my scan, turned the monitor around, so we could both see it. And started explaining about Horseshoe kidneys.
It is a congenital disorder, where the isthmus of both kidneys become fused together. with the two sets of renal arteries,veins and ureters being left for the most part intact. The amount of fusing can affect some of the nephron and the renal corpuscles held within, thus affecting osmosis of excreta.
In other words for the less medically minded. It happens during development in the womb, and the bottom parts of the kidneys mash together to make one kidney, with two lots of blood in/out and pee tubes. How much of them are mashed together affect how much stuff that makes up pee can be cleaned from the blood in a fix time.
If you are still confused**, I have one kidney that look likes a horseshoe.
side affects of this condition are nausea, abdominal discomfort, Stones and Infections. The only way of keeping the risk of the last two down is by not getting dehydrated.
It may be one of the reasons I don't drink alcohol any more, as drinking 2 pints make me really bad for up to 4 days afterwards , plus I cant see the point of making a complete alcohol fuel idiot of myself. The consultant agreed with my logic on both counts.
Happy that the long wait for an appointment had not adversely affected my health. He told me that I would need to do a pee sample for one 24 hour period, gave me a slip for the bottle. And bided me a cheery goodbye.
I when to exchange my slip for the bottle, the nurse returned with 2 bottles both 5 litres in size, my god do they expect me to fill both of them. My mind boggled.
Writers note
Dear Reader, As I am writing this in 2011, Just as news has come out about THIS NHS trust failures in administration of follow up appointments. That left a man with life changing problems, that means he has lost his independence. So I am lucky really, it was just kidney stones.
* There was more to this line, but I don't think it was in keeping with the corporate line.
**do a internet search for 'horseshoe kidney'
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