Kidney Biopsy

I had my 2nd kidney biopsy yesterday morning. The first one I had was almost exactly 4 years ago. I had the biopsy a few days before we flew to Sweden for Christmas...BIG MISTAKE THAT WAS!!! It was VERY painful the last time, and I had a lot of bleeding, so I was expecting something similar this time.

Thankfully, for the most part I've been wrong. Could be because I'm on the steroids now, and they have a pain-numbing effect...could be because I had a baby and now a little kidney biopsy seems like a walk in the park. Who knows? Whatever the reason, I'm glad for it!
Ok, funny enough, this damn IV was the most painful thing of all. Now I've been poked with hundreds of needles these past few years because of this kidney thing, but this is only my 2nd IV. I never had one with Izzy, and the one they gave me for the last kidney biopsy ended up in the crook of my elbow because they couldn't get it in anywhere else. Luckily the nurse was able to get it in on the first shot, but it still hurt like hell. All day. All night.

This is how Joacim passed the time. We were there at 8:00am, but my biopsy wasn't scheduled until 10:00. They do some bloodwork as soon as the get the IV in, and they have to wait for the results as well, so there was a lot of waiting that morning.

I am patiently waiting, but all I can think about is breakfast, and the fact that I haven't had any at this point.

This is the room that they actuallly perform the biopsy in. It was a hub of activity with no less than 5 people running around prepping everything. There was a wonderful person named Alex who gave me delightful drugs. They give you a topical, then a local, and then a decent sedative during the procedure. I remember being awake and hearing the click of the biopsy needle as it sampled, but not much else. I didn't feel a thing...

Torturously, I still had to wait another hour after the biopsy was over to eat, so I kept drinking water, trying to pretend. when I was finally able to eat, I swear it was the best turkey sandwich I had ever had :)

I had to lay on my aide during the time on a rolled-up towel to stop any bleeding that might be happening. Lucky for me, there wasn't any.

I finally got up to my room around 1:30pm. As you can see, Joacinm was kind enough to bring me some yummy Starbucks to tide me over till dinner. I was all set, and clearly a vision of beauty :)

This was my dinner, which actually wasn't that bad. Chicken caesar salad....I decided on this because Joacim couldn't bring Izzy to the hospital...no children under 15 allowed :(

And this is what the biopsy site looks like. Not much, eh? amazing how painful this was last time...

And my friends at work were so sweet and sent me flowers!!!! Thanks to you all!!!

I checked out around 9:30 this morning, ran a couple of errands with Joacim, and then spent the rest of the day on the sofa. And I was soo excited when Izzy got home. I WISH I would've had my video going! Joacim opened the door, she looked inside and saw me and tripped over the entryway. But instead of getting up and crying she crawled as fast as her little legs would take her to me...panting the entire time. BIG HUGS AND KISSES FOR ME!!! Ahh....felt good. Granted, she's not really understanding the weight restriction I have (5 lbs for the next 5-7 days), but as lobng as Joacim's standing and I'm sitting, it works. Otherwise, all I hear is "up...up...up...up" relentlessly :)

Hopefully tomorrow I feel even better. Laying down so much makes me a bit woozy, so I hope to get up and about more tomorrow. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers and help during this time! It's meant a lot. I should know some preliminary results next week, but if not, then definitely during the week between Christmas and New Year's. keep your fingers crossed for good news!!!