Acute Renal Failure

I haven't talked to Steve or Terry for a while until this evening. Steve has continued to work full time and he is doing well at work and feeling all right overall. He still doesn't have much appetite and eats lightly. He says most food just doesn't interest him. He says the constipation has been a persistent problem and even though his nausea is better, he still has some upset stomach. Dr. Cox says it's likely a combination of the leftover chemo, the kidney problem and the constipation causing the upset stomach.

Yesterday, Steve had more blood work done and he talked to Dr. Cox and the nephrologist today. The good news: blood platelets are approaching normal at 111,000 and much improved. Also, his BUN levels improved and are at the high end of normal at 20. The bad news: his creatinine levels have not improved at 2.7, indicating his kidneys still are not functioning fully. The nephrologist thought they should be close to normal by now if the problem was dehydration from the prior nausea. So, he wants to check out Steve's kidneys more closely to see why they are still impaired. Steve is to do a 24 hour urine test and he is scheduled next Wednesday for an ultrasound, plus more blood tests. When pushed, the nephrologist said Steve has acute renal failure (acute means sudden onset, renal means kidneys) but he doesn't know why yet. We hope the tests next week will tell him more.

In the meantime, Steve is in a funk after hearing today's news. He is sick and tired of tests and appointments. He just wants to concentrate on life, work and family and all this about his kidneys is getting in the way. Recently, Lesley and I were sending e-mails about glioblastoma multiforme survivor stories and most of them talked about how helpful support groups had been to them. I suggested Steve might find a support group helpful because this business of being sick (and terminally so) is too much to handle alone. Even though all of us love him and want to help, there is only so much we can know about what he is going through. I wonder if Cedars Sinai or UCLA has a group. We'll have to investigate further.

The MRI scheduled for Friday has been postponed a week. Steve has every other Friday off of work and he was scheduled to work this Friday. He's off work next week so he will have his MRI and see Dr. Hu then.