Hi all. I am fairly new to this portion of the health board. I needed to tell my story and see if anyone had any advise.

I have been thru a number of surgeries in my life. I am a 54 year old male. Here is my story.

I have been thru 6 spine surgeries. All degenerative problems. Plus I had surgery on my leg for a blood clot. This past January I went thru surgery to remove the tail of my pancreas and spleen due to a large mass that was found. It was determined to be a PRE-malignant cyst, so lucky surgery was done when it was before it became a major problem.

I am also diabetic. The problem now is that I am haing kidney problems due to the diabetes. Please note that I was born with one kidney. The kidney that I have is functioning at only 30%. I have an elevated creatine level that ranges anywhere from 2.0 to 2.7.

I saw my nephrologist last week and wants me to have Vein mapping done on the upper extremities for dialysis to be done in the future. He also said that I will eventually need to see a transplant team as well.

I am worried about going thru dialysis and the eventual transplant. Anyone have any suggestions on what I should expect. Thanks for listening.

Pebble Beach

Hi,

I dont have any advice for you, but I did want to send you my best wishes. It sounds as if you have really gone through the mill. You are exceedingly courageous.

All good wishes,


Julia.

Julia:

Thank you for your words. I'll post more when I know where I am headed.

Pebble Beach

Hi,

Yes please, I shall be thinking of you.

Julia.

When you say you were born with one kidney, do you mean you have a horseshoe kidney where the two never unfused at birth. If so, please see a urologist before you make any decisions. See I too have a horseshoe kidney and other birth defects and was told that with my fusion I would be ineligible for a transplant as the renal artery is not exposed and the ureters are not compatible to accept a donor kidney. The most they would be able to do is give me a "piggy back kidney" where a donor kidney would be grafted onto mine for a riskier procedure and greater chance of rejection. I am 38 and functioning at 42% and enduring crippling pain everyday.

I don't mean to scare you by what I am telling you but I do need to be honest and want to make sure you fully explore all options before making rash decisions. I am surprised they are talking dialysis already with you. Usually they wait until 20% or less to consider it. Have you had renal studies done at comparable times to extablish a baseline and rate of decline?

Hello Pebble beach, I hope you can get some help. I have no help to offer but to say I am a kidney stone sufferer ,too. Last month I found out I was diabetic.
So I pray I don't get any kidney problems. I really am sorry you are having to go through all this.
I hope that you can get some answers and some help.
Keep us posted on everything.
Snodove

I just read your response about horshoe kidney. That term was never used with me and I never heard the term before. When they discovered that I had one kidney I was 35 years at the time. I was experiencing left sided pain. They thought it was kidney stones and did a test called IVP to see if it was stones or not. It was at that time I was told that I was born with just one kidney. The only other thing they told me was that my right kidney was larger then normal which compensated for the absent left kidney.
Strange thing my sister who is 3 years older them me discovered years after I did she too was born with 1 kidney. She 2 does not have a left kidney.