Happy New Year!!

I hope everyone had a good Christmas. We had a relaxing and warm holiday in Green Valley, Arizona with my parents. It was the first time Pat and I went west for the holiday – and I must say we both very much enjoyed eating our Christmas dinner in short sleeves. It’s definitely something we’ll want to repeat – taking a swim outside on Christmas Eve, riding around checking out Christmas lights with the air conditioning on, and taking a post meal stroll around the neighborhood in shorts and flip flops. Fortunately we didn’t get too much of a temperature shock when we returned to Boston as the temps here were not below freezing and most of the snow from last month had melted. Enough about the weather – onto more important topics, like me.

Our return flight was on time and I was able to catch a little sleep on Tuesday night before having to get up and head to Mt. Auburn for my stent removal. It was scheduled as day surgery, which means the plan was for me to go home after the procedure. Neither Pat nor I actually believed I would be going home, so we were prepared for me to have an overnight stay. I got prepped and filled out all the paperwork before donning a gown and booties and chatting with the nursing staff. Dr. Karian showed up, I got a shot of something to relax me, and I woke up a few hours later in the recovery room. I felt fine and realized immediately that I would actually be going home that day. No surprise tubes or wires. Dr. Karian came to talk to me and said he removed the stent with no difficulty, but did not find any cause for the blockage. There was nothing obviously compromised or wrong with the kidney or ureter. Scar tissue may be the problem. He is taking a very conservative approach and wants to do whatever is necessary to save the kidney. I’m not a candidate for any artificial parts, like a replacement ureter because of the scar tissue and adhesions.

Dr. Karian decided the best thing to do would be to insert a new, larger stent that will dilate the ureter over the next month. So I traded one stent for another, which means another month of dealing with the pain and discomfort of a stent. We both agreed that I would try to tolerate it for a month, but if the pain becomes too much we’d remove it sooner. Needless to say, I’m not thrilled with this outcome. I cancelled my Erbitux treatment for this week because I felt I needed some strength to deal with these kidney issues. I’ve now missed 3 weeks of treatment and am deciding what to do next week. Since the stent is going to be in for a month, I have to confer with Dr. Lange and decide what will be best course of action.

And now it’s time to sign off. I wish everyone a happy, healthy and safe new year. Cheers!