My Health: Kidneys

   What a lot of people don’t know and what a few aren’t fully informed about is the situation with my health. What I am referring to is my kidneys. Since November of 2009 I have been dealing with a relatively minor problem with my kidneys. Granted any problems with major organs should not be considered “minor” but seeing as things could be worse, I like to put things in perspective.

There are a few ways I can tell you what is going on but I decided to put it in story form. Not only do I let you know what is going on with my health but I can also describe what I went through while I was figuring it out. It will also help me inform you on what is going on right now with my life. So here goes.

   It all started while I was on my second cruise ship (the Island Princess) when I noticed I had swollen ankles. They had slowly grown over a few days but it had come to the point where putting on my shoes was painful. I went to the ship doctor and they did some blood work to figure things out. The results showed that my body chemistry was off. The protein levels in my blood were out of whack and not only had my kidneys been affected but my liver as well. At the time I was living a life where drinking at night was a common thing and people knew I liked to have a good time. I have to admit here that although I drank on a regular basis, it was not nearly as much as others were doing. Let’s just say I was a regular at the crew bar.

   The doctor on board assumed that this was the cause of my problem and cut me off from alcohol (to help my liver) and meat to help stabilize the balance of protein in my blood. For a while things got better and my liver recovered. Unfortunately, the problem with my kidneys was at a plateau. Protein was still consistently leaking through my urine. One visible sign of this was bubbles forming in the toilet like soap. I’m serious. It’s kinda weird but it did happen. Anyway, the ship doctor decided to schedule me an appointment with a specialist.

   Let me explain what happened next. Doctors on board cruise ships can only do so much on board to treat the passengers and crewmembers they see. When a situation arises that requires a higher degree of medical attention, the patient is referred to a doctor at one of the ports the ship will dock at. That is what happened to me. Out of sheer circumstance I happened to be going to a doctor located in Ft. Lauderdale, a city that is a four-hour drive from where I live. You will understand why I mention this in a moment.

   When I go see the specialist I am met with a little, dare I say, disdain. Immediately, the doctor assumes that I have no regard for my health and he takes it upon himself to lecture me about wasting it away for the sake of enjoying myself each night. I have to admit I was caught off guard and didn’t know how to react. Like I had mentioned earlier, I assumed myself to be a casual drinker but not anything to the degree this man seemed to think I was. I decided to take it all in and just go with it. To be honest, who was I to disagree with a specialist?

   Here is where I was starting to question this man’s intelligence. He did an initial exam that showed for the most part I had no major symptoms aside from the fact that fluid was collecting in my legs (the cause of my swelling ankles) and that protein was leaking from my kidneys through my urine (the cause of the fluid collecting in my legs). Yet when he looked at my chart he seemed confused and commented on the fact that the numbers for my blood tests seemed out of place. He then made the conclusion that if he switched things around that I was undergoing kidney failure.

   Initially, for lack of a better description, I crapped my pants. This scared the hell out of me and I was not expecting this at all. After some more lecturing, the specialist insisted I be sent to the local hospital for a biopsy. I was scared but then I wondered if I was in such a serious situation, why was I not in any pain or have any other more serious symptoms? I couldn’t explain it but I had no other options.

   So after all of that it was decided that I would be pulled off of my ship and I would be admitted to the local Ft. Lauderdale hospital for testing. It happened so fast that only my roommate and my manager knew what was going on. The photo team quickly realized I had gone but did not know why and friends on board the ship didn’t know I was missing until a few days passed and I was missing from the major events on board.

   While I was being shuttled back and forth from the specialist’s office to the ship to pick up my things the driver was on the phone with a contact from the company. They asked if I wanted to be flown back home to be closer to family since I was so close. I decided to go home and it was one of the worst decisions I made. What I didn’t know is that if I had decided to stay in Ft. Lauderdale I would have been admitted to the hospital, gone through with a biopsy and figured out was going on within a matter of two days. I estimate that I would have been back to work within two weeks (seeing as I would have needed time to recover from the biopsy). By making the decision of flying home I found out that I was required to organize everything myself and that turned out to be an ordeal in itself.

   There were no local contacts in Tampa and it was difficult to get things going. In the end it took me two months to find a doctor that would work with the company, schedule an appointment, have him see me and then have me admitted to a local hospital for a biopsy to figure out what was going on. I’d like to add here that when I met with my current kidney specialist he mentioned that the other guy must have been crazy to think I was having kidney failure. He mentioned that the only reason my chart seemed odd was because the measurements were in European standards and it shouldn’t have been that difficult to recognize.

   So here is the big conclusion. When it comes down to it, the problem with my kidneys is called Nephrotic Syndrome. What happens is that protein is lost from my kidneys into my bladder and then eventually into the toilet (thus causing the bubbles). This lowers the levels of protein in my blood and affects my health as well as the condition of my kidneys. What is not known is the cause for the problem. Little is known about how this happens and it is assumed that it is from a virus. The good news is that taking medication is all that is needed.

   Once this was determined I spoke with the cruise company and I was rescheduled for a new ship. It was a bit tricky to get back since I was on medication but overall I was physically able to do all the tasks required to work. All that was needed was constant communication with the specialist via email to keep him updated on my condition and I was good to go. This is when I went aboard the Diamond Princess.