The Beginnings of An Emotional Roller Coaster Ride

On June 11 2011, I went to my doctor for a complete check up. My husband Mike and  my girl fiend Karen were pretty worried about my health. I had been too in the past but became resigned , the last four years, to my many  symptoms over the past twenty-four years, when the many tests  showed nothing.  Something I regret now… 

I thought I was going through menopause.  I had not been to see my doctor in four years! On the eleventh, I had just finished work. It was a busy day as usual at the restaurant and I was rushing to get off the floor.  I am a server and love doing it. So off I go to see my Doc. They were surprised to see me. I remember Judy a long time employee of my doc’s who is very good at her job, stated that I must have been very healthy over the past few years or seeing another doctor. I said in a half-joking manner, “nope,  I’ve been neglecting my health and it was time for an over haul!”  Well my doctor came in and I told him the same. So he said lets start with your blood pressure . That’s where the check up ends and begins really. He is usually very hard for me to read. In that moment though I detected a bit of concern which I must say surprised me. I’ve gone in with concerns before that I thought would make him start searching for my vague undiagnosed illness, which is how I viewed my health problems. He told me my readings were high and he wanted me to lay down and rest for a while and that he’d go treat another patient and check again to see if  it came down any. I asked what it was reading he told me 240/130. I couldn’t remember what was normal. I don’t remember being too nervous while I lay there, but I believed if I closed my eyes and relaxed it would come  down some ( ignorance is bliss).  He came back about ten minutes later and tried again.  “No change at all,” he replied.  I asked him if it was food related and could I do something to bring it down. He said no. It was a sign that somethings was wrong. He said we had to stop the check up and he would write me a prescription.  I was to fill it immediately. We could finish our exam at another time. So off I go to get my high blood pressure medicine. Concerned about being on the medicine and how that was going to affect me later on down the road somewhere. I didn’t want to do it but I could sense even in my ignorance I needed to. I went home and told Mike and he was naturally concerned. I decided to walk up to our daughter and son-in-laws house that late afternoon, to get my grandson Rayne and walk with him back home. It was a beautiful evening and  he had phoned to see if he could spend the night. Absolutely I tell him. I love having the kids over they almost always make feel better. When we got home we play fought in our back yard, while papa watched. I cringe now thinking about the ramifications regarding that. We were out there for a couple of hours before it got dark. After I got Rayne  down for the night , the phone rang. Mike got up to get it. ” It’s your doctor” he said, and I was surprised. Mike passed the phone over to me and I said hello. He told me my Kidneys were at thirteen percent and I needed to go straight up to the hospital. I asked what that meant and he said we are born with one-hundred percent of our Kidneys and repeated to me what mine were at. My stomach turned. He told me he had called the hospital and they were expecting me. I hung up and repeated it word for word to Mike. I told Rayne  Nan has to go out to the doctors cause she is feeling a little sick. Just to get some medicine to make me better though. So we where taking him home. Oddly enough he seemed okay with this, he is quite grown up in this respect I find. I told my son-in-law that I would phone later when we knew more. Rachel was working that night. Once in emergency, we wait our turn in line. A short wait  and it’s our turn. I repeat what the doctor told me and she asked, “how long I had been in Renal failure?” My husband looked at his watch and replied,” forty-five min?” That’s when I finally started to catch up.