the saga of 2013 and the failing kidneys

2013 can suck it so far. I'm just saying. Having spent the first week of the year in the hospital watching my husband suffer is not the best way to kick things off. Thankfully, looking at the bright side, we had a huge village of people who sent a lot of love and happy juju our way ... the internet is an amazing place!

Gotta love those #nosybitches. Thanks ladies!!

The fun began in our house the day after Christmas, when he came home from dinner complaining of stomach cramping. He curled up in bed with a heating pad and flu meds, and so began our journey.

Friday (28th), two days later, I had to pick him up from work because he couldn't stand up without getting dizzy, and started throwing up. Eventually we went to the ER because the stomach pain was too intense.

We all assumed it was the stomach flu. However, hindsight being what it is, he only had a low grade fever (under 101), and they didn't confirm it with a flu swab test. Once they pumped some IV into him and the headache and stomach pain and vomiting were controlled via meds, they gave him a CT scan. All looked well; they were seeing a ton of gastro pain in flu patients, so they sent us home with prescriptions for pain and anti-nausea meds and off we went.

Fast forward through a miserable weekend and a very uneventful new years eve (filled with laundry and champagne for one). Tuesday evening (new years day) we ended up back in the ER because he couldn't stand up straight, and had reached his pain tolerance (the pain meds ran out Monday morning). His dad came over to take him, I stayed home to get the kids settled. We all assumed it was just severe constipation, a side effect of the pain meds.

Then, a few hours later, I got the call that he was being admitted because his kidney's were failing and he had a severe viral infection in his upper GI. This is when we realized they hadn't done the flu swab on Friday, because when they did it on Tuesday it came back negative. Also, when he got the CT scan originally, they injected him with iodine to better see things (very normal). However, if you put iodine into a body that is dehydrated (remember, they'd given him two bags of IV), the kidneys pretty much tell your body to fuck off.

Thus began our 5 days in the hospital. Most of you know the up and down drama that entailed - one step forward, a night of vomiting followed. The kidneys were getting better with the meds, but not as fast as they liked. His blood pressure was way out of control. He was in quarantine - we had to gown and glove up to go see him. And they couldn't stop the stomach pains.

So the official-ish reason for all of this was kidney failure due in part to the viral infection, in part to the iodine. We think. And the high blood pressure, apparently that plays havoc on the kidneys as well. And once the kidneys started healing, the severe cramping was attributed to the lack of "movement," shall we say. A myriad of reasons, that hopefully his regular doctor can help us figure out when we go see him this afternoon. Fingers crossed there are no repercussions from this and life can get back to normal shortly.

With that, I leave with you smiles and happy children cuddling with dad.

Quarantine removed - happy face!

Dad's home in time to watch the fourth quarter!! Yay!!

Morning cuddles and cartoons. Happy girl.