We are back in Billings in the hospital yet again. Ralph called me yesterday morning at work, and said he was not able to urinate. Against my wishes, he drove himself into Baker to the emergency room. They tried to cath him there, and after a few unsuccessful attempts, decided to transfer him to Billings. After he arrived in Billings, in a huge amount of pain, he was seen in the emergency room by a urologist. She determined that scar tissue from prior surgeries had blocked off the urethra. She dilated the urethra, and was able to get a catheter in to drain the bladder. There was considerable amount of blood and clots in the bladder, which at the time, she thought was due to the trauma from the bladder being full for such a extended period of time, (a five hour ground ambulance ride, because the Dr didnt think an air ambulance was warranted) along with the trauma from the cath attempts. Today, there is still blood and clots in the urine. I remembered that a few weeks prior, I had gone into the bathroom just after Ralph and saw a clot in the toilet. I told him about it at the time, and he said he hadnt seen any before that. He didnt see any after that, so I kind of put it out of my mind as a one off thing. Today, I realized, that his eyesight is so bad, that he cant see the blood unless it is bad. I also remembered today, that when he was hospitalized in March, they said he had a UTI, but the culture didnt grow anything. After telling the hospitalist both those things, a CT scan was ordered to look at his kidneys. The original 2 that he still has, along with the transplanted one that he has. Of the original 2, they found a small mass on the left one. They are unsure if it is a tumor or what it is for sure. He has surgery tomorrow morning at 8:30, to look at the bladder to try and find out where the blood and clots are coming from, and possibly to do a biopsy on the kidney. We wont know about the biopsy until after we talk with the urologist tomorrow morning before surgery. She will also try and clean out the scar tissue that blocked off the urethra. I will try and update on here after his surgery tomorrow. Keep him in your prayers.
Posted on: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 02:11:07 +0000