After my fishing trip with Lee, a married man, I found myself not feeling very well.  I saw my internist and he referred me to a urologist.  My internist suggested that I increase my intake of water.

The urologist scheduled me for an IVP (Introvenous Pelogram).  After feeling awful for several weeks, the results came back.  My internist called me to suggest, “Stop drinking so much water.” My kidney on my left side had a constricture, effectively a rubber band, that caused my kidney to bloat.

The surgery to disconnect and reconnect my kidney was scheduled at Northwestern Hospital.  I went to work that day and took a cab over to be admitted.   I found, to my surprise, that I was an emergency patient – I hadn’t been aware.

My surgery was fairly uneventful but my recovery had some glitches.  I had to go back to have a catheter placed to encourage the flow through my recovering kidney.

Just to make life really complicated, Dad was been going through chemotherapy to treat liver cancer.  Mom drove back and forth to the hospital.  She wanted me to fly home and join her on those journeys.

I tried to explain that the incision on my left side went from my front to my back  and every movement caused great pain.  My siblings and my mother were reluctant to take that into any consideration.  Mom needed me and I wasn’t working.

I called the benefits department and found that my disability prevented me from leaving the state unless Dad died.  He didn’t and I would visit him another time.

The doctors had suggested that Pam get an IVP but she didn’t want to spend the money.

She had recently met Fred, her future husband.  She curled up in a ball at church and I suspected her problems came from her kidney.  I dropped her off at the Northwestern Emergency room.  She suggested the source of her pain was her kidney but they were unpersuaded.  They reluctantly diagnosed with the same kidney problem.

They had learned from my surgery.  I was in the hospital for seventeen very long days and off work for a month.  She was home in seven days and back to work not long after that.

The problem normally is found and fixed in babies.  I had been 26 when I had the surgery and Pam was 27.