[Moreta]

Yay! Surgery! *sarcasm*

My surgery was scheduled on the 8th, but then it was moved to the 16th so the head surgeon could be there. That alone freaks me out, b/c the Dr I have is pretty well respected, in his own right. My husband says it'll be like having the MVP and the runner up for MVP, so I shouldn't be worried.

The last time I went to see my dr, they said they still didn't really know what the mass on my kidney was, but it shouldn't be there. It won't be until after the surgery. I just hope it isn't cancerous. I think that's one of the main thing that's bothering me, that the mass could be cancerous. I know I shouldn't worry about things that haven't been prooven, but its really hard b/c my father passed away from complications from lymphoma/leukemia. So yeah, it kind of freaks me out.

Also, Duke Hospital is awesome, and posts your lab results online. When I looked at the blood work results from both visits, the level of white blood cells was higher than the normal range. I don't really know what that could mean, other than I have some infection or something. I copied all my lab work and emailed it to my father-in-law (pediatric intensivist) to see what he thought about the results.

I think the thing that makes me the maddest about this whole situation is that apparently nobody wants to address the pain I am in. I guess they figure since they don't know what it is, then it probably is not causing the pain. :-/

[lynn P.]

(((QueenAccountant))) -everything you're feeling is normal and justified. I would be worried and scared too, but it's sounds like you're in good hands though. It's true you shouldn't worry prematurely but it hard to do sometimes.

"I think the thing that makes me the maddest about this whole situation is that apparently nobody wants to address the pain I am in" < Sorry I don't know how to quote one sentence. Are you having physical pain? They should be helping you with this. I pray this surgery will go very well and hope it's not cancerous.

[Perna]

Queen, when my appendix burst, I wasn't put on antibiotics long enough and an infection wandered around my innards for 5 months. I was in the hospital for a week in the middle there, on drip antibiotics (and no food) and that still didn't get rid of it. I know about that pain! My whites were up too, why I ended up in the hospital for a week. But after I got out, I still wasn't given enough antibiotics and my new primary care guy, I told him the whole story and he said I wasn't on them long enough so put me on Levaquin for a MONTH and that just pissed off the infection (but, for the first time since my appendix had burst 3-4 months earlier, gave me back my appetite) and it wandered into my ovaries and my surgeon was going to operate again but I had learned "enough" that I gave him a list of anaerobic antibiotics, like the Flagyl I turned out to be allergic to (what caused the whole problem) and one of them did the trick, cleared up the whole thing so I didn't have to be operated on again.

http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec14/ch178/ch178j.html