Kidneys Got Us Down—Again
We’re doing another tour of the hospital. Mike came in on Wednesday both extremely dehydrated and retaining water in his extremities. His kidney function is low; not dangerously so, but low enough to keep an eye on him until it resolves. In addition, he was having orthostatic blood pressure drops (when he stands up, it drops), so they’re working to figure that out.
Where Do We Go From Here?
Honestly, we don’t know. Right now, we’re just waiting on his kidneys. They seem to be responding to the treatments, and his kidney function is trending in a positive direction, but kidneys are persnickety little organs and they refuse to be rushed. They’re the policeman of the body, just waiting for you to speed so they can give you a ticket, lol!
We’re in communication with Duke to see what they advise about next steps. The original plan was to do two cycles of the standard dose chemotherapy here, then go to Duke to start conditioning for transplant. However, we’re unsure if this current situation changes things or not. We do know that platinum-based chemotherapy affects the kidneys, so I’m personally guessing that his kidney function needs to recover before any further treatments can be started, but I’m not a doctor. (I just play one on the internet and at Mike’s bedside!)
He has an excellent team here working together on his care, organized by one of our favorite hospitalists at this hospital, Dr. Erssa Mansor. She is truly fantastic! She really cares, she’s comprehensive in her care and conservative, yet creative in her willingness to see patients as a whole person and not just a collection of symptoms that fits in typical boxes. Mike’s case has been anything but typical, and she has a humble respect for the uniqueness of individual bodies, and approaches people as people not paperwork. We love her. Pray for her to have wisdom. Everyone here is on board with following whatever Duke advises. There are no egos here in any of the specialists. They all just want the best care possible for Mike. It’s so encouraging to have doctors who humbly approach their craft and are lifelong students!
Peace, Be Still
We have incredible peace in the midst of all this chaos. It’s surreal to walk through something so traumatizing and feel empowered and calm. That is a true gift from the Lord. It reminds me of this verse:
“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
Sometimes God calms storms. More often, though, he calms you in the midst of the storm. This is what he’s doing for us. We just . . . trust him. We don’t always feel this way. There are certainly times of fear and doubt because those things are natural in these circumstances. There are so many unkowns. It’s frightening. Yet, we both feel peaceful overall. Only God could be the cause of that.
A while ago, I wrote an article reflecting on Spurgeon’s well-known quote “I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the Rock of Ages.” There’s a wonderful song by Hope Darst called Peace, Be Still that I want to share with you as I finish out today. This song has given me strength in the hard moments. I’ve included the YouTube video below. Add it to your favorite music app and put it on your regular rotation to remind you where true peace comes from.
