The "Terry Episode"

Poor Terry! Once again the 4th turned out to get the better of him. Terry and I had traveled down to Finlayson for the 4th Festivities with plans on staying with Les and Kathy at their lake place. We got to Finlayson Friday afternoon, around 2 and Terry got to visit with some of his cousins, friends, etc. We headed out to the lake for some cocktails, rest and relaxation. Les grilled up some burgers and afterwards Terry went for his 4 mile walk. By 8 o'clock that evening Terry started feeling crappy. Upset stomach that just got worse and worse. He slept very little and felt a bit better on Sat. am. There was a family pot-luck planned for 3 pm at Les and Kathy's and I think Terry wanted to see some of the relatives. He visited a little bit but you could tell he felt terrible. At about 4 or so I asked if he wanted to head home and he said yes. I told some of the relatives I was taking him to the emergency room. We left about 4:45 and arrived St. Mary's in Duluth about 6. Long story short at 1 am they finally admitted him to the hospital with what they thought was a bowel blockage. Sunday, no tests.....IV's and pain meds. Monday pretty much the same with a little bit of discussion on what tests they MIGHT do. No CT scan as he's allergic to the dye, no x-ray as they no longer believed it was a blockage and now the pain had radiated from his stomach area to his left kidney. It was finally decided to do a renal scan. It showed a problem with the left kidney. Tuesday they did a Lasik (sp) wash-out. They put some radiated liquid into his system. then watched to see how well the kidneys drained. Right kidney was fine, left wasn't so great. It was determined by the Urologist that Wed. am they would put a stent in to help with the flow out of the kidney. This is a temporay solution. It seemed to work and Terry was released from the hospital Thursday afternoon. He had been on a clear liquid diet from Sun. am until Wed. night when he finally got "real" food to see how he handled it. It seem to go down fine. He hasn't had the stomach pain again and the kidney is tender but getting better. He still tires easily and thinks he can do more than he should be......that's a stubborn German for you!! All in all. it was a scary few days but getting better now. He is looking at surgery on this kidney in the future but doesn't really know when yet. He goes back to meet with the Urologist on the 15th to discuss his options. I will let you know what those options may be and what the final decision is. Thanks to everyone for their support...it's greatly appreciated!