Bear - 2018-11-13 11:32 AM I think you need to follow up with your doctor sooner than a few months. You need to write down some questions and get answers. If you don’t write them down, you’ll likely forget some. Here’s some questions I would have, based on your remarks: 1.) He said your right kidney is “pretty much toast”. How does he know this? Recurrent kidney infections can lead to scarring and eventual failure, but most isolated cases of pyelonephritis in adults do not result in a kidney failing. That would be rare, if the infection was treated. 2.) You said you have anemia. You need to have that explained. People don’t just get anemia out of the blue without some reason. Why are you anemic? Are you losing blood somewhere? Do you have heavy periods? Is there blood in your stool? You need to have your stool tested for occult blood. What I’m getting at is there are potentially serious causes for anemia. Don’t just take iron and vitamins without having the causes looked into. 3.) What is your “creatinine”? That gives an idea of how much renal failure, if any, you have. They can estimate renal function from a simple blood test. 4.) The “reflux” I was referring to is something called “vessico-ureteral reflux” (VUR). It’s seen mostly in kids as a congenital condition, but it can also be seen in adults, sometimes because of bladder dysfunction. What happens is the urine abnormally goes up toward the kidney in the ureter when you void. The ureter can become increasingly dilated and urine just sits there stagnant. Anytime you have stagnant urine, infections can become increased, and that can involve the kidney itself (pyelonephritis). You can diagnose VUR with a simple X-ray where dye is placed in the bladder through a catheter. You are asked to push down and void. If urine is seen to reflux up the ureter, you have VUR. That can be corrected. If you’ve only had one isolated kidney infection, you don’t necessarily need to have this test, but if you get recurrent infections you probably should have this done. Kidney stones can also cause a blockage in the ureter. That blockage of urine can lead to infection because again the urine is just sitting there and is a set up for infection. The combination of a stone blocking the ureter with infection can easily destroy a kidney, or even cause serious sepsis. A CT scan will exclude this. The fact that you were having so much pain even after being on antibiotics would make me wonder if a CT should be done to rule out stones. Coffee won’t hurt your kidneys. That’s a myth. There, you have a start. I think the Mayo Clinic has a great web site for patients. They do an excellent job explaining things. Make it a habit of using this: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/vesicoureteral-reflux...  Thank you so much Bear! I appreciate you !



Also, I could hug right now for the coffee statement.