Ever since I first met my surgeon and informed her blithely "I'd also like to have my native kidneys taken out," we seem to have been on either side of a line in the sand, protocol-wise.
I'd already revealed myself as a nephrectomy advocate, so she had to take on the role of dissuading me from this course. If only 1 out of 20 patients has a nephrectomy -- and my pain hadn't begun yet -- it was unlikely she'd be doing one on me.
Thus, through poking and prodding my abdomen (which, from ribs down to hipbones at any longitude bounces right back like a couple of leather bags full of water) she determined my kidneys are only "moderately large," and has said several times "Your kidneys really aren't that large. I don't know why they'd be causing you all this trouble."
With the onset of pain and the MRI results, she agreed to remove them, but still didn't sound particularly convinced.
However, at my pre-op meeting, Randy and I were briefed by a specialist we'd never met before. My surgeon runs late on a regular basis, between operating, teaching, doing research, meeting with committees that do everything from hiring to reviewing transplant candidates, and last but not least keeping clinical appointments.
The new guy, with a pronouced Georgia accent, was catching up with my history on the computer, when he saw I had PKD. "Hey! Did you have any imaging done? I love looking at polycystic kidneys!"
I admitted I had an MRI somewhere, and he found it. "Wow! These are huge!" he enthused.
Startled by this new viewpoint but still tentative, Randy offered that we referred to them as "the twins."
"Oh, these are bigger than babies," the doc said. "I've sired babies, and these are bigger than that."
Not only was the horsy reference delightful, the confirmation of what I'd always thought was encouraging.
We then delved further into his Southern past. "You know rugby balls?" he asked. (We both nodded, even though we have only a sketchy idea of what a rugby game looks like, much less the ball.) "Well, these are the size of rugby balls," he said.
Looking up "regulation rugby ball" and converting centimeters to inches yields some startling statistics. All I can say is I'm ready for them to bounce on out of here.
