Has It Really Been 6 Months?
Yes, life has been crazy and I have not had time to make an entry in 6 months. A lot has happened! Yes, we will continue with the Marie Kondo method of tidying up, but since many of you have asked about my health, I’ll start there and get back to Marie Kondo later this week.
On October 4, 2018, an embolization was performed on the right renal mass. At the time they were able to cut off over 90% of the blood supply to the tumor making this procedure considered successful. Of course, we wouldn’t really know until my follow-up appointment in February.
February 11, 2019, came, and I was eager to find out through a scan if the tumor had shrunk. Good news is that the tumor was almost undetectable! Praise God! I am certainly rejoicing in that and thankful that I won’t have any spontaneous bleeding. The bad news is that a tiny tumor was found on my left kidney. When they looked back at the original CT scan, they could indeed see it which means it had not changed much in a year. That was also good news. So for now, we will take a look at it again in about a year to make sure it has not changed. The really bad news, however, is that when they were checking my vitals, my blood pressure was through the roof! I am talking high enough to freak the nurse out. She took it several times on the same arm, then she switched arms but no change. She even tried a different machine. She wouldn’t even let me look at it. She kept asking me if I was nervous and how I was feeling. The crazy thing is…I have NEVER, EVER had high blood pressure. EVER!!! Because I had NEVER EVER had blood pressure issues, I didn’t even know what normal numbers were. At one time it was 184 over 113. Yes, I now know that is stoke range!!! They kept asking if I had a headache. Well, yes, I had been having a headache, but I blamed it on the pollen. I mean, every surface is green around here. My white car is green. My driveway is green. EVERYTHING IS GREEN. So, I assumed the pressure I felt in my head and my eyes was from the pollen.
So…long story short, I’m on blood pressure medicine until my doctor figures out what is causing the high blood pressure. It could be a side effect from the embolization. Who knows. I go in next week to see a specialist and hopefully I will know more then. In the meantime, I just live life to the fullest and enjoy every day because you never know.
God is good. If the high blood pressure was caused by the embolization, I’m ok with that because I’d rather have something that can be controlled with meds than a tumor that can bleed at any moment and cause severe hemorrhaging.