Hopefully it's nothing....

Best wishes my friend. I too hope it's nothing.

LTG : )

scary times indeed
hopefully it is nothing

So sorry buddy. Really hope it's nothing

We have 2 Kidneys. All though people have lived long lives with just one. It is best to have both. Hope everything turns out well for you.

Hopefully nothing wrong & you can keep your pins.

Make sure it's not your Pancreas.

Hang in there bud.

Hi!

I too am hoping that it is nothing for you. If you find out it is something though, or just needing someone to talk to, you can always call me if you need to talk at 267-471-5612, or PM me. I have been there, believe me. I don't want to get into all the details and freak you out or worry you because everyone's situations are different, but there are people (including me) who function very normally with one kidney.

Try to keep calm, hang in there, and know there are lots of people rooting for you! Again, feel free to reach out to me if need be.

Chris

Meh, don't worry until you have something to worry about. I had something similar that turned out to be just a single cyst in one kidney. Had to go in for a scan every year, then every two years for a while, then every 3-4 years to make sure it didn't grow or change. It didn't.

I’m going to UCLA next month for a second opinion on my brain and the first thing I did was put all my pins for sale, and hand the $20k cash proceeds to my wife for safe keeping.

Pinball really is an amazing hobby that the items can be so easily made into cash funds again if needed.

So I get why your first instinct was to sell the pins.

Best of luck!

It will be fine. This is a road well traveled for me. If you want to keep your pins just do it!

Best of luck to you guys having medical issues. Try and stay positive, there will be better days ahead.

Hope this all comes out well for you. Prayers will go out for you and your family.

The internet can be a great resource, but can also be your worst enemy. Trust the doctors but dont be afraid to question them either. This is your body and you have rights and need to know exactly what is going on, and what thay plan to do.

One of the worst things I did was to look up my surery before I had it. Just made things worse (in my head).

Chris

It’s not just the cost of the scans themselves. It everything else. EKG that they hook up , blood Drs, room ,etc etc.

Don’t want to make you worry but this is the reality

You didn’t have to pay all at once. Monthly payments of a percentage of the bill will be accepted.

Had an operation last year on my diaphragm. ( 3 inch Morgagni hernia ). Bills for the year with check ups were almost 200k. My cost was 4500 total out of pocket.

Just went for a check up , they did blood , EKG , other tests and radiology. Was in for 5 hours. Bill was 4700.

Insurance is a must these day

Praying all turns out well for you and your family. Keep your chin up

So is was A "c" word, at least it was not that other one!

They all say that!

Well I'm sure the finding is somewhat of a relief for you!

Glad it turned out well. The worst part about that is the checkups ever 1/2/4 years when they use the contrast dye. But it's over pretty quickly, and the inconvenience is worth the information to make sure they don't grow or change.

Glad you are okay.

That is stellar news EM, glad things have gone your way.

Glad to hear this was nothing worse.
Play more pinball. That's a start anyway.

Good to hear it is something they just want to watch. . . a lot of times they continue to watch something even if it is nothing in this CYA world we live in.

Well it sounds like things are better than you expected, which is great news!

I am a fat guy too, and was told the same thing about my liver. I started taking Tumeric supplements and it cleared it up almost completely. Not saying it will work for you, but just letting you know.

Here's to the good news, and continued health!

Chris

Thats great news, im very happy for you!

God I love this website. Even a place to vent. Lexapro. Linipsapril, something for thyroid and now Crestor. Only turned 45. But still playing pinball till the day I die

Hi. I am a radiologist. If they thought it was a kidney stone, why did your doctor order an MRI? Most kidney stones do not show up on MRI at all. My go to exam for kidney stones is CT. Ultrasound can work in thin patients and kids, avoiding radiation, but CT is much better for both kidney stones and masses/cysts, especially in larger people. Ultrasound has a hard time adequately seeing detail in the kidneys in your average size American. MRI is good for looking at kidney masses, but it is usually a second line study for problem solving. Sometimes we will incidentally see a mass in the kidney on a spine or liver MRI. This is what we "affectionately" call an "incidental-oma". Fortunately, most of these end up being benign kidney cysts (not cancer), which are very common.
Glad that they thought that it was a cyst that they could follow. For the CT did they take some scans, inject iodine stuff into your vein and then take some more scans?

Lisinopril was terrible for me. The dry cough it caused was non-stop at night and too frequent during the day. I had to try like 7 BP meds over a couple years before I found one I could live with the side effects. Diovan was my absolute favorite. Caused amazing, really vivid dreams every night. Unfortunately, after about 6 months it also started causing movement hallucinations, so it reluctantly (VERY reluctantly) had to be retired. But this is turning into old people talk, comparing medications, so I'll stop...

I used to collect kidney stones and also have three cysts on in my kidneys. One is 25mm across....
They keep track of the dimensions each year to make sure nothing changes and fortunately they don't.

They also found my cysts during an MRI -- this was in prep for cancer surgery a few years back. They pretty much did a top to bottom MRI. Nothing worse than that can of whateverthatcrapis they inject into your veins in mere milliseconds. Sure makes you 'pucker up'!

Worst thing to do when a doc says you may have 'something' is to refer to Dr Google for information. Dr Google will have you dead within a week.

Glad to have heard the outcome. Cysts are commonly best seen in a simple ultrasound exam. None of the others (blood, mri, ecg etc.) needed. Just have an eye on them once a year....if they dont change within 3 years, you might as well let them be for the longer.
Nowadays the lawyers are the biggest threat to common sense medicine. This pushes the costs and the unnecessary exams. To even think a simple kidney cyst might have costed you some pins breaks my heart....
You are invited to Germany for an ultrasound check in my office, GP, any time
And pinball afterwards....Best of wishes

I know exactly how you feel Grayman.
I’m going through the exact same thing right now. Went into emergency in September with stomach pain. Ended up being appendicitis. During a ct scan a 50mm calcified complex cyst was found in my right kidney. I go for secondary scans on Tuesday and have been trying not to think about it for months.
Being a T1 diabetic I panicked early on at the thought of losing a kidney. It’s hard not to at first but came to realise what will be will be.

Ah it’s good to get that off my chest. Haven’t spoken about it to anyone.

Glad to hear all is OK. Best wishes for all battling medical issues. Like Rudy says "it's only pinball"...your health always comes first. Keep flippin'!

Sorry, but I have to disagree with your comment about ultrasound being best to evaluate cysts. Ultrasound is fine if the person is thin. However, detail in the kidneys in larger patients can be very difficult to discern and about all you can see, especially in the left kidney, is an indistinct blob, even with an experienced tech and a good quality machine. If I see a simple cyst on CT, US or MR, I leave it alone without any followup or anything. But it has to meet specific criteria to be called simple. After that, there are guidelines, called Bosniak Categories (seriously) that we follow to figure out how to proceed.
I don't disagree with your comment about lawyers and frivolous law suits being a factor.

I had lesions on my pancreas recently. I was freaking out, it turns out it was fatty iterations and I'm OK. But I have heart problems and had a stroke and few mini-strokes and I'm only 37. That's another story though. This stuff is scary man, I'm glad it's not something major. Best of luck to you.

I can't image what the waiting on that was like. Good to hear it was nothing.

The weird thing is some kinds of contrast dies seem to be better than others. I've had it done three times now, and the first and third were unpleasant instant-hot all over, but the second time I had to ask if they had done it because I felt nothing other than normal the whole time.

Yup. There are different kinds of contrast or "dyes", by different companies. The ones that are "non-ionic" have less of an effect but they all have some effect. The sensation is largely due the intravenous contrast hitting the certain parts of the brain and can cause nausea and vomiting. Can also effect chemoreceptors in the body causing other sensations. The degree of sensation can also be determined by how fast it is injected into your vein. A faster injection (5cc/second) will have a more intense sensation than a slower injection (2cc/second). The speed is determined by the scan protocol prescribed for your study and how good the IV access is in your arm.
The bright light warning refers to laser lights that the CT scanner emits (think laser cannon mod on STTNG, or a laser level you might use to hang multiple pictures on the wall) so the technologist can be certain you are centered on the table. It might be hard to read the warning if you have already been blinded, but the lawyers tell the manufacturers that they have to put it there anyway. =) (Joking here. Please don't start a lawsuit.)

Grayman having just been thru some serious shit Myself I learned quickly that googling any medical condition brings up a lot of worst case Scenarios and panic attacks quickly follow!

Glad you are gunna be ok

Side note on Medical bills, I have a new stack in my mailbox everyday. I’m over $115,000.00 and more to come. I’m trying to figure out my deductibles and what I will owe in the end. The good news is that I lived

Hopefully you have decent insurance of at least 80/20 after a 2500 or 5000 deductible. Hospitals MASSIVELY inflate the costs for things quite a while ago I was able to get a couple emergency room visit bills cut back by about 60% by going line-item on each line of the invoice and comparing with "real world" costs, then offering to pay for what was left in cash. It's ridiculous that we have to do this in ostensibly the most powerful nation in the world, but that's the way it is. One day we'll figure out how to give everyone medical care and get the profit motive-driven third parties and insurers out of the picture, but not anytime soon.

I am a little confused with my coverage and deductibles. I think I have a max out of pocket, but my insurance card says I am liable for 20% of Emergency room visits. I have over $17,000 in bills just for 2 ER visits in the last 5 weeks (lots of brain scans ect) I am hoping my max out of pocket is only $5 to $6k (a Stern Pro )

Lots of insurance policies just forego the deductible for ER visits and you just jump to the 20% liability for you because they're unplanned. That's probably what yours is. Regular hospital/surgery is usually deductible then 80/20. But your policy will tell you if those 20% ER copays ($3400) count toward your deductible or not. Private insurance and the healthcare system is a mess, and even "nonprofit" hospitals are raking in money hand over fist - it just goes to their executive staff.

Sean, my brother is a top notch brain doctor in Chico, CA. He's the smartest guy i know. Txt me if you want his contact info?

I was an inpatient awaiting open heart surgery and I had a stroke and had an angiogram that wasn't covered; 90K out of pocket just for that! I'm lucky most everything else was covered, I think my total bills were 400,000 but including the angio I still paid almost 100K. Something needs to change.

That’s insane!

I'm lucky to be alive honestly, the thing started while I was helping a friend shoe horses on a farm. I ended up getting horse crap in a cut and started having violent chills and fevers. I had a bacterial infection in my blood and it destroyed the mitral valve in my heart. I swelled up like crazy and developed full blown sepsis. I was hooked up to IV antibiotics for a month before they could do surgery. The outlook was not good and then I had a piece of the growth on my mitral valve break off and go to my brain causing the stroke. The worst part of the whole thing honestly was worrying about my 3 year old daughter at the time. I was crying my eyes out thinking about her not having me around.