I suppose the 'journey' really began for us some 8 months ago,
Richard started complaining of back pain, and, as he works in a manual job, we both put it down to muscle pain and assumed he was working too hard at work, as weeks passed the pain became more frequent and more intense.
So to be safe and also to get something to relieve the pain he visited the doctor, as with many doctors surgeries, seeing your own doctor is a kind of hit and miss situation, he ended up seeing the 'shared' practice doctor who didn't really know him from Adam, and I feel because he was not one of her own regulars, probably thought he may be trying to get some time off work by pulling a fast one.
The doctor diagnosed muscle pain and told him to take ibuprofen/paracetamol, and prescribed some muscle gel.
This seemed to work for a month or so, then the pain started to return, despite the painkillers, so off we trotted back to the Doctors, this time Rich saw a locum, who gave him the standard bendy tests, bend forwards, backwards, sideways etc, the doc was all for putting it down to back pain until Rich said that a neighbour - who had had a kidney infection in the past - suggested that the pain seemed to be more towards the kidney area than just back muscles, so, in order "to just be on the safe side", this doctor ordered a urine/blood test,
Rich went back the following week for the results, he saw one of the practice nurses, who said hid urine test had come back and showed traces of nitrates, and that he had a UTI infection, thus she prescribed a course of anti biotics, and told him to return a week later for the results, , at this time neither I or Rich had any concerns over what may be wrong.
In the days following the pain got worse, so on the Monday Rich went back to the Doctors, and, luckily, saw his own doctor, Rich explained that he felt the anti biotics had made the pain worse, his own doctor was the first to lie him on the bed and give him a 'decent' examination, as a result he sent him - same day - for a stomach x-ray, still no real cause of concern to us,
He attended later that week to get the blood test results from the nurse and to ask if the x-ray results had come back, the nurse told him the blood result was ok, as was the x-ray, but Rich told me that whilst sat down he could see the nurses screen, and he is certain that it said that the kidney showed excessive swelling! this is the first time that we became a little worried.
On the Sunday following Rich came home from work and told me that his left testicle was very swollen, thinking more that he had injured himself at work and at my insistence we went to A & E, at A & E the doc gave him some anti biotics and said he was going to refer him for an ultrasound of his testicle.
On the Monday, Rich and I went to the Doctors as he had woken up with pain in his back, and also as a courtesy call to let him know about the A & E visit, his doc once again examined him and said that he was going to refer him for an ultrasound of his abdomen, and that it seemed silly to do a seperate testicle one so he would write a note for the doc who would do the stomach scan to also do a testicle scan, the following day Rich got the appointment for the following Wednesday.
We went, and Rich went in for his scan, after the scan the doc who did it said that Rich had to go to his own Doctor - luckily just across the road - and make an appointment for Friday ad he would have the results by then, this started the panic, because normally the results from these scans take between 5/10 days.
We both went on Friday to see his Doctor, who sat us down and old us that the scan shows what may be a 9 cm 'growth' in the upper lobe of his left kidney, and well, we cried, we were shocked, scared and lost in this sudden revelation, one man can change the world it is said, this one man changed ours that day,
The story will continue on the next blog entry...
