What a nice morning! The rain’s gone (for now), mild temps (low 40s), great group of people. Large group too, including Kevin, Kevin, Karl, Karen, Zack, Eric, George, Jan and at least one or two more. That’s right, we came across JR, who’s on a strict training program that doesn’t allow him to “goof off” on our ride. And we saw Brandon, one of my neighbors, about halfway up the climb.
I made it up in just over 28 minutes, and got to admit I was hoping for something just a bit better, but not today. People were up the road ahead of me, and people behind. Well actually, not that many people behind. I really thought there were more, but no, not today. Maybe Thursday. Or not, since it’s supposed to rain. Fun!
But for Kevin and I, it was yet another shortened version, as his kidney continued to act up. Before it did, Kevin took the first sprint (at Skeggs) while I took the second, at Sky Londa. I was looking forward to more, but you could literally see beads of sweat on Kevin’s face that weren’t from his riding, but from the pain. We later found out that the pain isn’t being caused by kidney stones after all, but likely scarring from his prior operation. This is both good & bad news; bad in that he’s been through an awful lot and the prospect of yet another operation isn’t very appealing, especially if it involves a stent (essentially a plastic tube placed in the ureter, causing great pain for a number of weeks until removed. But the good news is that it can be fixed!
Thankfully his pain isn’t constant, and it had eased up enough so that, once back down on Canada Road, it was his idea to take a loop up through Canada College, to give the ride a bit more credibility. He actually wanted to descend Farm Hill and head back to Jefferson via Emerald Hill, which is a wicked-steep climb. Instead I talked him into a big loop through the college, dropping down to Farm Hill and then back up and around and down to Canada Road again. Even with that it was 5 miles shorter than normal, which I’m making up by commuting to work today by bike, something I need to do more of! –Mike–
Sorry to hear about Kevin. Oh yeah, I’ve had a few stints with stents over the years. He’s young, so get it fixed sooner than later. I like Marshall Stoller at UCSF. He can fix anything. He fixed multiple time XTERRA World Champ Jaime Whitmore and I at the same time. He understands athletes.
Kevin’s journey actually started at UCSF, with Dr. Michael Harrison who first operated on Kevin’s kidneys when he wasn’t quite 5 months old. In a nutshell, what Kaiser found was way beyond their capabilities so they quickly referred Kevin outside their system. His regular urologist at Kaiser is a Dr. Kumari in Santa Clara, who thinks he has a handle on what’s going on. We’ll find out more after a renal scan tomorrow, which he’s called for after yesterday’s CT scan showed it was scarring, not a kidney stone, causing the pain. He’s gone through a few stents, and each time it was painful for him beyond belief. Which brings up something interesting… while Kevin may have an incredibly high tolerance for pain from riding, it may be very different otherwise. That’s something I can’t relate to very well. When I had major dental work after a bike crash, they told me to take vicodin and “stay ahead” of the pain. Took one, couldn’t stand the way it made me feel, never took another. Same thing after my broken hand surgery. Never felt much of anything. He’s obviously wired very differently than I am. Wish I could take the pain from him and deal with it myself.
What was the deal as an infant? And yes, scarring in many cases, particularly on an internal organ like the kidney that receives pressure from the pelvis and back all the time, ESP when hunched over on a bike, is a very sensitive and delicate repair. I never took the Vicodin either…kidney, knee, elbow, foot, tooth, you name it. I can relate. But let’s make sure you get a few opinions as each surgery adds up, in the body, the mind, and the pocket book. Kevin deserves the best, and the Bay has it, medically speaking.
We took Kevin in for a cold when he was about 4 months old, and while checking him out, the Doctor felt a “mass.” That’s the one word you really don’t want to hear, having been through the cancer thing in our family a couple of times. Turned out he was born with a seriously-weirdly-shaped kidney and basically has one that was completely dysfunctional and the other at about 50%. After the operation he was up to 30-40% in one side, 80% in the other. Since then he’s improved slightly, but, as you say, each operation takes its toll and scar tissue buildup is always an issue in surgery. His procedure a couple years ago was robotic, to minimize such risks, but apparently not enough. Guess he’s a work in progress.