Ugh - phone call from my younger brother last night. He’s the “poor” one in the family, who I finally convinced to sign up for Medicaid on Aug 15, the last day of the expanded enrollment period. I don’t think he even has his number yet. Now he’s peeing blood - grossly bloody urine.
There’s a lot of things it could be due to - some benign, like a kidney stone or urinary tract infection. Some bad, like cancer of the urinary tract. Could even be Covid, although it would be a rare presentation (he’s the one unvaccinated person in the family. His state is currently rationing care because the hospitals are overrun with Covid cases. And he’s afraid of going to the doctor - because he’s afraid of catching Covid!)
Glad you had a good weekend! It's cool you have a DB'ing friend nearby. From our interactions, I believe we're in the same state, but on completely opposite ends. Ugh on the bloody urine. It's cool to have a doc in the family, but that must have been an embarrassing call for him to make. I hope it's minor. Could it be an STI? Could the labs he needs to rule out possibilities be done by a 3rd party lab or at-home lab kit? I've even had hospitals near me recommend 3rd party labs as more affordable, and I've had good experiences with at-home lab kits, although I ended up poking myself quite a few times before I got a good draw of blood. I'm no longer as judgmental when hospitals need to try twice, although I have good veins so that's pretty rare.
No STI worries. His labs will be covered by medicaid thank goodness. Hoping it's just a urinary tract infection or kidney stone, but frankly he doesn't have obvious symptoms for either. Cancer doesn't run in our family but he's a lifelong heavy smoker so that's still a possibility. And I did find a case report of a woman presenting with bloody urine as her first symptom of Covid, although that would be a rare presentation.
He is the unlucky one in the family - my mother used to say "If he had a duck, it would drown". Then again, he also has nine lives, so hoping this is nothing big.
Covid or not, he should definitely be going to a doctor. Is this a gender thing? I have always maintained that one of the reasons women live longer is because we will head to the doctor at the first sign of trouble…lol. Men, and I know this is a stereotype, tend to ignore it until it gets really bad. Given you are a doctor, I am sure you have had some conversations with him around his choice to remain unvaccinated. Interesting that he is scared of catching Covid as most unvaccinated people I know seem to rely on the “it’s not as bad as people say” belief to justify their decision. Regardless, he must have a really strong fear of something to go against the advice of his physician big sister. Hope everything turns out okay!! (((HUGS)))
Yeah he's the rare bird who is afraid of Covid, but thinks (at 60 and a lifelong smoker!) that he's too healthy to get it and is scared of the vaccine (because he gets a lot of QAnon BS from his son). I find people have very exaggerated ideas of their own health status and risk.
Well, CMM is doing okay, so clearly the low end of his doctor's estimate (2 weeks) is not going to be true lol. His oxygen levels remain good when on supplemental oxygen. We are inviting my friend with the heart transplant and his wife to lunch next week, we will grill some steaks.
Last night, though, when he came upstairs, he switched from his tank to the oxygen machine - but forgot to turn it on! Took him about a half hour to notice, which I guess is good, but he was quite panicked about how he felt and said "Is this what it's going to feel like when I die?"
He also asked me earlier how I felt about all this - and honestly, my answer was that I feel grateful that we've had so much extra time. 3 years extra is pretty darned good with stage 4 lung cancer. I expected when he moved in that he'd be dead in 6 months - instead we are 3 years 2 months past his diagnosis and only starting down that track.
I do see him trying to prepare things for his absence - he was talking to my son yesterday about teaching him how to use the knife sharpener.
Still, I expect he'll be with us for several more months - probably through Xmas at least.
Prayers for both of you. What a difficult situation.
Me 52, H53 Bomb drop 9/29/2014 Divorce from XH final 12/17/2014 Marriage #2 12/31/2019 5 adult (step)daughters (3 from XH's first marriage, 2 from current H's previous relationships) 6 grandkids
On BD H52, W50 T27, M26 S21, D23 BD-9-Mar-16 D-15-Jan-18 Final-19-Apr-18 I am a storyteller. The story may do you no good. But a story is never for the listener. It is always for the one who tells
kml, you have so much strength to see the bright side in this situation. I'm glad the 2-week diagnosis seems way off and you're looking forward to having friends over for dinner together.
