Nephrology

Within the first few days of his cancer treatment, Tate developed Tumor lysis, a common and potentially fatal condition for patients with lymphomas and leukemia.  Tumor lysis occurs when large amounts of cancer cells are killed and spill into the bloodstream, causing the kidneys to work beyond capacity.  When Tate was admitted to the hospital, 92% of his blood cells were cancerous.  He was given huge, life-saving doses of chemotherapy that essentially made Tumor lysis inevitable.  He was visited twice daily by the Nephrology team; they monitored his kidney function very closely to make sure he was not in danger of permanent kidney damage.       

Today Tate had a follow-up appointment with his Nephrologist.  She examined his blood work and said his kidney function looks good!  His ultrasound was normal for the most part.  There are some solids in his bladder she would like to investigate further, so she ordered some urine tests.  She said there are several things that can cause solids in the bladder for a leukemia patient such as platelets, blood, or calcium.  The doctor was concerned about Tate’s trend of low blood pressure and considered weaning him off one of his medications, but ultimately decided against it since he is at the beginning of a very intense treatment phase.      

I had been carrying some worry about the outcome of this appointment.  Six months ago, his nephrologist told us the initial ultrasound showed his kidneys were not the same size, which could be an indication of bad cells in the organ.  She was very clear that the first course of action was to treat the Leukemia but not to forget about his kidneys.   

Tate is still in good spirits today.  He was pretty exhausted after all his walking yesterday and slept in really late.  Tomorrow he has an appointment with an oncologist.  If all goes well, he will be getting Vincristine and Doxorubicin through his port and beginning the 7 day course of steroids.