“Self, where has David, the RNS resident legal eagle, gone off too?”
You could say that he has been hosting his own episode of “House M.D.“.
Here it is in his own words:
A cautionary tale: So this all started out with my cholesterol meds. I began taking Simvastatin about a year ago. Fast forward to Memorial Day this year, when I caught a stomach virus. I threw up dry-heave bile more than fifty times in the next day or so, nonstop. I was already dehydrated; that made it worse. Not eating for a couple days straight didn’t help either. Unknown to me or anyone else, I developed pneumonia — potentially fatal for me as I lost my spleen many years ago. I finally went in to see the doc on Thursday. Â She diagnosed stomach flu (duh!) but because she wasn’t my regular doc, she ordered some tests.
These saved my life.
Back home from the doc, resting and looking forward to the weekend, I felt fine but tired. Little did I know…how often in life will you get a call like this?
“Hello, David? Yes I know it’s after six pm, I’m sure you’re surprised to hear from me. Listen, I just got your tests back and you are in both kidney failure and liver failure. You could go into seizures at any moment. Hang up with me and call 911.”
I still felt fine, but got the ambulance ride to the hospital and I’m still here a week later. What they think happened is this:
Rabdomyalysis is massive breakdown of muscle tissue. It can be triggered by, inter alia, Â a year on statin drugs, or a bacterial infection, both of which I had. That gave a false indication (creatinine) that my liver was failing (it wasn’t). They thought it was for a time, and I had ER docs wandering over to chat with me because I was lucid and aware when the tests were indicating I should be drooling braindead mush.
More seriously, my kidneys were overloaded by the rabdomyalysis (acute tutular necrosis), and I needed immediate dialysis, which has continued every other day or so. I’m slowly but steadily urinating more each day, so the kidneys are taking their time coming back online, but permanent dialysis is, I think, not in my future.
I’m still fighting some bacterial crap. One fun thing about hospitalization is the docs trying to figure out every little anomalous thing about you. In my case, a bike accident as a kid ruptured my spleen into scores of pieces all throughout my abdomen. The surgeon couldn’t get them all and suspected the remaining pieces might regenerate into mini spleens. Well, the docs were freaking out about these eight weird soft-tissue blobs that showed up in my cat scan, like alien chestbursters scattered throughout my body. I seem, in fact, to have eight mildly functional spleens! Kewl, eh?
As for hospital life, I was in ICU for four days; I’ve been stable since and am in a nice private room with a view of Mount Diablo. I have great food (really!), great care, and its just a matter of time till the infections go away, kidneys restart and I’m outta here. Maybe another week. Frustrating, but its nice to be alive, so I can’t complain. No blogging though — I just have my blackberry with me and we never figured out how to post from that.
Lesson learned: when you pass 40, see your doc early and often for things you might have toughed out on your own as a younger man.
David
An update from last night: He’ll most likely be released this afternoon or evening but will still need dialysis three times a week until the creatinine levels go down to normal.
Once he gets home I’m sure he’ll have lots to say, so wish him luck and check back for updates from the man himself.
Wow, what a tale of medical disaster. When last I saw David at Boomershoot, he seemed quite hale and hearty.
I’ve been on Lovastatin for years, and it has not affected me this way.
Eight spleens, eh? Way cooler than two hearts! Glad you’re getting past that adventure David. Hope you’re 100% again soon.
Glad to hear you are doing better, David.
Glad to hear he’s coming along OK.
Dude, 8 spleens, that’s pretty awesome.
Get well soon!
And wow, eight spleens. Awesome.
My father after taking care of my mom for a chronic condition reached the conclusion. Don’t take any drugs long term without being aware of the side effects. And preferably don’t take any drugs that don’t fix the problem, with a goal of getting off those drugs.
His opinion of statins is very low, and he doesn’t think the medical community is very good at understanding the long terms effect of drugs, for both good and bad.
Scary time all around. Sending you the very best get well, positive vibes I can gather for a fast, complete recovery David.
Please do everything your Dr’s tell you and mind your wife when you get home ! She will provide caregiving at it’s best !
Too many spleens, not enough kidneys. Seems like a problem tailor-made for an attorney. Negotiate, man, negotiate!
Has anyone besides me noticed that the “acceptable” cholesteral levels keep dropping every year? Almost like they want everybody to be taking those drugs…
WOW! Scary! Glad to hear you are on the mend!
Elevated Creatinine levels indicate KIDNEY, not liver failure. Tests indicating liver failure would include AST, ALT, GGT, Alk Phos, and others.
The medical community DOESN’T recognize all the dangers of meds. How could they, most of those meds have been around less than 3 decades? Nothing gives experience like experience! It will take a while to get that data and implement it.
As for the ever falling acceptable cholesterol levels, that is simply a factor of more and better data, most of it coming from ongoing studies like Framingham, et al.
We do KNOW this, elevated cholesterol levels WILL lead to early heart attack. So take your pick, possible side effects, including liver problems–or guaranteed earlier than normal cardiovascular problems.
Some of us are genetically doomed to elevated cholesteral levels, regardless of diet and exercise. Others may live long lives with elevated cholesterol levels, protected by some other genetic twist.
BUT…who wants to play genetic roulette, when the benefits of statin drugs so outweigh the risks?
I’ll have hundreds, maybe thousands of people on statins and may never see a true liver issue caused by the medication. This was the “perfect storm” of problems, and I’ve seen patients do exactly the same thing, and not be taking a statin, or any other med, for that matter. The most recent was a guy who got H1N1 last January, and had almost exactly the same sequelae as David.
He even had a normal spleen.
Bad stuff happens to good people, medicine is still an art with scientific guidelines, not a science.
Good luck David!!
Today was my first day with internet access in about three weeks. Thanks to all for the kind thoughts and great comments. Yes, I misspoke about the creatinine, it was something else that made them think it was liver failure, and until I get the medical records next week I won’t know what that was. It was something related to rabdo, though — once they diagnosed rabdo they realized the liver was probably okay, and later scans and tests showed it was hale and hearty.
One of the kidney docs said they’d had another guy my age with the same thing about a year ago — his only causal factors were that he was on statins for a year and was running ten miles a day and got dehydrated — bam, rabdomyalysis, and it took him a couple months to restore full kidney function. He wasn’t peeing as much as I am, though. 🙂
As for statins, I have likely dropped my cholesterol significantly by dint of hospital / renal diet for the last couple weeks, too — between a 1-liter fluid restriction per day and the tasty but low-calorie, small-portion hospital food, I lost more than twenty pounds. Prior to all this I routinely ate Mickey D’s twice a day. Not anymore!
My cholesterol’s never been THAT bad; I’m just lazy. Now, I’m likely to work with my regular doc on a program of diet and exercise before starting statins again.
More later, and thanks again for all the good thoughts!
Unintentional diets can be a drag but it’s good when you can capitalize on them to maintain a healthier weight and lifestyle afterward.
Get well David, that sounds like a real scare!
So you overachieve when it comes to spleens but underachieve on eating right. Sounds like it averages out to me.
Glad to hear you’re getting better. Take care.
Good Lord!!! Get well, recover, get strong!
My wife is on some cholesterol stuff that works but gives me the willies.
Wow! When you’re done with all this, are you going to get a shirt that says, “I got rhabdomyolysis, and all I got was a week of relaxation, 20 lbs lighter, 8 spleens, and this t-shirt!” 🙂
Glad to hear you’re OK, medical scares are a whole ‘nother kind of scary. It must have been unreal to get that call.
David…wow. Glad to hear you’re ok, but man, I’m sorry to hear that you went through all of that.