Sometime before October 4, I will have "the privilege" of returning to Emanuel Hospital’s day surgery unit. As forecast in my Sept. 9 post, one of my new guides, Dr. Michael Lavelle, intends to meet me there for a balloon dilatation of my right ureter. If successful, the blockage where the ureter is attached to the stoma will be removed. However, the historical success rate is 50%.
If his procedure is not a success, he will be recommending a return to the “knife man” for major surgery consisting of reconstruction of the ureter’s attachment to the stoma (aka “ the drain pipe”)
(In the meantime, it’s not clear to me what will happen to the beautiful 25 cm long turquoise stent which was inserted through my right flank and kidney on Sept. 2. It currently runs from the right kidney to the stoma and is slowly working its way out the stoma into the bag.)
With each new procedure, medicare costs increase
As does the uncertainty
of continued high quality life.
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