Monday, December 12, 2016

Went in With Two, Came Out With One

The last five days for the Coffman family have been quite the whirl wind of activity and emotions.  Tuesday afternoon Dustin started to have blood in his urine, but no other symptoms.  No pain, no fever, nothing else significant. He went into urgent care and they started him on antibiotics for treatment of what we all assumed was a kidney infection. Thursday morning, Dustin woke up around  3am with pain so intense that it made him nauseous and weak.  I loaded him into the van, woke up all 5 kids and we rushed to the ER. While at the ER they ordered a CT scan to see if there was a possible kidney stone causing the pain, nausea and bloody urine. When they CT came back the Doctor came in and told us that there was no kidney stone but actually a golf ball size mass on/in Dustin's right kidney. Another full body CT with dye was ordered and Dustin was admitted and moved to a room on the third floor. While they did that, I left and ran the older two kids to school. That afternoon, Lily flew into town and came and took the little kids home from the hospital. Later that night the Doctor came in and gave us the CT results. Dustin had a malignant tumor on/in his right kidney. Thankfully, Dustin's left kidney is in perfect health and there are no other growths, tumors or abnormalities anywhere else in his body. The Doctor told us that he would be scheduling surgery to remove the Kidney as soon as possible.  Thursday night and Friday morning were very long and Dustin was not getting any relief from the pain and his urine was still bloody. Friday evening Dustin had surgery to remove his right kidney. Brian had flown in earlier in the afternoon and was able to come to the hospital, while Lily was at home with the kids, and be there with me when Dustin came out of surgery. The surgery was a success and the doctor was pleased with the results. He confirmed that there were no other abnormalities except for those regarding the right kidney, and also that the left kidney is perfectly healthy. Late Friday night Lily came down with the horrible flu bug that we had all had last week. Thankfully, Brian was able to watch the kids while Lily recovered on Saturday and while I was at the hospital with Dustin. Saturday, Dustin was still pretty rough and swollen but overall there had been a huge improvement in the pain and the blood in his urine had stopped. By Sunday the doctor had switched Dustin from IV pain medication to oral pain medicine in hopes of him being able to come home. Dustin was able to come home this morning and is doing well. He is enjoying ESPN and Percocet. Thank you for all of the prayers and good thoughts that were sent our family's way. We appreciate all of the love and support that we have received more than words can describe.

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