During these COVID days I get telephone consultations regarding my kidneys and it seems to be going well. Once again this chat was with the suave Maverick Consultant I have blogged about before. I do like him a lot.
As usual I went to the hospital a few days before for blood and urine tests, all fairly routine. Bang on time the suave, smooth talking Consultant called me and I started off by telling him how I was feeling. These are the main points:
UTI and currently on antibiotics
“Oh dear” was the general thread of his response, plus wanting to know what antibiotics I had. I could hear him tapping away on his keyboard, seeing what cultures had been grown before and what antibiotics they had been sensitive to.
Said he wanted to re-run all the tests in two weeks providing the infection was clear. Trouble is, he said, you can’t always rely on what the lab say and you have to reinterpret their findings and apply it in context, or words to that effect. He is so funny at the disparaging way he talks about his colleagues!
My blood pressure
He often asks about my BP, so I thought I’d beat him to it. I explained it is typically 135/88 when I sitting down, feeling relaxed and so on.
“It is not awful” he said “but it could be better”. I explained how my GP is wanting a week’s worth of readings as he’s taking an interest. “That’s fine, but I want you to stand up and take the readings as that’ll tell me more. The main thing is to stand up for 30 seconds before you take the reading, to make sure you aren’t measuring a sudden drop in blood pressure which some people get when they stand up”.
Discussion followed about medication I’m on. I reminded him of the dose and he said he was surprised “you could run at all with those drugs dilating your blood vessels and not providing enough oxygen to the muscles”.
Well, I thought, that’s interesting!
Recent queasiness
Noted but nothing to do with my kidneys.
Then it was his turn
My all important creatinine and eGFR remain at their previously improved levels. That means the last three set of tests put me nicely back into stage 3 territory, which is good news. Funny how we often look for answers when something goes wrong but not always when things go well.
My kidneys aren’t leaking large amounts of protein and the multitude of other tests are as expected i.e. nothing to treat.
I asked again about my longer term outlook and he said it was good, so no dialysis or transplant on the horizon – yay! Then main thing is to stay healthy and keep my blood pressure nice and low.
Telephone consultations
These COVID consultations do seem to be okay for me and I wonder if they’ll continue for the future, once the restrictions are relaxed. They’re certainly more convenient and I’m happy to chat on the phone.
However, I wonder what it’s like from the professional’s perspective. Do they miss out on seeing someone in person? Seeing how they move, how healthy they might appear? The opportunity to take a BP reading there and then?
I’d be interested to hear from Doctors and patients alike on this…..
Related: The Maverick Consultant
I normally see a dermatology consultant twice a year. Last year one appointment was by telephone when I had at least expected it to be by video link. As you can imagine it was an exercise in self diagnosis and description, otherwise known as an absolute waste of time !
Hmmm that doesn’t sound very good. I know the NHS is a bit stretched right now but you’d think a video call would be on offer. In the meantime, hope you’re okay.