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Hi!
Sorry so long to reply...As I sit here, 4 weeks after a 7 day icu/hospital stay for acute renal failure, I just can't believe it happened!
As for my symptoms leading to the crisis, it's all pretty confusing & I still can't isolate any one sympton. I was 3 weeks into 7 weeks of rads (for a 2nd supraclav recurrence) & started feeling really wiped out & having lots of general stomach discomfort. But I do recall one night of having more specific, severe pain, but it felt more like an obstruction in my bowel. My bp was a little elevated & I was running a low grade fever too & that continued for the next few weeks. I really thought I was just run-down from daily radiation, working too much and I thought I was having a really bad reaction to the ragweed in Atlanta (as I do every year!)
I wasn't able to keep much food/drink down b/c everything in my belly just felt "stuck". If I ate or drank much of anything, it didn't feel like there was enough room down there, so I'd end up vomiting.And would sleep every chance I got. No flank pain, just belly discomfort like being severely constipated. I didn't notice that I wasn't pee'ing much b/c I wasn't drinking much either!Somehow I was still pushing through, teaching Pilates, keeping up with my schedule as much as possible, but feeling really crummy.
On the last day of my rads, I saw the rad.onc & they examined me, but nothing obvious at all. From my symptoms, it really did seem like I had a bad stomach bug. A cbc at that time would have revealed that my kidneys were under stress, but I was going out of town for the next 5 days to visit family, but agreed to come in after I got back for a full lab work-up.
Unfortunately I ended up crashing while I was away and that's what led me to the ER.
My sisters tell me that in those 5 days that I was looking really puffy, sleeping alot, not eating or drinking much & vomiting - we thought I was just dehydrated & wiped out from all the rads.
By the time I was dx'd properly, my blood chemistry was so out of control-potassium way high & creatinine 24 times the normal limit - I'm told it "NEVER gets that high, it's impossible", but ironically, the docs kept telling me I 'look good for a creatinine of 24!"
Fortunately all the efforts by the docs in San Francisco were successful & my kidneys rebounded within 24 hours. Thank GOD!
I was finally able to have a PET/CT w/contrast (had to wait until recently b/c the contrast is so hard on the kidneys) & we -onc, urologist- were certain the scan would reveal a cluster of mets in the nodes surrounding the ureters, hence causing the bilateral obstruction.
BUT, strangely,suprsisingly, miraculously & perplexingly, there is NO EVIDECE of any disease or otherwise that would have caused the problem.
Unfortunately, we did see some nodes under my sternum that are acting up so I've started back Gemzar + Herceptin & figure if there is anything down there that we're not able to see, the GH will clean it up along with the medistinal nodes.
At this point, I'm grateful that there isn't a giant obvious cluster of mets that could have caused the problem & all my docs are very perplexed. As am I...but I'm not afraid to call it another tiny, little miracle that everything down there looks like nothing every happened.
My disease has been a bit of a conundrum & doesn't follow any rules - good or bad.
So all we can do is take it one day at a time, or one scan at a time.

Physically, I feel great - like nothing ever happened. Except for the stents are a little problematic - I feel like my 2yo niece who's just newly potty trained - b/c when I need to go, I NEED TO GO! Otherwise,I'm really fortunate that I don't have any other issues.

All I know is the next time (if there is a next time) that I begin to feel even remotely like I did last time, I'm RUNNING to the lab to have blood work drawn!

Hope this info is helpful...hope you NEVER have to experience it!

jessica