Brian's Kidneys

Sounds funny as a title, but I just wanted to update everyone as to what's been and what is going on now with Brian's kidneys. Back in October the Navy Dive doctor decided that Brian's creatinine level was too high - he did several series of tests, all with the same result, so then he referred Brian to a nephrologist. Bane of our existence, that man did tests, tests, and more tests. Then told Brian that his kidneys were basically only functioning at 50%. Pretty much diagnosed Brian with Chronic Kidney Disease and scheduled him for a test called, I think, a glorifil. They inject a radioactive dye into you and then watch on a machine how your kidneys handle it. Well, Brian's test took all of 45 minutes, start to finish. His kidneys passed all of the dye perfectly. They didn't even have to do the second part of the test where they inject you with something that forces your body to get rid of the dye. His kidneys did it fine. So back to the nephrologist, he said the next step was a biopsy of Brian's kidneys and to call the hospital to set it up. Well, after two weeks of people saying call back in a few days, he was finally told that Interim Radiology, at the hospital, had pushed his case back to the nephrologist and Brian needed to get up with him. After a week of that, the guy says, "Come in, let's talk." I totally called it. The hospital doctors all thought this guy was crazy for wanting to do a biopsy on someone that wasn't showing any other signs of kidney failure and they thought that the risks of the biopsy (internal bleeding) were to high to merit a biopsy. So now...after 6 long months and a missed MARSOC class, we've been told that it's a wait and see situation. Brian will get tested once a year to see how his kidneys are doing. His kidneys are not miraculously healed, they are still damaged, but it's just not progressing very quickly, and his body isn't really worried about it apparently. They'll still get worse, but at what rate, we don't know.

Other than that, the nephrologist gave Brian a waiver to go to MARSOC, but said it will take several months for that to be cleared and it could still be turned down. Don't know what happens after that, but for now Brian has a lot going on. He completed his 2nd Degree black belt course, but won't get the tab for it for another 18 months (you have to have had your black belt that long to be eligible and Brian's only had his for a few weeks). He's also signed up to take a USMC Swimming Instructor course that's a week long. We think it'll run in May. You're supposed to have a year left on your contract before you can take it, but somehow he keeps getting signed up and he's not going to turn it down - it all looks really good on paper and we need him to look really good on paper since his reenlistment is coming up. We're still hoping for two more things to happen, but only time will tell. One - we want Brian to attend the Black Belt Instructor/Trainer school in Maryland that's seven weeks long. It's brutal, but it would be SO worth it for Brian to add that MOS to his. It's one more job option when they're looking at giving him orders. And, of course, Brian wants to go to MARSOC. Me, not so much. But he really wants to go - that would be an entire career change. He'd no longer be an armorer, but an operator. Which basically means that for five years none of us would see Brian or know where he was for that matter. I think the next black belt is in August and the MARSOC starts in September. So, if the timing doesn't work out he'd go to MARSOC over black belt, but I'm hoping they'll both work out for him. And if his reenlistment goes through in July, well we should SHOULD have orders in August. Unfortunately orders would probably hurt his chances of going to the black belt course because a new command would probably not want him to leave for the first 7 weeks, but everyone keep your fingers crossed that he can go to both schools! Whew...what a lot of stuff...and here's our typical evening walk: