I'm hesitant to jump for joy yet, until I have more information, but I have some promising news. I called the vet's office this morning and asked them to fax me a copy of Tyler's blood test results from last week, and the test results from when he had this same series of blood work done a year ago. At first the girl I talked to was hesitant and said she'd "have to check" with Dr. DQ. I was like, "Uh-huh, sure." Becuase I'm thinking, if you tell me Dr. DQ won't give me a copy of those tests, I'm coming down there and it won't be pretty.
But she did fax them, they were waiting for me when I got to work. And I discovered an interesting thing.
The 'reference range' for BUN (blood urea nitrogen, a waste product of the kidneys that gets elevated when they're not filtering properly) is 8 to 30. Tyler's number this year was 29. Tyler's number when he had this test fourteen months ago was ... 29.
The creatinine reference range is .5 to 2.0. Tyler's number this year is 2.1, and his number last year was 2.0.
Okay ... so all of us non-vets, what does this tell us? First, his numbers have been almost identical for over a year. There has been no change in one number, and a miniscule change in the other. Even without a degree I'd suggest that implies that he's not on the verge of imminent kidney failure, as Ms. DQ seemed to think. (I'd be willing to bet she never bothered to look at last year's test results to see how much of a change there had even been; that's the first thing I wanted to check, because it would be an entirely different story if, for example, his BUN had gone from, say, 10 last year to 29 this year - then we'd be looking at a whole different scenario).
Second, when I told her Tyler was exhibiting no symptoms of reduced kidney function (excess water consumption and urination), she condescendingly advised that I probably just "didn't notice."
Well, now that we know his numbers have been the same for fourteen months (and I don't know how long before that, since last year was the first time we did this complete blood profile), I'm pretty sure I'd have noticed a change in his water drinkage and peeing in fourteen months.
But of course telling her that he wasn't exhibiting the expected symptoms, rather than encouraging her to consider she might be mistaken, merely made her assume that I was the one who was mistaken.
Once again Dr. DQ is pissing me off.
Third, these numbers were almost identical last year, and no one red-flagged them then, calling me up telling me his kidneys were failing and I should put him on a prescription kidney diet and just wait for them to get worse. And he's been fine.
Although I'm a little confused about that very point - since they were on the high end of normal last year, I'm wondering why no one mentioned to me that they were starting to get elevated, and we might want to take steps then to keep them from getting any worse. Had I known they were elevated then, I would have done then what I'm doing now - looking for natural, holistic ways to bring those numbers back down, before it turns into a crisis.
I don't know whether no one mentioned it because of my biggest conventional medicine pet peeve: that they don't bother to take a 'prevention' stance on these things, but prefer to wait till it's too late and disease is already present before doing anything; or if it's because it's actually not a big deal until it's well out of the normal range. I won't know that until I talk to Dr. N.
I did schedule an appointment with him for Thursday. I'm going to discuss with him what could have these numbers hovering on the high end of normal for so long, is it possible that's just okay for Tyler, and doesn't mean impending kidney failure? Even though they haven't changed in so long, I'd still be happier bringing them down a few points, but since they've been so stable and aren't elevated into the danger range, I'd venture to guess it might not be too difficult to bring them down.
I'm glad I asked for the test results, as Ms. Genius DQ didn't mention something that I do find a mild concern. Tyler's cholesterol went from 156 last year to 290 this year, a significant increase. The reference range cutoff is 300, so it wasn't flagged as high yet, but again - something I'd like to decrease now before it becomes a problem. And it just adds to my growing annoyance that no one bothered to mention that. Just waiting until it's so high it's a problem instead of trying to reduce it before it is - that's what really aggravates me!
Well, that's where things are now. I don't think it's the imminent disaster I was concerned about it being a few days ago; I'm less impressed than ever with "Dr." DQ's mishandling of Tyler's health yet again; I'm going to see Dr. N and see what he has to say, and if that isn't looking promising, then I'll find us a holistic vet, where I'm sure I can learn what he needs to keep these numbers from getting out of hand.
I'm feeling encouraged. It doesn't look like the end of the line just yet.
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