After Don’s open heart surgery was canceled due to his loose toenail and his reduced kidney function, we visited a podiatrist and a nephrologist.
By the time we saw the podiatrist yesterday, Don had pulled the remaining toenail off, and there was no infection or bleeding. The doc said there were no problems to prevent surgery, and kindly did a limited pedicure on all his toes. No pink nail polish, however!
Today’s appointment with the nephrologist revealed that Don’s kidney function was very low, but I liked it when he said, “When it comes to fixing the heart or fixing the kidneys, the heart wins every time!” He removed one medication from Don’s daily intake, although he said many things have been tried for improving kidney function short of dialysis, but none of them work, including adding cinnamon to your diet and drinking lots of liquids (although they don’t hurt). He will send a report to the cardiac surgeon giving a go-ahead for the surgery, and he scheduled a follow-up for another blood test in early July.
So now we just have to wait for the surgeon’s office to call and reschedule the surgery. If Don doesn’t hear from them on Monday, he’ll give them a call. Meanwhile, we’ll just kick back and try to calmly await the next step.
