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Avatar universal

I need some input please

In July I had surgery to remove a huge kidney stone in my left kidney that had been there for a long time, which I didn't know.  He put in a stent.  After the stent was removed things were OK for a little while.  In Sep the pain was so bad I went back to doc and after many x-rays I was put back in hospital to remove scar tissue from the left kidney, which was suppose to be outpatient.  Turns out there was so much infection in the kidney that e-coli had set up and I had to stay in the hospital for a few days on antibiotics to clear that up. Doc said the kidney was damaged pretty bad and I may lose the kidney.  Also, another stent was put in.  This time the stent stayed in for 6 weeks.  During those 6 weeks I was in extreme pain and had UTI's.  The stent was taken out 2 weeks ago and I was given antibiotics and told to come back in 1 month.

However, my left kidney (and sometimes the right kidney) has been hurting for about a week now and it is getting worse.  I know I have an infection.  I called the doctors office (he is a urologist) but he is not in today (Thursday is his surgery day).  I talked to the nurse and explained about the pain and told her I was almost certain I had another infection.  She tells me that the doc is not in and the earliest I can see the doc is MONDAY.  I ask if I could at least come by and get them to check for blood in the urine and she said no, because the doctor was not in to read the results.  There is another urologist that is in the group and I ask if he could read the results.  She said no because the doctors didn't "swap patients".  Is this common practice????  The nurse told me I could go to my "family doctor" and get them to check it.  What good will that do, except get some antibiotics.  The family doctor don't have all the medical history regarding the kidney.  If I take antibiotics it will clear up the infection as long as I'm taking them, but then what.  I want this "nipped in the bud".  Fix the problem.

Some friends told me I needed to see a kidney specialist, especially since the urologist said I might lose the left kidney.  When I called the kidney specialist they told me I needed a referral, which I can't seem to pin down the urologist to get.  

Normally I wouldn't worry too much about aches/pains.  But since the urologist told me I needed to stay infection free for at least 6 months to even hope to keep the kidney I'm worried the longer I wait to see the doctor the more damage will be done.

What should I do??????
  
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Avatar universal
Thanks.  Unfortunately the nearest one is a little over 2 hours away.  

I called the Internal Medicine doctor that referred me to the urologist and talked to the nurse.  He is calling in some antibiotics and requested a copy of my records from the urologist.  The nurse told me to keep my appointment with the urologist on Monday and if nothing was resolved with the kidney to call them back and they would make a referral to the kidney specialist.  Unfortunately in the area I'm in there is only 1 office of urology and  that consist of 2 urologist and 2 PA's - which don't see each others patients.
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Avatar universal
Many doctors share office space to cut down on expenses, but are not really partners,  merely room-mates, as it were. They won't see the other doctors' patients, which can be frustrating.

I would suggest you consider going to the ER of a major university medical center near you or teaching hospital and ask for a kidney specialist.
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Southwest , MI
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