Expert: Mary Gordon - 12/11/2007

Question
I don't want you to think that I want Mom to go on I know Moms know where close to just letting her go. We love Mom with all our hearts and we hope a cure is found in time for Mom.
The Dr. does want to do surgery on Mom but he is being very careful as to what he tells us. He said he needs to go in her bladder and check it .Why would he want to do that ? I don't see why that has any thing to do with her back hurting. He is a kidney specialist. He is wanting to do it right away. I feel like we need to check with another Dr. before we let him do any thing to Mom .
What do you think?
       Once more Thank You.

Answer
Sandy, all I can tell you is what happened to me in my early 20's.  I developed a sore back and didn't think much about it - I played sports, so I just figured I had pulled a muscle or gotten bruised. It was aching, and sore to touch on one side below my ribs. Then I woke up in the middle of the night with the absolute worst pain I've ever had - like hot stabbing in my back, and I got taken to hospital. Turned out I had an acute kidney infection. I had no other symptoms than the back pain. They told me I had probably had a bladder infection with no symptoms, and  the bacteria had worked its way back into my kidney. So kidney problems CAN cause terrible back pain. He may think that the valves from the bladder to the kidney are not working, and are letting urine back into the kidney, bringing bacteria with it.

Here is an article about it
http://health.discovery.com/centers/pain/back/back_kidney.html

Hope this helps. You need to ask him what he thinks is going on. He must have a reason for wanting to check her bladder, and suspect that the back pain might be related. Ask him!! If you don't like his answers you can always get another opinion.

Mary