I think my juice days are over, not by choice.(Health reasons)

[rrrr]

I posted a few weeks ago on the chat boards that I was having some blockage when urinating, then one day I had severe pain when I urinated, went to the doc and he said most likely kidney stones, but he wanted me to get some tests done to make sure there are no more stones. So I went and got an ultrasound and they found one of my kidneys was slightly enlarged due to a blockage and the other kidney was VERY small. I have a family history of kidney problems. So the next step is to get a catscan to get a clearer picture.
My doc said I could have been born with a shrunken kidney or I could of had an infection and it ate away at it.
I can't describe the emotions I'm going through right now. I had some blood work done before my last cycle in August and my kidney values were fine, which I don't understand.
My doc is now telling me not to eat too much protein. Its funny how life can just do a 180. Everyone would come to me for info on what to eat, because I was educated in this field(I'm a personal trainer). I would always have the answer, now I have no idea what to eat, I went food shopping yesterday and for the first time I felt lost. Normally I look for foods low in fat and high in protein, now all I learned is thrown out the window.
Im an ectomorph, so I need all the protein to maintain my muscle mass. I feel like everything I worked for, whether it be in the gym training my ass off, or learning about food intake and so forth is all for nothing. Maybe I'm just depressed right now, but this sucks!
The only advice I want to give you guys is don't take your health for granted, it really is something special.

 

[tboy72]

sorry to hear that man.
ive suffered from kidney stones all my life...thoes are most painful things in the world.....i hope your not getting that pain too.
i guess its time to go natural

 

[GoldenDelicious]

first off thats awful mate, devastating

keep your hope up though, because many people can get by just fine on just one kidney. there are people born with a vestigial kidney (ie one is about the size of a peanut and the other is normal to large)

now you might have had only one fully functional kidney since birth, and have been doing ok, except for your minor episode a few weeks ago. kidney stones are fairly common and can be excascerbated by a BB lifestyle. however, by educating yourself, you can minimise stress and harm done to your kidneys.

of course it will all come down to what sort of family kidney problems you have inherited. if it comes down to having big muscles and dying early, well then thats no choice at all.

hopefully, though, it was just an acute episode, and your remaining kidney wont be subject to too much stress as a result of your inherited genes. the shrunken kidney might gain a little size if it was an infection, or the other kidney will grow to supercompensate. (what normally happens is individual glomerulii grow and compensate for the missing ones)

something you could do is look into what sort of protein intake you can maintain. normally doctors will tell you to lay off the protein, but this is largely arbitrary. you dont have to go super low protein to keep your kidney in good shape.

get in touch with some renal specialists, and find out what you can do to improve your kidney health, and if possible, if you can modify other habits to minimise kidney stress. things like electrolytes, hydration, and meal spacing are important. (large infrequent meals = lots of stress all at once. low hydration can = renal failure. high electrolytes and blood pressure can = kidney failure) so are regular checkups.

your BBing life is not over. you dont have to return to small, skinny geekhood to keep your kidneys healthy. in fact such a thing might make things worse for you overall.

educate yourself, seek specialist advice (lots of GPs will give you 2nd or 3rd rate advice) and keep it all going.

good luck mate, dont let it get on top of you.

 

[genarr3]

Sorry to hear bro. Funny thing, well maybe not so funny is I'm in the middle of having a series of kidney tests for a stone also. It was brought upon by my blood work having high creatine levels.

In the proccess of checking as to why my creatine levels were high, which could be no problem if is strictly due to my diet, the stone was discovered. And it isn't one that's going to pass.

 

[c3bodybuilding]

You aren't alone. I'm just about there myself. I was watching Hercules the other day, and remembered how I would always be so happy if I ever looked like Steve Reeves, then I realized I am bigger than he ever was. It made me realize it may be time to stop.

I'm sorry to hear about your current health problems, and I hope all goes well, I'm sure it will. If you need anything, we are all here for you. We are all brothers in this iron game.

 

[Super Test 2004]

God bless. Hope things work out for you my friend

 

[Stryker1992]

Best wishes bro!

 

[wellbilt]

good luck bro keep ya head up!

 

[rrrr]

Thanks for all the support.
Golden D you seem to be very educated in this matter, did you have any kidney issues?

now you might have had only one fully functional kidney since birth, and have been doing ok, except for your minor episode a few weeks ago.

Thats what I was thinking, I just hope I didn't damage the one good kidney that I have. I've done some research on this and found that all a person needs is 25% of one kidney to survive, I don't want to get to that point, but hopefully my one good kidney is working close to 100%.
As far as protein is concerned, I might have to do a little trial and error. I think I might just start at 1g of protein per bodyweight and see what happens. This sucks just when I figured out what works best for my body I have to start from scratch again. I guess on the bright side, this will help me learn more on nutrition.

get in touch with some renal specialists, and find out what you can do to improve your kidney health, and if possible, if you can modify other habits to minimise kidney stress.

I'm going to do that next.

 

[Dial_tone]

Not being able to juice is hardly the end of the world. On the other hand, needing a kdney transplant might seem like it.