Anyone else with one kidney, one adrenal or both?

[Mayadill]

When I was 2, I had total removal of the left kidney. It had a cyst on it and in those days (1957) they couldn’t tell if the cyst was benign without hoiking the whole kidney out. 65 years later I read the adrenals are attached to the kidneys and enclosed within the same membrane. It occurred to me they took the gland out too.

The Mayo Clinic says that would happen if the growth was near the adrenal. I have no clue about this 'cyst' and my mum is dead. My parents moved a lot and I have had 3 NHS numbers. I don't have a lot of hope about the operation note being in my records but I am of course going to have to get around to asking my GP.

I had a CT December 2020 which simply noted the absence of the kidney.

I think it would mesh with my metabolism. My mum was always warning me not to get over-tired but I thought that was just mums. As a student I probably stayed up all night as much as any other student, but I knew I was not physically capable of any kind of ‘high-flying’ career. I was fit I used to hike in the Highlands and on the Downs, once climbed a baby mountain (Ben Vrackie in Perthshire) . That increased my energy but it was still definitely finite. I suspect I got PMR because I was over-exhausted. Coupled with personal issues I was working full-time and looking after my old mum, and then I had to clear her house and get myself moved, while still full time working and by then on two sticks.

My mother was told the remaining kidney would compensate and presumably it has. Can a gland do that? I found an article by a doctor looking at the question in detail but only really soon after surgery It says the remaining gland should be OK in periods of stress once it has recovered from the trauma of surgery. Mine was a long period of acute stress and sleep loss, as in ten years, so I’m still wondering, but maybe with that much stress I'd have got PMR or something anyway, even if my body were entire.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Ben Vrackie might be a bit miffed at being described as a baby mountain - it may not be as high as my Dolomites but it is a "challenging" route!!!!! And like all Scottish mountains it starts from a lowish point!

Although there are people who consider adrenal problems contribute to the development of PMR that is far from certain. But anyway - the body is a wondrous thing and if part of a system is removed, the rest usually compensates quite well and the remaining kidney and adrenal gland enlarge to cover the deficit.

mayoclinic.org/tests-proced....

[Mayadill in reply to PMRpro]

Sorry Ben Vrackie! I was a student in Lausanne for a year so I have seen and not climbed the competition! Zermatt in winter. Hi, Matterhorn, really good to admire you from afar…I’ve been to Bolzano. I stayed in Pitlochry. Also walking along the river to Killiecrankie and ‘wild swimming’ rather before the term became known. ‘By Loch Tummel and Loch Rannoch and Lochaber I will go…’ Think my only real regret about my diminished mobility is never having travelled the road to the Isles. ‘By heather tracks with heaven in their wiles’

Scottish hghlands rocks and heather

[Highlandtiger in reply to Mayadill]

I’m sure Ben Vrackie won’t be too offended! It’s a lovely little mountain, but a proper mountain, visible from everywhere all around so it has great views. Surely it’s not too late to do the road to the isles? We’ve had wall to wall sunshine for a week up here and it’s been looking gorgeous.

[Mayadill in reply to Highlandtiger]

Hi! Brilliant to meet people who know Scotland - who to judge by your user name is a Scot. Alas, these days for non-PMR permanent reasons I'm measuring walking in yards not miles.

[Megams in reply to Mayadill]

~Thank you for sharing such an inspirational history despite your lot ~ great reading ~

[Mayadill in reply to Megams]

Thank you. It's that word again, little me being an inspiration. You certainly are, have had a far more hair-raising time. Me too mindfulness. With me I think it's just - confidence, basically, knowing what world I'm in, familiarity with the framework. OK, my body is not doing the things I'd like it to. Been there before. Also I worked in London medicine for 30 years. Obviously like you as a former hospital chaplain, doctors and hospitals aren't something previously unknown.

[Megams in reply to Mayadill]

~Thank you - guess we are all in this waka together & understand it's how we paddle that will ultimately guide & sustain our awareness of an ever changing body + world

Take good care - blessings too

[Mayadill in reply to PMRpro]

Sure, yes, see about compensation, but I’m also thinking that I had extra ingredient X, the physical stress of doing everything while disabled, of moving and lifting with a body that wasn’t mechanically 100% and didn’t want to do the things I was making it do. Totally unable to pick up a box of stuff and carry it downstairs for example and having in fact to put it in a bag which I grasped with one hand while clinging onto the banister with the other and working my way down crabwise, repeatedly. Maybe something had to give. At 13 I developed adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. My spine curved rapidly. I was 6 months in the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital having it straightened and a further six months in an orthopaedic brace. As you can tell the op was a fantastic success and there I was in Blair Atholl (came down the other side of Ben Vrackie) but my mobility did begin to decline. I’ve just put in my profile that when at the onset of PMR I was unable to stand I was terrified out of my wits that it was my spinal fusion, that all the moving and shifting had been too much for it and I'd have to have spinal surgery. If something did indeed have to give, I’m just grateful if it was mere adrenal glands not my spine, that I merely have PMR.

PS Thank you for the chronotherapy! 2 am and 5 pm, working superbly. 5 and 5.

[squashie in reply to Mayadill]

I have only one kidney, which is functioning at about 50% . Medical view is that I had a UTI in my first 3 months and the missing kidney atrophied. Since PMR I've wondered whether or not I have only one adrenal gland, given the location.

If you read my earlier posts you will see that it hasn't really had any negative effect and I'm still playing competitive squash and fast approaching 83.

[Megams in reply to squashie]

~Amazing what we can set our minds to do despite the curve balls - well done~

[Mayadill in reply to squashie]

Triple wow! Squashie, that is both good to know and fabulous.

[Maxgate2]

I, too, am minus a left kidney and have scoliosis. The cause of my kidney atrophying is unknown. It was discovered in my late twenties. I had the remnants of a kidney plus a ureter so was assured that I was not born with a kidney missing. My scoliosis reduced with the help of a brace from 61 degrees to 58 degrees. It was late onset and is being managed with physiotherapy and pain patches. I had a spinal decompression on L5 and S1 and have had numerous facet joint injections and nerve root blocks, all of which have given only temporary relief. I am totally against any further surgery. I play tennis on average four times a week, both singles and doubles, so manage pretty well. I just assumed that as I was minus a kidney I would be minus an adrenal gland too. The positive news is that I reduced to zero in September and have remained prednisolone free. I have pain but I don't think it is related to PMR. I have my final appointment with my rheumatologist on Thursday! The very best of luck to you!