my 21 year old sister had a baby last week and had to stay a couple extra days after the doctors discovered she only had one kidney. How do you go your whole life and not know this?

She was in the hospital for a week for jaundas(sp) when she was born, which now makes sense but how the hell didnt they check for that at the time?

I don't know how many kidneys I have. I would guess two but that's only because we're supposed to have two.

I like to think I have three because I'm a special snowflake. Gonna be a bitch if I get kidney stones though.

That would mean you could only get a Kidney punch on one side :laugh:

Wish I had two livers.

gorocks99;1291185 wrote:I like to think I have three because I'm a special snowflake. Gonna be a bitch if I get kidney stones though.

Believe me, you don't want stones. I have to take a prescription to keep them from forming (recurring stones). Have had them twice and it feels like you've been hit in the back with a Louisville Slugger. Last time I had them, couldn't pee for 15 hours. I finally puked which opened the floodgates of dark brown/dry blood filled urine when I finally went.

As far as the original comment about the missing kidney, that's messed up. You'd think the jaundice would've prompted them to dig a little deeper.

because unless she had internal imaging done on her abdomen there is nothing that would indicate she only has one.

Gblock;1291165 wrote:my 21 year old sister had a baby last week and had to stay a couple extra days after the doctors discovered she only had one kidney. How do you go your whole life and not know this?

She was in the hospital for a week for jaundas(sp) when she was born, which now makes sense but how the hell didnt they check for that at the time?

It shouldn't make sense since jaundice is brought on by problems with the liver -- doesn't have anything to do with the kidneys.
tcarrier is right. If your 21 year old sister has always had a relatively healthy life, there really isn't anything that throws up a red flag indicating you're missing it.

Gb, are you sure you have two?

Know someon who at age the of 40 found out he had only 1 kidney and that was only becuase he had a Cscan for something else. Dr doing the scan noticed something odd so if it was not for that, this dude may still not have known.

tcarrier32;1291395 wrote:because unless she had internal imaging done on her abdomen there is nothing that would indicate she only has one.

Yup. Plenty of people function perfectly normal with only one kidney. Hence the kidney transplant with living donors.

Also neonatal jaundice is a common condition of the young liver. No reason they would order imaging unless she didn't recover quickly (1-2 weeks depending on if she was premature).

hmmmm.....i always assumed i had two but i guess how would you know? sometimes i pee a lot when i drink?

BR1986FB;1291215 wrote:... opened the floodgates of dark brown/dry blood filled urine ...

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Gblock;1291651 wrote:hmmmm.....i always assumed i had two but i guess how would you know? sometimes i pee a lot when i drink?

if you want to know, its going to cost you some money for an MRI or something of the like. i think something like half a kidney can keep the human body healthy, so it is really a non issue (unless you predict you will have kidney failure).