Repeat Kidney biopsy at clinic visit?

Posted by jordyntea @jordyntea, Jun 8, 2023

Hi all,

I’m new to the community and am visiting Mayo Clinic for the first time at the end of the month. Just seeing nephrology to start.

I had a kidney biopsy done at my local hospital in January of this year. Even during the biopsy the pathologist in the room with us was concerned by the samples that were being gotten and they had to take quite a few and got what was determined to be a readable result and did show intense inflammation. However ever since then every time I see my local nephrologist and she talks about potential things that could be going on she always say as that the biopsy results weren’t very good.

I’m curious since I guess my biopsy wasn’t great is that if there is a chance I could expect my nephrologist at Mayo to want another biopsy done. I understand there’s more risk and I think that’s why my current nephrologist doesn’t want to go that route yet but I have heard that Mayo likes their own tests being done

If they would repeat a biopsy is there a chance I can expect that on my initial visit? I was told to expect to travel out for about a week as a new patient but so far I just have blood work and urine labs as well as a kidney ultrasound Monday then my nephrology appointment and a chest scan Tuesday. If a biopsy was wanted is that something that would already be scheduled? Or do other tests tend to get scheduled after that initial appointment?

I’ll be traveling to Rochester from missouri so hoping not to have to make a ton of trips up to the clinic and hoping a lot can be done in this visit

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Kidney & Bladder Support Group.

@jordyntea

Just tried to message through the portal and it won’t let me bc it says I “don’t have any recipients yet” so I guess I don’t have enough of a care team yet to ask bc I don’t have my initial appointment yet

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Well I mean I have an appointment scheduled and a doctor scheduled but I guess that isnt enough

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@jordyntea

Thanks! Good to here from someone who has had a good experience at the clinic over such a long period of time. Especially since even the health problems I’ve been dealing with I’ve only had for about 7 months so I’m kind of getting used to frequenting hospitals in general.

I know you mention how things used to be, from things I’ve heard it sounds like they still try to do that? Or is it just less so now?

I don’t mind going back up to Rochester eventually again it’s just that I work a full time job and while they are very accommodating so far all the PTO days I’ve taken this year so far have been for medical reasons. And any short term disability/health leave benefits my job has only gets triggered if it’s more than 2 weeks at a time but all my stuff has been spread out. So I’m hoping Telegraph follow ups will be an option for me

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@jordyntea

Just tried to message through the portal and it won’t let me bc it says I “don’t have any recipients yet” so I guess I don’t have enough of a care team yet to ask bc I don’t have my initial appointment yet

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Hello, #jordyntea. My husband and I have 11 years of experience at Mayo Rochester for my head and neck cancer and his bladder cancer. It's true you cannot access the portal for messages until after your first appointment. In 2019 we had the experience of Mayo radiologists finding results very different from the local radiologist on the same scan that we had sent in. It is quite possible that Mayo pathologists were able to make a diagnosis from your previous biopsy, or requested the remaining tissue to be sent to them for further review. My last metastasis in 2020 was to a kidney and my medical oncologist there arranged a kidney biopsy for the following day. They do a great job of squeezing in appointments when needed. On the other hand, our experience dealing with Urology has been quite different. They seem to function by scheduling another appointment for further testing, even when we are traveling from Ohio with a 10 hour drive. Definitely not as convenient as our many years of experience with my cancer. Good luck to you and I hope they are able to make a diagnosis from your first biopsy.

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