Resuming Physical Activity After Full Kidney Failure

February 12, 2021

Cindy Wingler, 55, was returning from a trip out west with her boyfriend when she didn’t feel well and went to the Emergency Room at Hansen Family Hospital in Iowa Falls.  She was nauseous and fatigued and thought perhaps she was having another urinary tract infection which she had many of in her lifetime.

What Cindy found out was much more dire.  She was in acute kidney failure and had sepsis because a massive staghorn kidney stone and filled her entire left kidney blocking any function or filtering of the kidney at all.  Cindy was transferred to Mercy One-North Iowa in Mason City and urologist Kevin Rier, MD became her doctor and surgeon.

Cindy said, “Dr. Rier is the absolute best.  He tells you exactly what is doing on in ways you can understand.  He is honest, you know.  He does not keep anything from you.”  Cindy’s staghorn kidney stone was bigger than anything Dr. Rier or his urology partners had ever seen.  It too five surgeries and seven months for Dr. Rier and his team to fully remove all the calculi built up in her kidney.

“They worked together as a team.  I saw and talked with his partners Dr. Mulholland, Dr. Adams and the resident Dr. Meyers too.  I had excellent care.”

“Also my boyfriend hates hospitals and the staff at Mercy One North Iowa and the surgical center made him feel welcome and comfortable and he didn’t have a problem sitting for 3.5 hours through my surgeries.”

“Now I feel great.  My kidney function is improving, I still have my kidney.  I drink a lot of water and am on low sodium diet.  I am taking the full month of July off to visit my son and brother in Washington state.  I am going hiking, fishing – taking a much needed mental break.  I am on the road to recovery thanks to Dr. Rier.”