Floyd dealing with health concern

03/09/2006
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- The death of Kirby Puckett on Monday struck Cliff Floyd, and not because the Mets left fielder was particularly close to Puckett. Indeed, Floyd said he hardly knew him. But he considered Puckett something of a contemporary and, more to the point, a young man.
Puckett's passing prompted other considerations, too. It made Floyd more mindful of his own mortality, his father's kidney trouble ... and, now, his own.
"I'm getting myself checked out," Floyd said Monday night. "There was something they found when I had my physical. So I'm getting checked out. You don't mess with your health."
Now, his health is messing with him. Floyd, 33, underwent tests Wednesday to determine whether he, like his father and paternal grandfather, has a kidney disorder. He had been urged to do so by Mets physicians who found irregularities in his blood. Those results already indicate he isn't as healthy as his age, athletic body and demeanor suggest.
"I feel great," he said Wednesday morning before the tests, the results of which won't be available until next Wednesday.
He intended to play and maintain a normal routine.
"[My nephrologists] told me not to worry," he said. "But she messed me up when she told that you can feel great and if your kidneys aren't working, 70 percent of your body can be shutting down without you knowing it. ... It could be real serious for me. I don't know. Some of the things she said ... yeah, they cause some concern. ... And the thing about dialysis is that you don't know until a week before you need it that you need it."
The initial tests detected elevated levels of creatinine and blood urea-nitrogen -- symptoms consistent with early stages of renal failure -- blood in his urine, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. His kidney function was measured at 48 percent efficiency, a figure more alarming than dangerous -- for now. A normal kidney is 80-90 percent efficient.
Floyd was told his health would be unaffected so long as his kidney function remained at 25 percent or higher.
The tests Wednesday were to determine the cause of his diminished function. Floyd was to have undergone an ultrasound examination of his kidneys along with blood and urine analysis.
"I think my blood pressure might have been up when I took the physical [the last week of February]," he said Wednesday. "But now that I know a little bit about what's going on, I'm cool. We'll see next week."
For now -- "and probably for good," he said -- Floyd is at least changing his diet, reducing his intake of soda, salt and, of course, fast food.
"She wants me to gulp down all kinds of water," he said.
Some anti-inflammatory medication, so popular in baseball, may be off his list as well.
Floyd's family history underscores the concern he, his doctor and the Mets have. Cornelius Floyd, his father, required a kidney transplant at age 37. Floyd shared that information with the Mets doctors only after they had advised him of the irregularities. He hadn't told them last year when, he says, his kidney function was essentially the same.
Floyd was merely a teenager when his father's symptoms -- swollen legs, odorous breath and vision problems -- developed "almost overnight." He recalls driving his father to a hospital, even though he didn't have even a driver's permit. He was told his quick response probably saved his father's life.
"They had him in dialysis almost immediately," Floyd said.
That dramatic experience, his father's kidney transplant in 1988 and the good health of 55-year-old Cornelius Floyd has enjoyed subsequently has made the Mets outfielder acutely aware of the critical nature of kidney disorders.
"Everything she talked about ... I remember it happened to my father," Floyd said. "I don't know anything about creatinine. They told me all sorts of things, but I didn't know what they meant until I talked to her."
Now he's learning.
"Once our [doctors] told me I should get checked out," he said, "I was going."
And he wasn't opposed to his circumstances being made public because it might benefit others.
"Right now, anyone can know," he said. "But not many people do. I didn't announce it."
But he willingly shared the information with reporters Monday night and again Tuesday. He spoke mostly of Puckett, victim of a stroke at age 45, and he mentioned the late Astros and Cardinals pitcher Darryl Kile, who died at age 33 of a heart attack.

Source: http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/