A New Pill & Tattoo

I'm sitting here on the couch, watching re-runs of MASH. you'd think it'd get old, but I can watch the same episodes over and over without a problem. That's probably because I have this need to multitask so I'm not really watching the episode. Ever since I got this laptop (perks of faculty status) I have been absolutely addicted to the computer. I piss around on it on and off all evening. Sometimes I wonder what life would be like again without a computer at home.

I filled a new prescription today. It's some kind of calcium supplement I'm supposed to take with every meal. My nephrologist said my phosphorus is a bit elevated. I have been trying to cut back on colas, cheese, nuts, etc. but she put me on the pill anyhow. Apparently, when you take this supp with a meal, it binds with the phosphorus in the meal and doesn't get absorbed into your bloodstream. Whatever. I should look up just exactly what the harm is when a person's phosphorus is elevated. How harmful could it be? I know I mentioned this cola thing before, but to tell you the truth, I haven't been doing a very good job keeping off the soda. The funny thing is, prior to her telling me to limit my cola intake, I had nearly given it up entirely -- you know, what with the caffeine restriction, but after I have been craving it all the time! Cola with peanut brittle sounds just perfect right now. Really.

Did I mention I got a tattoo. It's to commemorate my kidney transplant. No, I haven't had the transplant yet, but the transplant center says that I can't get any more tattoos after the transplant. It's considered "risky behavior." I watched my dad do "risky behaviors" until his transplant started to reject so I'm not about to repeat that mistake. I need to get all tatted up before the surgery. I'm thinking maybe some flowers on my forearm. My transplant tattoo is on the inside of my wrist, by the way. Here's a picture. It's my first tattoo, too. I have always thought about getting one, but didn't think there was anything I wanted to commit to for LIFE. The transplant is for life! In case you can't see from the resolution of this photo, there are 2 kidneys in the tattoo! The green band is the color for kidney disease/transplantation.

The Latest Results

Well, I finally went to my nephrologist again. I went on the 14th and she did labs, of course, and a UA. I'm a little tired of peeing in a cup, but I suppose I should get used to it because that's likely to be a very common event in my future. I'm actually pretty good at it. I don't even get pee on my hands!

I called Friday to get the results. In particular, I was interested in the creatinine. It didn't change! It was 4.4 again, just like it was on July 8th. So, what should I make of that? I just don't know. The doctor says it'll be 2-3 months before I'll need to schedule the surgery. She says she will schedule the surgery when my GFR gets to a 10 - right now, my GFR is a 12. According to the MDRD.com calculator, my creatinine will need to be a 5.0 in order for the GFR to be a 10. Maybe I've already mentioned this in this blog, but there it is again. I don't much care to go back and search the blog to determine whether I have actually shared these numbers with you before so...there is the information again. You may be thinking...why do you want to continue to wait rather than just getting the surgery now -- why not just get it over with? If you were thinking that, fuck you.

I'm still trying to keep busy. It's much easier to do so during the week. On the weekends there is a lot of time to sit around and wonder about the future. I try to keep busy. Today I wandered up and down nearly every isle of Big Lots looking at odds and ends that I don't need. They have these dish towels that are compacted into a disk that fits in the palm of your hand. It's probably completely worthless, but who can ignore a $1 item that might be entertaining for, say, 5 minutes? I can't. Shopping helped me kill a good hour...maybe more. Then we went to see a movie, got dinner and played pool at a sports bar.

I have been feeling sick more frequently. When I shared that with the doctor she said "Yeah, sounds like you're getting some symptoms." Duh. My dinner made me a bit queasy...so did the one drink I had after. It's not severe, but it's enough to bum me out. I was really sick last night. I don't know if it was the food or the beer. I decided to sleep in and didn't set the alarm. I woke up at 11:15. Ridiculous. I always feel a little depressed when I sleep in so late, but at least I finally felt well again.

I don't know man. I'm just feeling down today. I'm gonna go put that dish cloth in water and watch it expand. Then maybe I'll read the Tao of Pooh. Yeah, I'll talk more about that in my next blog entry.

Amazing Advances

When my dad got his kidney transplant about 25 years ago, he had to wait for a cadaver kidney. They didn't talk about living donors back then...at least not in the mid-west hospital that was caring for my dad. I am so lucky to have found someone willing to donate. My cousin is literally saving my life and I think about that all the time. It's an amazing thing and as I tell my friends and family, I feel like I need to come up with a new type of thank you that means more. A simple "thank you" seems like the best thing to say, but I say thank you when a waitress brings me a glass of water...or when a co-worker finishes a project for our team. It makes my "Thank you for donating your kidney to me" seem so inadequate.

I spoke with my transplant coordinator earlier this week about how many HLA antigens my cousin and I match or mismatch on. She explained that they look at 6 and a 0 mismatch is ideal. Our results were a 4 mismatch which means we matched on 2 antigens, but my doctor assured me not to worry. The anti-rejection medicines are so successful, the number of mismatches doesn't concern her at all (if it did, they wouldn't do the transplant.) Thank goodness for medical advances!