March Update

Went to go see the Nephrologist and my kidney functions are down slightly. He doesn't know why as nothing has changed other than the fact that I have a job now. Since working shouldn't affect my kidney, we're scratching our heads.

I have now been officially dubbed with Chronic Kidney Disease, not just Acute Kidney Disease. The doctor pretty much told me the kidneys are permanently damaged and a full recovery is probably not going to happen. Something I was pretty aware of already. So...if my kidneys don't get any worse (we're crossing our fingers), then I have Stage 3 Chronic Kidney Disease, which is considered Moderate.

I go back to see the Nephrologist again in June. If the kidney functions are down again, he wants to do a kidney biopsy to see what is going on and see how much scarring and damage was done to the kidneys. It won't do anything to fix them, but it might give us some insight into what happened. We'll see.

So that's the newest as to what's going on with the kidneys.

The new job is great and I'm soooooo happy to be working again. I'm back to doing Financial Aid at a college and love it. It's what I enjoy and I'm good at it. I didn't realize how much I missed it until I started doing it again. I'm happy and laughing again. Something that hasn't been seen for a while.

Overall...everything seems to be fine. Yeah, I'm still tired from the kidneys, but a person can't let that stop them.

Progress

I met with my kidney doctor and things are getting better. The kidneys are functioning at about 41% right now. They're not getting better as quickly as he'd like, but they're getting better. He says a normal time frame for the kidneys to heal is around 6 months and we're only in about 6 weeks, so he said not to expect drastic results. It will be like the story of the Turtle and the Hare. My recovery will be the Turtle. Slow and steady wins the race. Hopefully.

The doctor is hopeful and gives me hope of a full recovery, but at the same time, he's trying to prepare me for the fact that I might have permanent damage. If there is permanent damage done to the kidneys, lifestyle changes will need to be made. Nothing too drastic, just maintaining the diet and doing bloodwork more often to make sure the kidney function doesn't go down. Nothing much else they can do until the damage hits a point where the kidneys can't filter the toxins effectively and I'm not at that point right now and I'm still getting better.

The next checkup will be in March to see where things are and determine again what plan of attack we'll take from there, depending on if the kidneys continue to improve or if they remain at the functioning level they're currently at. So stay tuned!

Apologies

Okay, I know I promised to keep you posted and I've been slacking on the job. BUT...things are going in a positive direction. Just not as fast as I want. I'm not a patient individual.

On December 22nd, I went and had more blood work done to see where everything stands and waited for the doctor to call. He stated it was so I would know before Christmas, but I didn't hear from him before Christmas. BTW, kudos to the phlebotomist who took the blood...I'm a hard stick in the first place and my time in the hospital blew most of my veins and they hadn't had time to recover by the time I went in. She got me on the first stick, which hardly ever happens...even in the best of circumstances. Anyway, back to your regularly programmed update. I called the Monday after Christmas, but the kidney doctor's office was closed, so I called again on Tuesday. The nurse explained that they were closed because of the holiday and replied that he usually gets back to the patient's within a day or two of having the test done(not sure what happened this time, because he promised to have my results to me before Christmas, but it didn't happen and I can't change that).

The kidney doctor called back within a few hours and said the results were better and that my kidneys were working at about 40% now. He said to give them a month this time before retesting, made sure the swelling went away (it comes and goes...I'm usually fine about 4 days a week and find myself swollen about 3, but nothing like the swelling I experienced right after coming off the dialysis) and wanted to see me in his clinic this time to make sure the medications I'm on are okay and formulate a longer-term plan of attack.

Yes, I'm still weak. Yes, he says that's perfectly normal. I've never eaten so healthy in my life, though I do miss some of my favorite foods. Most of the foods that were on the "do not eat" list were already foods that I mostly disliked anyway. Christmas Morning Breakfast was probably the hardest trial for me and I just should have fixed myself a breakfast different from everybody else.

You see, on Christmas, instead of having a Christmas Dinner, we have Christmas Breakfast. It's a family tradition and anybody who can make it comes over. It's a heart-attack's dream. There are cinnamon rolls, toast, bacon, sausage, ham, regular hashbrowns, hashbrowns with chives, eggs, usually at least 2 kinds of juices, and whatever additional treats my dad has dreamed up that year. It's a spread. The problem? A Kidney, otherwise known as Renal, Diet really doesn't want you to eat potatoes because of their extremely high potassium content. Hashbrown's are my favorite part of the breakfast. So I has a really small scoop. Bacon, sausage and ham all are to be eaten with caution due to the sodium content in them and can cause me to retain water and makes it hard for my kidneys to get rid of the sodium and can cause any number of complications. I had a small portion of ham (it seemed to be the least offensive of all of them, but probably was the worst offender of all), and a slice of low sodium bacon. I gorged myself on eggs. Probably had 3 helpings. Yeah, I should have just gone and fixed my normal breakfast, which is usually eggs and fruit, but I didn't want to make a big fuss about it. Stupid, I know. My bad.

Anyway. I've mostly been feeling pretty okay. Other than the weakness and fatigue, which I've been assured is completely normal and can last for quite some time. So although it's frustrating, I'm told I'm in a completely normal position.

Occasionally, my back will hurt, right where my kidneys are. It's becoming a little more constant now that it was before. It think that it's a sign of the kidneys kicking into gear. It's uncomfortable, but not unbearable.

I was planning on a trip to California (California Adventure and Disneyland for 12/30 and New Years Eve) to take my mind off my worries, forget about life for a while and see my cousin, who I'd been missing like crazy lately, but it was decided that Disneyland would be too much and plans were canceled. Big bummer. So I devour books instead. Feel free to throw out suggestions, they're always welcome! I've got a growing list, but don't mind adding to the list.

So, those are the updates. I will try to be a little more prompt in alerting you when I have some more news.