Hospital woes

When the staff at the hospital starts greeting you with questions like "you live here now, don't you?", you have officially spent too damned much time in that hospital! :-)

Weekend update

Quick update on my life over the last few days, cause it's been busy!

As a result of my Thursday clinic appointment, they discovered that my creatinine level had gone up from 1.5 to 2.1 over the course of three days. They sent me to the hospital on Friday to have an ultrasound done to see what, if anything might be causing that. They discovered a large fluid buildup around the new kidney and my doctor decided that something needed to be done about that pretty much right away. I then got to spend the weekend in the hospital while they put a tube into my side to drain the fluid. It appeared that it had stopped draining, but when they did another ultrasound, they found some more fluid that didn't seem to want to come out. There didn't seem to be much they could do at this point without further surgery, so they decided to send me home, but without removing the drain.

Of course, overnight, the excess fluid seems to have decided to come out. From Saturday at 10pm to Sunday at 6pm, the drain produced less than 200ml of fluid. From the time I left the hospital at about 6 until 8am on Monday, it has already dumped out about 400ml of fluid. Hopefully, it will slow down in the next day or so.

On top of all of this, there was some fun with my drugs. They dropped a number of drugs and it seems that they forgot some of my drugs. It took me two days to get all of this sorted out. Just in time to be released from the hospital. I hope I have gotten all of the changes right, but I guess I'll find out today when I go to my clinic appointment.

I guess I will update more later today after I get the results of the blood tests.

Stent Removal Aftermath

OK, if I never, EVER have to do that agin, I will only be too happy.

First full day back...

Went well. I managed to put in a full day and went through a big chunk of the installer testing on our new release. Filed a few bugs and apparently found some interesting bugs.

The only downside is that sitting at my desk all day made for a slightly more swollen ankle and foot. Hopefully this wont go on for too long.

I also am going to be getting the stent removed from my kidney tomorrow. Not that I want it to stay in there, I am more than a little nervous about *how* it is supposed to come out of me. I'm not sure I really want anesthetic on that portion of my anatomy and I sure as heck don't want anything going in that way, even to remove something. This is almost worse than the whole Foley catheter thing. :-)

Back at it!

As of today, I am back at work! The doctor gave me the OK to return to work and I leaped at it. I am now hip deep in installer testing for our new version and hopefully will make a useful contribution to the development of this thing! It feels so good to be back doing something useful, I don't know what to say!

Recent adventures

It looks like they have finally gotten a handle on this edema thing. I foot is still swelling a small amount, but nothing like it was a few days ago. Mind you, I am visiting the restroom almost as often as I was right after I got out of the hospital, but it is so nice to not have my left foot be twice it's normal size.

The rest of it seems to be going along swimmingly. Hopefully, I will get the OK to go back to work sometime next week and I can get out of this boring rut I have been in...

More tests needed

I went in for an ultrasound on my leg yesterday. They were checking for clots that might be causing the edema in my leg. It appears that there is nothing in there, which is good, but this means that they do not know what is causing it. They thought it was the drugs, but now that those have been changed, it appears that it is something else. Hopefully, they will have a better idea of what is going on when I go in for my clinic appointment on Friday.

On a related note, my potassium is up to a decent level. Not enough to stop taking the horse pills they have me on now, but it is an improvement. My creatinine is currently at 1.6 and holding. They actually reduced the phosphorus supplements since that was going up. Nice to know it is actually possible that they can take away some of the pills. :-)

More drug changes

Oh happy day! It appears that my potassium level is actually up to something respectable! It's been years since it was that way on it's own! Hopefully it will stay there and allow them to reduce the amount of potassium I am taking. Those things are freaking horse pills!

They also reduced the amount of phosphorous I am taking. It was getting high again, so finally something that reduces the number of pills instead of increasing it.

It appears that they are not done dinking with the blood pressure meds though. They upped the Diovan and the Lasix in an attempt to bring my BP under control as well as control the edema in my leg. I ended up spending most of the day on the couch trying to get the swelling to go down. Kind of boring, but we'll see how it goes.

Also, my creatinine level is down to 1.5. Hopefully this will continue. I have not actually gotten the results from the blood tests today, so we shall see if that results in more changes.

More contact needed...

I think I need to talk to more people in the near future. I think I have been getting a little too insular sitting here staring at the TV and my computer all damned day. I need to get out more!
:-)

If you feel the urge, give me a call sometime!

More drug changes

Well, I am off of Norvasc. It was not helping my BP enough and the side effects (edema and high pulse) were kind of troublesome. They have put me back on the medication I was on before the transplant and preliminary observations make it look like a good idea. The BP is not quite where it should be, but it is slightly improved and my pulse has dropped something like 30 BPM. I can't tell on the edema yet since it is usually better in the morning, but for now it looks like it is better than it has been. I'll see how it is by this evening.

Update

OK, the edema seems to be getting better. I hope it continues, but for now I'm counting myself lucky that my leg isn't twice it's normal size! :-)

I'm still having some issues with my blood pressure. Hopefully they will do something about that when I go in for my clinic appointment tomorrow.

I'm also going to be trying to convince my doctor to let me go back to work at least part-time. Hopefully, this will let me save a little vacation time so that I can actually travel at the end of the year to visit my Mom like I usually do.

Other than a little soreness around the midsection, I'm feeling really good. Hopefully the next round of tests will agree with how I feel.

Get well KR

Stopped by to see A and KR. It looks like she's having a bad time of it. Get well soon! It pains me to see you feeling bad!

Health musings

Creatinine is still at 1.7 but everything else seems to be doing well. More to know when I go in for my next appointment on Thursday.

Also, I am down to twice a week clinic visits instead of three times a week. This is a good thing!

I'm also managing to get some work in so that I am not being bored out of my mind sitting at home...

Test results!

Creatinine is down to 1.7! It looks like the kidney is pretty close to fully operational!

I appear to still have some vitamin/mineral deficiencies, but they are working on those. Unfortunately, those pills are the huge horse-pill variety. Not a lot of fun to take! :-)

My hemoglobin is creeping up as well. Hopefully this means that I will not have to get EPO injections for too much longer.

We'll see if things continue to improve when I go in for my appointment on Monday!

As the world turns..

Today was sorta blah, sorta fine. I did pretty much nothing all day but hang around try to keep myself occupied. I suspect that if I don't get back to work sometime soon, I am going to go stark raving mad!!!

Ok, I'm good now. I'll stop complaining! :-)

Creatinine notes

The most recent blood tests (Monday) show my creatinine is down to 2.2! The kidney is getting along just great! Now if only I could get my potassium and calcium up...

More Edema

Well, they have put me on a diuretic for now to help with the edema. It seems to be doing the job. I have been hitting the bathroom lock clockwork all day and the swelling is noticeably less than it was yesterday with only minimal differences in the amounts I am drinking. Hopefully this will continue and eventually my new kidney will be able to keep up with the demands!

Finally met the guy...

I finally met my new Nephrologist this morning. The office has separate practices for pre- and post-transplant patients and once I got the new kidney, they switched me to a new guy. The problem is that his wife had a baby shortly thereafter and he is now on leave to be with his wife and the new baby. Since he is going to be gone for a while they switched me to another doctor. :-)

I have to say, I like the new guy. Good bedside manner, seems like a nice guy. Seems pretty knowledgeable without being a know-it-all. We'll see how it goes over the next few months.

On a side note, my creatinine level is down to 2.2!! The kidney is definitely kicking in!