CHRONIC POSITIVITY – Life with Polycystic Kidney Disease

Almost 3 months since my transplant, and I feel great!

I had labs again this week, and my kidney labs are rock stable. My creatinine is still 1.2, and I’m thrilled with that. My white blood cells have risen to almost normal, since decreasing the Valcyte. My hemoglobin is still low at 9.5, but it’s stable, and I’m not symptomatic. My labs last week for my iron stores were good. I found out that the criteria for getting Venofer (IV iron infusion) are a Transferrin Saturation below 20%; mine is 28%, so no Venofer in the near future. My Prograf level is right on the mark; it’s 9, and they want it between 8-10.

I started walking on a regular basis. I walk around campus at work (it’s a medical center campus), and then eat at my desk. The first part of my walk is uphill, and I’ve been walking about 20 minutes/day. I’ll increase that a little each week. One of the issues is that I hadn’t been wearing my AFO’s (leg “splints” which stabilize my weak lower leg muscles), so feet and ankles were turning out, causing pain in my ankle. That’s improved through the week. I’ll also be starting my recumbent bike at home as well.

I have an appointment with the Transplant Nephrologist and Surgeon this week. I don’t expect any major changes, though.

For those of you who follow my other blog at MyKidney, I have a new post about Positive Thinking and it’s relationship to health.

Kevin is now on his way to Philly, and tomorrow will be leaving for Clearwater, Florida with my in-laws. He’ll be thrilled, because he’ll get beach time AND will be fishing a lot as well. I’m not sure where he gets the fishing “gene” from; it’s certainly not from me or Jackie….

Monday is our anniversary. 18 years of wedded bliss. We’ll be going out to one of our favorite restaurants that evening (after work, of course). On a side note, the church we were married in, St Cecilia’s, is being closed, and merging with the “Italian” church about a mile away.
Tomorrow, we’ll be going to my family reunion (the Baird family, on my mother’s side). I really enjoy going, as I at least get to see a lot of the people I don’t see during the year, especially since we live about 45 minutes south of the area where the reunion is.

I did get my hard drive replaced. I used Acronis True Image, and was able to just restore the cloned image from the other drive onto the new one. I’ll definitely be using this program on a regular basis.