I'm not dead yet!

I feel... happy!

For those of you who got my movie reference there, I love you.

I have been a really terrible blogger in the last 4 months! But it's not like I haven't had alot going on. My recovery has been awesome so far. My creatanine has been consistently either 1.1 or 1.2, which is a normal level. Also- since Mayo first worked me up in June '08, my cholesterol has dropped 260 POINTS. Yes your ead that right- it was originally 440 (due mostly to kidney failure). Now that my body is actually filtering blood, it is down to about 180. We have also made alot of diet adjustments. So yay me*

I have been back to working 40-hour weeks and so far I feel pretty good. I still have days where I am super tired by the time I get home, but they are getting fewer and farther between. Rick & I have been trying to walk alot more. We joined the YMCA which I am really excited about.

The last week or so I have been in the midstmy routine 4-month post-op testing. I have the kidney biopsy on Friday- I am NOT looking forward to another one of those. But this time I wised up and insisted that they give me something to take BEFORE the procedure, instead of just the local lidocaine anesthetic. So I get to pop a couple Xanax befor the biopsy on Friday.

Next week I see my coordinator and the main doctor again to go over all the results from the 4-month tests. After that, I won't have to really come back to Mayo until I am one-year post op; then we do all the tests again. My labs are going to back off from once a week to every other week, and I will be under the general care management of my nephrologist.

Oh, and I did find a new nephrologist. Her name is Dr. Kim- we really liked her alot! She is fairly young; I think late 30's, and very easy to talk to. We discussed future pregnancies at length, and she is on board with us for that goal. I see her again on May 18 I think. She herself is having a baby soon, and the May appointment is right before she goes on maternity leave.

I had an optometrist appointment over the weekend for a regular eye exam. Dr. Larson told me that I have a bunch of tiny white spots or deposits along the outside of my retinas, and my optic nerves are slightly inflamed... sigh; one more thing on me that is defective or falling apart... but anyways, the appointment went well. They dilated my pupils (yuck), and then injected me with an immunofluorescent dye and took a bunch of pictures with a REEEEALLY ridiculously bright light. For about 45 minutes. Which was extremely unpleasant considering my pupils were dilated and very light sensitive. The doctor said he thinks the tiny white spots are little bits of scarring from when my blood pressures were out of control. He said they didn't look like they were "active"; basically, they happened awhile back but are not progressing anymore. He is not sure what is causing the inflammation in my optic nerve, but because of my kind of kidney disease, the surgery, and the zillion icky meds I take, it could be a number of things. So, he referred me to see a neurologist at Mayo Clinic. For now I feel good about things! I know firsthand how AWESOME Mayo is- the doctors there are amazing and they know their stuff. I am in good hands!



We got a big-honkin' tax return (thanks to all my medical bills!), and we are beginning to remodel our kitchen. The cabinets are falling apart, and if we want to sell the house in a couple years like we are planning, we have to replace them. So we ordered new cabinets, nice new solid surface counertops, and are slightly redesigning the kitchen to increase the countertop and cabinet space. It's going to look awesome! The cabinets should be here in about three weeks. Rick is almost done tiling our screened back porch/ sunroom. It looks beautiful! I will post pics soon.

We've been pretty busy! We start demo on the kicthen this weekend... not looking forward to that part! But we have our eye on the prize...