Week Sixty-two - Tired of the Phone Calls....

I was a day late taking Babygirl to get her blood work done.  I was supposed to take her Monday, but I absolutely forgot, as if it were never on my list to start with.  I actually remembered at three AM Tuesday, after I'd already let her go to her sister's to spend the night.  Three AM, you say?  Yeah, I've been seeing that time frequently lately.  I never imagined I'd have insomnia, but it hits a couple of times a week now.  It scares me, sometimes, because it can hit the night before I have to do the big run to Philadelphia.  So far I haven't been sleepy driving, but I keep to daytime drives as much as possible.

So at 6:30, after three hours of sleep, I went to Curlygirl's place and banged on the door, grabbed Babygirl and took her in for her blood work, getting mine at the same time.  The phlebotomist missed the first stick because the vein near her elbow has scarred shut.

So later yesterday they called with her results.  The neutrophil count is down but holding at a reasonable level. The creatinine is up to 1.0.  See you Monday.

Sigh. 

I don't want to hear "down" in regards to neutrophils.  And I REALLY don't want to hear "up" about the kidney function.

And when I got home today there was a message from my doc about MY blood work, but they were already closed when I called.  He never calls, so something must be up with me, too.  Oh, yippee skippy.

DeeDee

February Seventh - The Fourth Day.....

Some of you have already caught the brief word on Facebook that Babygirl had a bit of a rough day. The honest truth was that it was ME who had the rough day.  As far as she was concerned it couldn't have been better unless she was home.

Cousins came to visit, and spent most of the day entertaining her.  They all had fun - my niece and nephew are the most adaptable teens in the universe.  I do have to say, though, that teenagers and small wheelchairs do not mix well.  No one was injured, the chair is still intact, so all is well.  By the end of the day she was so wound up that she could have turned herself inside out without difficulty.

For me, though, the day had a darker feel.  On day three Babygirl's creatinine was 0.7.  On day four, 1.1.  For those who don't remember, kidney function is exponential.  A shift from 1 to 2 represents a 50% loss of function, and from 2 to 4, another 50%.  So.....any trend in the wrong direction can be ominous.  No transplanted kidney is expected to live as long as the recipient.  Depending on who you're talking to, ten years is good.  But that number tends to be low because it includes those who reject more or less immediately.  They have Babygirl on three anti-rejection meds.  We found one of them loose in her bed this morning, so she missed part of a dose.

To add to this concern she had put on 4 pounds overnight.  That's half a gallon of fluid. She had an ultrasound immediately, which the surgeon said was fine.  Blood work was repeated, meds adjusted.  When all was said and done, there really was no bad news.  At the end of the day, her creatinine was 1.0, so they decided that the truly odd level was the 0.7.

Thank God I had my hair dyed before I came.  It's covering all the new gray.

DeeDee