May the Queen Reign!

Now that Queen Nephrotiti has arrived, she’s announced that she is here to stay.  But the White Blood Army of Immunity is attempting an overthrow.  The Queen, however, anticipated the resistance so she came armed with her Anti Rejection Troops to suppress the rebels who, thankfully, can’t seem to oust the Queen.   And so she’s been very effective in executing her duties.  She visits her throne every hour to forever expel her kingdom of toxic elements.

I’m sorry.  I know I talk a lot about pee in this blog.  But by the end of my dialysis life I was hardly producing any.  Some patients with kidney failure stop going altogether.  So yes, that liquid gold is a big deal.

That Anti Rejection Troop comes in the form of pills, lots of them.  I take a handful each morning.  Only three of the medicine actually serve as anti-rejection medication; its purpose is to protect the Queen.  They work by suppressing the immune system that detects and neutralizes foreign invaders that come into the body.  That’s normally a good thing, but they don’t recognize that the Queen is here to do good.

So now because the immune system is weakened, it cannot effectively fight the real bacteria and viruses intending harm. So I also take anti-infection medicine to help keep me safer.  This is why I also have to be diligent to wash hands and avoid foods risky of contamination and stay away from germ-y environments.

And then there’s one pill to prevent ulcer and another to prevent constipation because now that I’m taking all those pills, I’m at risk for these side effects as well.

And of course there’s the phosphorous supplement because maybe Queen Nephrotiti is doing too good of a job and expelling too much phosphorous.

There are more pills but I’ll spare you the explanations of what they do.

Finally I have to keep track of what pills to take and when.  Some I take once a day, some twice, another 4 times a day.  One is once a week, another is 3 days a week.  One is daily, but only for a few weeks, then switches to Monday, Wednesday, Friday.  Many of them will taper over time. 

Whew!

Good thing I found this pretty multi-timer app to help me track it all.

Time for a nap.  I’m tired just explaining it all.

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P.S. Tonight Marty has a slight fever and very possibly coming down with something.  Which means we have to be extra vigilant around here to keep me safe and get him healthy.  Prayers appreciated.