Transition Complete

The human anatomy is like a good sound engineer, under-appreciated and taken for granted when he’s doing his job well.  But when something goes awry, he’s paid a lot of attention.

I don’t take my body for granted anymore.  I love that I can now use the restroom at night without disconnecting from a machine; I can be out driving around town and running errands without needing to pull over and nap;  and as of last week after many miserable days with canker sores and awkward mumbling, I can eat again and not have to sip my sustenance through a straw (yay!).  Not only that, I can eat out again.  When my white blood count was low, UCSF instructed me not to eat out; my risk for infection and food contamination was too high. (Although I did enjoy shabu shabu in Japantown with my family.  You boil everything in the simmering hot pot placed in front of you.)

In the last few weeks my white blood count clawed its way back into normal range.  See the graph?  We like staying above the dotted line.

Decreasing my immuno-suppressant drug Cellcept did the trick; that gave my body a fighting chance.  But now that my symptoms are gone, they upped my dosage again.  They always have to protect Mr. Bean while allowing my immune system to keep viruses at bay.  It’s an ongoing balancing act – prescribing the right dosage of medications that are both friend and foe in this complex system called the human body.  Let’s hope no new infection will rear its annoying head to remind me I need to appreciate the healthy days.

My transfer of care back to Kaiser finally took place last Thursday.  I now have a new post-transplant coordinator, Clarina, at Kaiser.  I like her just as much as I like Elizabeth at UCSF.  They remind me of each other.  Same mannerisms, same height, (we short people notice things like that) and just plain awesome at what they do. Turns out they’re really good friends too.  😊😊

Clarina and the team at Kaiser’s Nephrology Specialty Department (NSD) will now monitor my transplant medication and anything transplant related.  Everything else – my heart health, general kidney health, bones, cholesterol, blood pressure, etc. – will be tracked by my local providers at Kaiser.  I won’t have to see Clarina much;  She will monitor my weekly lab results and call me when she’s reviewed them.

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This Sunday is national “Back to Church Sunday.”  If you are in the Peninsula area and looking for a church to check out, come to Compass Church in Mountain View, CA. Marty and I will be visiting there this weekend. We are leading the music, and I will be sharing an update about myself.

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Marty and I will also be flying to Chicago in the few weeks.   (Oh! I can travel without lugging and shipping dialysis supplies! 😀 )  Marty has a four-day work conference, so for four days I get to frolic about town by myself.  That’s heaven for me because at museums, I’m the one in the family who has to stop and read everything.

All you Chicagoans out there: What should we go see or do or eat?

Looking forward to seeing the iconic “Cloud Gate” sculpture (aka the “Bean”) in Chicago’s Millennium Park (Hey, it looks like a kidney!)