I had a great time at Government day last month, but I must have really worn myself out. I guess I shouldn't have tried keeping up with my younger friends. You know who your are Jenn. My exhaustion seems to be the first in a set of dominoes since then.
It began with a headache. I get headaches occasionally, especially when I'm tired, but this one seemed worse somehow. I was feeling some kind of tension. Something made me decide to test my blood pressure. Sure enough, it was quite high. I did it several times and it averaged about 195/90 which is really high for me or anyone. I went to the doctor the next day and she increased my lisinopril from 10 to 20mg/day. By the following day, my headache was gone and I was feeling better.
A few days later, I noticed that I had a sore throat and felt tired. I thought I must have caught something on the plane on the way back from DC. I tried a throat culture, but it was negative. After a few more days, I was feeling better, but still had the sore throat.
About a week later, it was time for my monthly labs to be drawn. Each month, I have a CBC, creatinine, glucose and my drug levels tested. The next day, I received a call at home from my endo telling me that my creatinine was up to 1.5. The last draw had been 1.2 which was considered high. He wanted me to contact my nephrologist and see what she thought about this. She ordered more lab work to be drawn. The results of this testing was that my creatinine was down to 1.3, but now my potassium is 5.9 which is really high. This generated another call at home, this time from the nephrologist saying that I need to take a potassium lowering drug immediately. So, I did that. And, I'm supposed to be following a low potassium diet. I googled that and about cried. It runs extremely counter to my present diet which is low carb, low fat, low salt. It seems that now there is finally nothing that I can eat without cheating on one of these diets. Pretty frustrating. I must have looked pretty sad, because these beautiful flowers appeared on my dining room table from my nice husband. They helped.
And time for thinking things through has helped. I still feel fine. Other than this strange sore throat, I don't have any symptoms. I'm being drawn again tomorrow and I'm hoping that my potassium will be on the downswing. I'm also hoping that my nephrologist might revisit the increase in my lisinopril. I'm guessing that that might be the real culprit with this last mess.
I've also had the very exciting and therapeutic experience of writing down my whole islet cell story to be featured in Diabetes Daily. Its served to remind me of how lucky I really am. I expected that there would be times like this and there has been, but they have all seemed temporary and/or treatable.
My blood sugars which always react to any stress on my body or life have come back to baseline. So, things are all right now.
And, Senator and I have been making some real progress in his diabetes alert training!
It began with a headache. I get headaches occasionally, especially when I'm tired, but this one seemed worse somehow. I was feeling some kind of tension. Something made me decide to test my blood pressure. Sure enough, it was quite high. I did it several times and it averaged about 195/90 which is really high for me or anyone. I went to the doctor the next day and she increased my lisinopril from 10 to 20mg/day. By the following day, my headache was gone and I was feeling better.
A few days later, I noticed that I had a sore throat and felt tired. I thought I must have caught something on the plane on the way back from DC. I tried a throat culture, but it was negative. After a few more days, I was feeling better, but still had the sore throat.
About a week later, it was time for my monthly labs to be drawn. Each month, I have a CBC, creatinine, glucose and my drug levels tested. The next day, I received a call at home from my endo telling me that my creatinine was up to 1.5. The last draw had been 1.2 which was considered high. He wanted me to contact my nephrologist and see what she thought about this. She ordered more lab work to be drawn. The results of this testing was that my creatinine was down to 1.3, but now my potassium is 5.9 which is really high. This generated another call at home, this time from the nephrologist saying that I need to take a potassium lowering drug immediately. So, I did that. And, I'm supposed to be following a low potassium diet. I googled that and about cried. It runs extremely counter to my present diet which is low carb, low fat, low salt. It seems that now there is finally nothing that I can eat without cheating on one of these diets. Pretty frustrating. I must have looked pretty sad, because these beautiful flowers appeared on my dining room table from my nice husband. They helped.
And time for thinking things through has helped. I still feel fine. Other than this strange sore throat, I don't have any symptoms. I'm being drawn again tomorrow and I'm hoping that my potassium will be on the downswing. I'm also hoping that my nephrologist might revisit the increase in my lisinopril. I'm guessing that that might be the real culprit with this last mess.
I've also had the very exciting and therapeutic experience of writing down my whole islet cell story to be featured in Diabetes Daily. Its served to remind me of how lucky I really am. I expected that there would be times like this and there has been, but they have all seemed temporary and/or treatable.
My blood sugars which always react to any stress on my body or life have come back to baseline. So, things are all right now.
And, Senator and I have been making some real progress in his diabetes alert training!
2 comments:
Kathy,
I hope that this feels you feeling a little better. Keep an eye on that stuff, as I am sure you do. Is the Lisinopril new for you since transplant? Just curious, I have been on it for over 20 years, just to help with kidney perfusion, my BP usually runs on the low side, and not taking any of the immuno-drugs you are on ... I will keep you in my prayers .. maybe the sore throat is spring allergies??? Wishful thinking, it has been a brutal spring here in the high desert. Wishing you and yours a Happy Easter .. and GREAT JOB on spreading the awareness of US!!!
Hey goof! I missed you today! I emailed you about a week ago to your Owens account, but no answer. Do you still have it? Jenna was wondering if Gary would be willing to give her some high jump help. She remembered us discussing it last year. I hear you get to keep senator and he is learning when you are low! Awesome! I think your k was probably really high, because anything over 5.7, they are supposed to be double checking for hemolysis and putting a comment on the report to say it was not hemolyzed. Anyway, see you swine lover!
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