Thursday, March 26, 2020

Kidney Saga part 51

My weekend was relatively fantastic. I had enough energy to play my video game, I got to chase Inkwell with the walker, I learned how to do walker squats, and generally had a good two days. I also started to establish a routine. Go to bed at 9pm. Wake up around 5 and weigh myself. Meals evenly spaced so my blood sugar stays stable. Try to figure out snacks that keep me from overeating or overdrinking.

On Sunday, Mar 22nd, I looked at my weight chart and realized I'd lost exactly 52 pounds from Feb 22nd. It was a bit overwhelming to think about. Most of my extra weight over the last few months has apparently been water-weight. The technical term for the condition is Anasarca and I had a fairly bad case of it. What's even scarier is that I'm not quite down to a normal weight, and still have water to lose. The cardiologist showed me how I can tell (you press skin, in the legs mostly, and if your print remains for a few moments there's a problem there).

I think I just barely have a handle on the diabetes stuff. I still have a lot of trouble doing it, but I know what to do. My biggest fears are the costs involved. The testing strips alone are insanely overpriced. I knew diabetics were being tormented and killed by the "health care system" but I didn't realize just how bad it was until I was thrown head-first into it.

Dr. Inkwell has been performing regular cat scans on me, and now is sleeping next to me most nights (since poor Eric is still exiled to the guest room). When Inky sees me lie down he gets on my chest and meowsages me while purring loudly. Sometimes he just settles on my chest after awhile and purrs. It's lovely.

The blood draw on Monday, Mar 23rd, was painless. Well, painless for me now. I have adjusted to needles to an extent, although I still can't look when they do the insert.

The hospital was mostly business as usual, although Prosser is limited to a single visitor (unlike KADLEC, they haven't blocked all visiting). All the interior security doors were shut, but not locked, which was new. It made the corridors seem much smaller. There were fewer people, no doubt due to the visitor policy. Eric and I drove straight out to the hospital, checked in, went to the lab, got my work done, then drove straight home. We are definitely self-isolating as much as possible.

With the shelter-in-place order from the county health district (more of a request than an order, really, due to the lack of enforcement authority) we are more than happy to stay home as much as humanly possible.

Sadly, once I got home from the lab, I still needed a lot of Eric's help to get up the stairs. I am looking forward to the day I can move up and down the stairs freely again.

I was very tired on Monday night, no surprise. I had a shower that morning, which actually took a lot of energy despite me using the shower chair. When going to the toilet and showering are major tasks, life is very hard. You just don't appreciate health until it is taken away from you. I also went out, so the fact that I was tired should not be surprising. I nearly fell asleep during dinner, and right after dinner, well before my 9pm bedtime, I ended up in bed resting.

As I needed to take insulin at 9pm, I set my alarm, and good thing I did because I was fully out of it when the alarm went off. It took me a little longer than usual to remember how to poke myself.

To be continued...

Full Kidney Saga --- Kidney Wish List --- GoFundMe

2 comments:

Roger Owen Green said...

Been reading your last several posts with a lot of interest. I have diabetes in the past year.

Dwight Williams said...

And there's my new word for the day: "anasarca".