The cankles have arrived! It’s lovely to watch your ankle expand during the day to eventually swallow any definition you previously had between your calves and feet.
The one lesson this has taught me is that strappy sandals are not a good choice at this point in my care.
We were having trouble getting my blood pressure under control. My kidney function is down (9% at the lab reading last week) and my kidney is having trouble regulating my blood pressure on its own. The doctor put me on the highest dose of a blood pressure medication we were testing out which has the lovely side effect of cankles.
We’ve also noticed that I am bruising super easy. You don’t realize just how clumsy you are until you can see every instance of not picking up your knee high enough to get out of the shower or not leaving enough room between your arm and the door frame as you pass through. I am one swollen, splotchy woman.
It is all kind of fascinating to watch. We’re doing frequent lab tests and plan to schedule the transplant very soon. The goal is to avoid dialysis. While I can still get through the day (and a book tour no less), we don’t want to let my health deteriorate and miss the window of getting the transplant done before I need to be on dialysis to even be healthy enough to have the transplant surgery.
My elevated blood pressure had been decreasing my kidney function quickly. Fortunately, it seems that the max dose of my cankle medication has made things much better and hopefully my quick decline has been halted. Today’s lab reading will tell us that.
All in all, I’m in great spirits! How could I not be? It has been an AMAZING few weeks. I’ll post pictures from our book signings and fundraisers soon, but for now, here’s where I’ve been out and about:
- What Not to do When You Get a New Diagnosis at Huffington Post
- You Don’t Need to Fix Yourself to be Healed at Tiny Buddha
- Talking Chronic Resilience with Dave on AM Northwest
- Chatting with Renee about Chronic Resilience on San Diego Living
- Talking Chronic Resilience with Lisa Gonzales on KCRA
Illness will limit what we allow it to. While I have noticed that I’m tired and certainly haven’t pushed it – lots of naps and down time in hotel rooms – I see no reason to let my lab results to dictate how I will feel…and I feel great! Here are a few pictures from the last two weeks:
With Host Renee on San Diego Living
Visiting Powell’s in Portland…we’re in stock!
Talking Chronic Resilience with Dave at AM Northwest.