First of all, a big Thank You to the support team at Typepad. After a gazillion emails back and forth ove r the last week and a half, the blog seems to be healed.
(One bad thing ... while all this has been going on, comments have not been emiled to me so I'm way behind in responding. I'm working to catch up today)
Thank you Jesus! It was really becoming a pain in the neck.
Speaking of pain ...
(note the nice, smooth segue there?)
I had a date today with the hubby.
At the ElectroShock place.
It was highly romantic.
We both needed a Nerve Conduction Study done- he's being treated for carpal tunnel in both wrists, and they are trying to figure out the extent of the neuropathy in my legs.
So I figure why not go together?
Our tech Clara was really nice, and really chatty. She's the former wife of my neurologist, so we got alot more back history than we planned ... but I digress.
Basically, she shocks you over and over with this mini-cattle prod type device. And lawsie, it hurt. She started with my feet and worked up to the back of my knee. I will say I didn't cry, but only do to some real restraint on my part. I'm such a baby.
John "took it like a man". He was more interested in how it worked, and what she was looking at on the monitor- and frankly, she was thrilled to have someone who was a) interested and b) understood what she was talking about. To me, it was all "Charlie Brown adult noise" -... wah wah wah wahwahwahwahwah.
From here, I'll get an ultrasound to review the blood flow. We do know, thanks to the 21 vials of blood that he drew, I have a high CRP level and high Sed Rate. Both of these point to some type of inflammatory condition in the vascular system.
This may be a reason for my kidney failure, although we aren't sure. I've had to sit down for the first time and type up my medical history in an exact time line. Funny, I've never done that. Everyone always assumed the reason for the kidney failure was chronic infection- however, the source for that was treated in 1977, and infections were sporadic after that. No one, including myself, ever questioned that there could be other things going on. Weird, huh.
So now we're pointed toward a few potentials, some treatable, some not - but if we can determine that something else is going on and it can be stopped? It may slow down the progression of my kidney failure and buy me more time before transplant can occur.
It may also explain the extreme issues I had in September with the multiple infections hitting so many major organs at one time. I've been referred to a specialist (yet another one... sigh) at Mayo on the 26th of this month.
For those of you keeping count? We've added a new specialized nephrologist, an endocrinologist and a neurologist to the party.
It's beginning to get a bit crowded in here.
All that blood work brought up some other questions, but we're hitting them in order of importance. I sense a bit of a long and winding road ahead in the next few months.
The immediate plan is:
1) Get the results of the NCT from today and find a med that will help slow the progression of the numbness
2) Schedule with the Endo at Mayo Scottsdale, probably in March or April based on their booking times
3) Meet the new Neph Spec on the 26th to pursue the hig CRP and high Sed Rate issues
4) Redo all the required tests for transplant that must be done annually (blood, EKG, mammo, chest x-ray, blah blah blah)
5) Figure how and when I'm going to get to Denver, Salt Lake City and Scottsdale for transplant clinic reviews and evaluations
6) Get John's carpal tunnel resolved or under control
7) Have a life.
Easy peasy.
Right?
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