Monthly Clinic Meetings

We had the monthly clinic meetings at DaVita this afternoon.

Met with the social worker very briefly.  Then we sat down with Jennifer.  She went over the labs results from blood taken last time. 

• Albumin 4.1   (protein stores are good)
• Potassium 3.7  (potassium is down, this is very good)
• Calcium  8.4   (good)
• Phosphorus 4.2  (down from 7.5 & 5.0, this is great!)
• PTH 786  (was 829 & 776 -- not down enough.  Need meds.)
• Hemoglobin 13.1  (up from 8.7 & 11.9, he has made some blood)
• HGB A1c 5.8   (very good blood sugar control)
• KT/V 2.47   (Adequacy of Dialysis is good... meaning his dialysis is working and his blood is being cleaned well

Dr. Mallea made some changes to Chris' medications.  Sensipar will need to be taken with the big meal of the day, to help keep the PTH (Parathyroid hormone) levels down.  Chris will also be dialing down the Prednisone and moving it to morning.  And Uloric is moving to every other day.

Due to the new morning/night pill scheduling, I re-did Chris' pills in a new container to accommodate mornings & nights.  I added his Gastric Bypass vitamins to both, so he won't have to remember to take them separately.  Hopefully this will increase his vitamin intake and absorption.

Dr. Mallea asked Jennifer to follow up with Dr. Undesser's office to get a copy of the echo and then to forward it to the folks at the University of Utah transplant team.

We'll be back at DaVita for regular weekly labs on March 1st, and then the big monthly clinic appointment on March 15th.

Checking Out the Heart

Today, Chris had his echocardiogram at the cardiologist's office.   All went well, he said.

We also got the big monthly shipment from Baxter.  The delivery came while Chris was out, so I got to interact with our rep.   He delivered only supplies for the nighttime cycler machine, so Chris will be getting on that later this month.  Yeay!

Two Clinic Visits Today

Chris had his (re-)scheduled appointment with nurse Jennifer today.  It was a surprisingly brief visit.   His last blood tests showed that his red blood cells were doing a bit better, so he didn't get an EPO shot.  She did take some blood, however, to test before the next visit.

When we got home, it was time for Chris to drain his first fluid of the day.  Only 700ml of the 2000ml would come out.   He tried everything... re-adjusting the tubing, standing up, etc.   He called Jennifer and she had us come back out.   She injected Heparin (a blood thinner) and another substance into his tubing and also into his fill bag.   This seemed to help a lot, and everything drained in and out as it should have.

Coming up, we have our big monthly clinic appointment on Wednesday of next week.  On Tuesday the 21st, Chris has his big echocardiogram appointment with the Cardiologist to see if his heart condition improved enough with the dialysis to allow the kidney transplant to take place.   Fingers crossed!!