Thursday, July 27, 2017

On the brighter side...

Our lawn filled in very nicely in this our rainy season.
Hubby gave one of our many Pinkie (All oddly enough named "Pinkie".) Flamingoes a refresh; one of the two metal ones, this time with Krylon spray paint. So pretty when in the pink! Sadly the last painting was just this past April, meaning the exterior paintings seemingly not to last as long as one would hope. As you can see he is a standing sentinel over our canal dock. The other metal one we determined color's stays brighter longer due to its location in the shaded garden. Strong sun here even in the rainy season!
 
Moving on...
 
 
OH Dear! Interesting afternoon: Spoke with my chronic care nurse Debbie, and she gave me the name of a local nephrologist with a very good background check and only a mile from my house. So I called and they still insisted they needed the doctor's referral even with me on a PPO not an HMO. So I called Debbie back and she said that she would contact Dr. Nord to send the referral...Next I get a call from Dr. Nord telling me that I have had stage three kidney failure since last August and that she had told me, but since I have everything under control that I was stable so nothing needed to be done! I said I did not recall her telling me, and if so I would still like a second opinion and maybe I can also help myself to reverse the problem with early intervention and diet! I definitely did not recall her telling me until yesterday and that something like that I would absolutely remember. She said all the nephrologist is going to do is have me come back every three months to check on me and since I am stable it is a waste of time, not those words verbatim, but the sentiments implied. I said most specialists have you coming back every six months now. I should know I see enough of them, and no I did not say that to her. In the interim I looked into my medical portal that holds all my test results since I have been seeing her. My January tests did show that the same blood work indicated that the stage three renal failure existed then, but when I went to look for last summer's actually July not August, all that was there was January, February and March of 2016 the rest of the year was gone! Odd since all tests for more than five years that I have been seeing here were all still there, hmm? I happened  to come across my pre-op September blood work from Dr. Chabli, the bariatric surgeon and those two tests were within the normal range as of last September!
I smell a BIG problem. I also read about the proper diet for chronic kidney disease is a low protein one and other lower things like potassium and phosphorus, but the protein caught my eyes, since after and prior to Bariatric Surgery you are placed on a HIGH PROTEIN DIET!  So in reality if I was diagnosed with stage three kidney disease in August of 2016, which I was not but she said that I was then my surgery that required that special diet of mega doses of protein literally could have killed me, at the very least have me in end stage 5 kidney disease!
In a way getting my rash and needing to go on IV Steroids again may have saved me, the protein drinks were causing vomiting the whole thing was a BIG mistake!
As near as I can see is that since January I have had this and that is about the same time all my other problems got worse, my bulging discs, stenosis, rashes, and then exacerbation of the Multiple Sclerosis, changing my eating habits to not exactly what I had been told by the bariatric doctor, higher protein that I could not tolerate!
 So far the nephrologists office has not called back, but originally I was told it might take until Monday, so I will wait. Meanwhile, many have told me it is time to move on from my internist, and I suppose I will. This reminds me before I went to see my pulmonologist, my asthma was thought at first to be emphysema that she was not concerned about either. Not only did I need daily medication that stopped my many respiratory infections; I received an emergency inhaler too! Thankfully no emphysema, allergic asthma, now under control! Due to me not her, squeaky wheel and self advocate, and this kidney issue is the same thing... Any-who, I am not a victim and I will always want to do whatever it takes to be as healthy as I can be in spite of all my ailments! Ta DA!

On this note of trying to keep on keep on...going... allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you all to share those blessings and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear! 

Speaking My Mind: Which way will the war go?

Speaking My Mind: Which way will the war go? :   My eyesight is going again... in case you missed it... Netanyahu snaps back against growing...