I had my first follow-up appointment at the Dallas Transplant Institute (DTI) this morning. DTI is about 45 minutes away from where we live, as opposed to the hospital in Fort Worth which was over ninety minutes away. So, it is a much nicer and easier drive, and I was glad to go where I will now receive my permanent follow-up (as far as I can tell).
The clinic is pretty crowded, as they see more than just post-transplant patients. They also have a staff of about ten doctors and physician's assistants, which means that they can see more than the one doctor in Fort Worth was able to. This clinic is where I will go for all of my blood work and other tests that need to be done (hopefully from now on).
We arrived around 8:35am for an 8:40am appointment. There was not much parking, or we would have been in about five minutes earlier. They drew my blood and took a urine sample around 9:00am, which I think was probably what they had planned. They drew three vials of blood today, and tested my lipid panel, even though they told me I did not need to fast for this lab work. Oh well, my numbers were a little high, but that's okay. If they had wanted me to fast first, they should have said so when I asked.
I saw a Physician's Assistant around 10:00. She went over the procedures at DTI, and then went over my lab reports. My creatinine is still 1.0, which is great. The only number she seemed to even worry about was my Triglycerides, which were at 282 mg/dL. That is a bit high, and she said they might have to test that one again when I am fasting. I said that I am exercising, and she said that would help. She also said I might need some dietary changes to help lower that number. I have a dietary guide, but I have not read it yet. Maybe I should do that!
In other news, they scheduled me for a "Glofil test" next week. This test accurately measures your kidney function based on how much of a certain radioactive iodine you can excrete in three or four hours. You have to be very well hydrated to take the test. It is a normal part of being a post-transplant patient, and I expect to take many more Glofil tests in my lifetime.
The Glofil test is scheduled for Thursday the 22nd. I am also going to go back to the clinic on that day to have my blood work and doctor's visit. They scheduled them at the same time for me so that I would not have to drive down there more than once next week, which is nice.
I also got a call this afternoon to lower my Prograf dosage from 3mg twice a day to 2.5mg twice a day. My Prograf levels were a bit too high, I guess, so they lowered them a little. Hopefully, this will help control some of the shakiness I am feeling in my hands whenever I try to do fine motor-skill related tasks (such as writing).
Well, that's about it for today. Here are my lab results. You may notice that they are in a slightly different order and are a bit different than my previous results. That is because I got them from a new clinic which has different software for processing and displaying results. It might make it more difficult to compare to older results, but all the important information is there.
Enjoy!
| PROCEDURE | RESULT | UNIT | REF RANGE |
| [Profile: CMP] | |||
| Creatinine | 1.0 | mg/dL | 0.4 - 1.0 |
| Blood Urea Nitrogen | 11.0 | mg/dL | 8.0 - 20.0 |
| Sodium | 137.8 | mmol/L | 136.0 - 144.0 |
| Potassium | 3.7 | mmol/L | 3.6 - 5.1 |
| Chloride | 110.8 | mmol/L | 101.0 - 111.0 |
| CO2 | 24.7 | mmol/L | 22.0 - 32.0 |
| Glucose | 70 L | mg/dL | 74 - 118 |
| Calcium | 9.3 | mg/dL | 8.9 - 10.3 |
| AST | 26.0 | U/L | 15.0 - 41.0 |
| ALT | 59.0 | U/L | 17.0 - 63.0 |
| Alkaline Phos | 75.0 | U/L | 38.0 - 126.0 |
| Albumin | 4.5 | g/dL | 3.5 - 4.8 |
| Total Protein | 6.4 | g/dL | 6.1 - 7.9 |
| Total Bilirubin | 0.7 | mg/dL | 0.4 - 2.0 |
| [Profile: LIPID PANEL] | |||
| High Density Lipoprotein | 65.2 | mg/dL | 35.0 - 85.0 |
| Low Density Lipoprotein | 79.8 | mg/dL | 0.0 - 100.0 |
| Cholesterol | 171.0 | mg/dL | 0.0 - 200.0 |
| Triglycerides | 282 H | mg/dL | 0.0 - 200.0 |
| VLDL | 56.4 | 0.0 - 40.0 | |
| Cholesterol / HDL Ratio | 2.6 | - | |
| [Profile: GCT] | |||
| GCT | 64.0 H | U/L | 7.0 - 50.0 |
| [Profile: MAGNESIUM] | |||
| Magnesium | 1.7 L | mg/dL | 1.8 - 2.5 |
| [Profile: PHOSPHORUS] | |||
| Phosphorus | 3.0 | mg/dL | 2.4 - 4.7 |
| [Profile: CBC] | |||
| WBC | 8.2 | K/uL | 4.0 - 11.0 |
| RBC | 4.28 | M/uL | 3.8 - 6.2 |
| Hgb | 114.3 | g/dL | 11.5 - 18.0 |
| Hct | 43.2 | % | 35.0 - 54.0 |
| MCV | 101.0 H | fl | 80.0 - 100.0 |
| MCH | 33.3 | pg | 27.0 - 34.0 |
| MCHC | 33.0 | g/dL | 31.0 - 36.0 |
| RDW | 13.2 | % | 11.5 - 14.5 |
| Platelets | 245 | K/uL | 150 - 450 |
| # Neut | 5.05 | 1.40 - 6.50 | |
| % Neut | 61.60 | % | 42.20 - 75.20 |
| # Lymph | 2.63 | 1.20 - 3.40 | |
| % Lymph | 32.10 | % | 20.50 - 51.50 |
| # Mono | 0.41 | 0.10 - 0.50 | |
| % Mono | 4.95 | % | 1.70 - 9.30 |
| # Eos | 0.03 | 0.00 - 0.70 | |
| % Eos | 0.40 | % | 0.00 - 7.00 |
| # Baso | 0.08 | -0.00 - 0.20 | |
| % Baso | 0.97 | % | -0.00 - 2.50 |
Stay tuned tomorrow to hear all about the Glofil Procedure Patient Instructions! You won't want to miss it!
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