Chest X-Ray

Quick update: I went to the doctor's office and had a chest x-ray at about 10:00 this morning (Wednesday). The technician said that the radiologist should give me a call within the next day or two. I still feel fine, so I'm guessing nothing is wrong.

Thank you to everyone that has been praying! I do appreciate it.

TB Scare!

Welcome to the blog for today. First things first, if you did not read my blog from March, you can find it here: http://nmccart.blogspot.com/2008/03/happy-birthday-to-me.html

I went home from work at about 2:00 pm today. I heard rumors around 1:00 or so that someone in our office, on my floor, had tuberculosis. For those of you that don't know, tuberculosis, or TB, is:

Reference (http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/tuberculosis-tb-topic-overview)
Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial infection that is most often found in the lungs (pulmonary TB) but can spread to other parts of the body (extrapulmonary TB). TB in the lungs is easily spread to other people through coughing or laughing. Treatment is often successful, though the process is long. Treatment time averages between 6 and 9 months.

Now, this is an infectious disease, which is easily spread through coughing. I do not know if I have caught it, but I am going to call the transplant office in the morning to schedule a chest x-ray. I called them the minute I left work, asking what needed to be done. They returned my call about 4:30 (after the scheduling office was closed) to tell me to set up a chest x-ray to confirm if I did catch TB.

My boss called and said that the environmental people were going to come out and clean around the infected person's cubicle (which is not near me) as well as all the common areas in the building. They are supposed to disinfect everything overnight, so I should be safe in the morning. I haven't decided if I want to wear a SARS mask or not, but I'm considering it!

So, tomorrow, I will schedule my chest x-ray. It is doubtful that I have anything, but it is better to be safe than to be sorry (especially since it can take a year to cure TB in a healthy person).

That's it for today. I'd appreciate any prayers my direction in regards to my upcoming x-ray. Thanks!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Well, March 18 is my birthday. I am now a thirty year old man with a new (to me) kidney. If it is one year old, then does that make my average age 15?

I'm actually posting this in mid-April (the 21st). I fell behind in my blog postings, and I wanted to get this information on line prior to making any new posts. It's just your normal "lab report" plus a little bit of non-kidney news at the end.

My lab appointment this time was at 7:30 am. I think that may be the reason that my creatinine was up to 1.2. It has been 1.0 since my transplant, but I normally see the doctor later in the day. I don't think I had enough time to drink a lot of water before my urine test, so there may have been a little more junk in there than normal. My next appointment (May 13) will also be at 7:30. I'm going to try and see if I can drink at least 20 ounces before I leave home that morning. Perhaps that will help with my creatinine.

All my other lab numbers looked pretty good, and pretty similar to last time. My BUN was still at 14.0 mg/dL. My magnesium remains a bit low, at 1.6 mg/dl (on a normal range of 1.7 - 2.1). Everything else looked great.

I also had my one year bone density scan done. It sounds like I am pretty close to the same place I was six months ago, which is pretty good. The only change the technician offered was that I should exercise with some weights, just to add some resistance to my bones to cause them to be a little stronger.

Aside from that, I'm doing pretty good. I don't have to go see the doctor again for eight weeks, which is nice.

Here's the news I mentioned earlier:
Jenny and I are now working towards adopting a child!

Rather than bore the kidney-only readers with information about our adoption process, I have set up a new blog. You can find it at: http://nmccart-adoption.blogspot.com/

Have a great week, and see you all next time!