Cardiologist Appointment - June 18

I went and saw my cardiologist on Thursday, June 18, 2009. I realize that it has been almost two weeks now since I went to see her, but that's not my fault. We have been very busy here at home and I have not had the opportunity to make a good blog post.

That's not to say that this blog post will be either informative or humorous, but at least it will exist.

All that being said, my appointment was to have a 2D echo cardiogram done on my heart. This apparently went well, according to the doctor. She said that my results are the same as they were last year, and that she would probably not need to see me for another echo for twelve months. This is always good news (yippie!).

I told her that I had been experiencing some shortness of breath when I walk up stairs. This is not a problem when I walk for a half hour on the treadmill. Even when I am carrying small weights, I still do not have trouble breathing. I only notice the breathing being harder if I am walking up the stairs, or working out in the yard (bending and standing a lot). She told me that it might not be a problem and that I may just be noticing this more since I am exercising and paying more attention to my heart and lungs.

That being said, she told me that she wanted to run some tests. I asked if that meant she would try to kill me, and she chuckled. She asked if I had ever done a stress test before, and I indicated that being the reason I had asked about murder. She laughed again, and told me that we should go ahead and make sure my heart functions correctly when it is actually having to do something (not just when I am laying down on the exam table).

So, on July 10 (which will be my fifth wedding anniversary), I will head back to the cardiologist's office with running shoes and a pair of shorts. There's no way I'm doing this test in smooth soled shoes and khaki pants. That's just crazy. For those of you that don't know, the doctor is going to have me walk on a treadmill that gradually increases in speed and angle of ascent. In layman's terms, they want me to start walking lazily on a park path and work my way up to attempting to run up a large hill. Once I get to the point of nearly passing out, they start a five-minute timer and see how well your heart does.

As far as I can tell from the one time I did this for my transplant testing, if you live to hear the timer beep, then your heart functions correctly. Last time, I obviously passed, and I expect to pass again. I may ask to see if they can start my incline a bit higher so it doesn't take nearly fourteen minutes to complete! That's about how long I was on the treadmill the last time. But, of course, as a man I can do it. (Here, you can imagine me with my chest stuck out, facial hair gleaming, and muscles bulging inside my shirt).

That's about it, healthwise. You will notice that I updated the links on the right-hand side of my page (for those of you using my style sheet and visiting on line). I changed the link from our now-defunct adoption blog to our new hot "family" blog. It's called 'Journey Through Parenthood' and can be reached at http://journeythroughparenthood.blogspot.com/. I think that's the longest name Jenny could get (sorry about that). Update your RSS readers, bookmarks, or that little scrap of paper next to your monitor (yes, I know you have one).

Nothing eles from me at this time. If you just can't get enough of Nathan, you can always follow me on Twitter. If you are not familiar with Twitter, just imagine what awesome would smell like, mix in some Internet, and add a dash of real-time updates. Oh yeah!

See you next time (probably after July 10).

Not About Kidneys: But Still Important

Hi, it's Nathan. I know that it has been a while, but not too many exciting things have been happening (medically speaking) to me. However, I do have a major announcement. Now, normally, this blog will NOT contain information that does not pertain to my health. But, for today, we are going to deviate.

Jenny and I are pregnant, and will be having a baby in mid-December (2009)!

Below is the story that is posted on our other blog. This blog was originally going to be about our adoption process, since the doctors told me that my chances were very close to zero for ever fathering a child naturally (ha, showed them!). Though we are not stopping our pursuit of adoption, it will be on hold (per the agency) until after the birth of our child. The following paragraphs were written by Jenny:

When Nathan and I decided to pursue adoption we did so because the doctors told us we had a VERY small chance of becoming pregnant naturally. They recommended procedures that involved lots of doctor manipulation. We did not have peace about going down that road so we chose adoption. However we saw no point in going back on birth control. We said if I ever got pregnant it would be because God wanted it to happen. We are excited to announce that God decided that a pregnancy IS in His plan for us! I am 14 weeks pregnant, due December 16. Everything looks great so far, the sonogram showed a good strong heart beat. I also had a first trimester screening for Downs Syndrome and Trisomy 18 and all those results came back normal.

After finding out I was pregnant one of the first things we talked about was how we felt this affected our adoption process. Nathan and I both feel that God has still placed a desire in our hearts to be adoptive parents. We believe that God is in control of timing and don’t even feel a need to put ourselves on hold or anything. We realize this means we have the possibility of having 2 babies very close together. =) We know God will work our all those details though. I’m going to call our agency this week and let them know what’s going on. Once the baby is born we plan to create an additional page to add to our scrapbook.

Here are some things you can pray for:

• Healthy pregnancy
• Healthy baby
• God’s perfect timing on our adoption
• Continue to pray for our birth mother

Since this blog will no longer be solely focused on adoption I think I’m going to change the blog’s web address. So be on the look out in the next few days for a post giving the new address. You will want to make sure you update all your bookmarks to the new address once it is in place. We are still on an adoption journey, and this pregnancy is now a part of that journey.

Thanks for taking a few minutes to read something non-kidney (at least so far) related. If you would like to follow developments on this story, you can always visit http://nmccart-adoption.blogspot.com/ for details. Please note that this link will soon change, but I will be sure to update it in the side bar (to your right and my left, as I am behind your screen looking at you).

This is truly a miracle, and we continue to trust God for his best in our lives. As you all (may or may not) remember, my Polycystic Kidney Disease is most likely the autosomal dominant type. This means that there is a 50% chance of the gene being passed on to any of my children. Given that both my sister and I have PKD, it is probably not the autosoal recessive version (the more deadly at a young age). We will have to see, as time goes on, what we decide about testing and kidney disease and things of that nature.

For now, we appreciate any and all prayers. I will be blogging later this week on my cardiologist appointment this Thursday.

See you soon!

Post-Transplant Clinic: April 2, 2009

I had another quarterly post-transplant appointment with the Dallas Transplant Institute in lovely downtown Dallas, TX. Once again, it seems that I am doing well.

Here are my results (of note):

• Creatinine is at 1.0 (same as last time) -- this is still GREAT
• BUN is at 12.0 (up from 11.0 last time) -- this is GREAT
• Triglycerides were at 253.0 (which is bad, but I also had donuts for breakfast)
• Cholesterol was at 141.0 (which is actually low, oddly, compared to my triglycerides)

The doctor asked me why I had eaten donuts before coming in for blood work. I told them that if they want me to do fasting labs that I will NOT be scheduling them at 10:30 am (meaning get blood drawn between 10:30 and 11:00). As it turns out, they want to do an accurate check, so I'm supposed to have a fasting lab done next time, and I scheduled my next appointment for 7:40 am.

They also told me that I need to have a sonogram done of my "native" kidney. Your native kidneys are the ones with which you are born. In my case, since I had my left one surgically removed, I have only one native kidney left, and it is on the right side. The doctor reminded me to tell the technician that so that they don't spend thirty minutes looking for a kidney on the left that isn't there.

Additionally, I have not done a 24-hour urine test in over a year. So, they gave me a few buckets to fill up. I'll probably do that some Saturday here in the near future and drive those buckets down to the transplant clinic early on a Monday morning. I figure that as long as I get the 24-hour urine test back to the doctors WAY before my next appointment, they can tell me if there are any problems when I see them (or call if there are SUPER problems).

Neither of the procedures listed above are any problem to do. The sonogram is in the office and will just be at my next appointment time. The 24-hour urine collection is done at home. The only negative part of that is keeping a SEALED container of urine in your refrigerator all weekend. Granted, that's not a problem for us as we have no children or any guests staying with us, but I have that it can be an issue in other households.

All is well with me. My weight continues to fluctuate around 185 lbs. My height stays steady at 6-feet and 2-inches. So, I'm not really overweight, though I feel that way some times. I think my residual self-image has me still being around 170 lbs (which is small). I doubt I would ever be that, no matter how much I exercise or diet.

Speaking of which, I am working on my exercise. I try to walk on my treadmill at least once a week. I try to take the stairs at work (to the third floor) every day. And, with diet, I just eat what Jenny feeds me, so there's not much worry there.

Thanks for reading. I know that I don't update all that often, but whenever I received e-mailed questions, I try to answer them right away. See you all next time (around the end of July).