Category: Uncategorized

  • Daily Journal #16: Good Numbers, More Tests Ahead

    Daily Journal #16: Good Numbers, More Tests Ahead

    My morning health checks were good again today.

    Everything was pretty consistent with yesterday.

    My weight is behaving. My blood pressure looks good. No new signs of fluid retention.

    Basically, nothing exciting happened.

    And when it comes to my morning health checks, boring is exactly what I want.

    I’m Still Hesitant About Food and Water

    Even though everything has settled back down, I’m still a little hesitant about eating and drinking normally after the fluid retention I had earlier this week.

    Truthfully, I probably didn’t drink enough water yesterday.

    That’s the balancing act I’m still trying to figure out.

    I don’t want to drink too much and end up retaining fluid.

    But I also can’t go too far in the opposite direction and not give my body—and especially my kidneys—what it needs.

    Logically, I understand that.

    Convincing my brain is another matter.

    The good news is that my morning numbers continue to tell me things are moving in the right direction.

    So I’ll keep monitoring.

    A Few New Helpful Finds Are Coming

    I also spent some time working on a few new products for the Helpful Finds section of the website.

    I’ve accumulated quite a few things that have made living with all of this a little easier.

    Some are health related.

    Some help with cooking and eating low sodium.

    Others are just things that make everyday life easier when you aren’t as mobile as you used to be.

    I’ll be posting more of those soon.

    Here Come the Appointments

    The calendar is starting to fill up again.

    Monday is blood-draw day.

    And apparently everybody wants a piece of me.

    I have a bunch of labs ordered, including testing from both my nephrologist and urologist. I’m sure some of those tests overlap, but either way they’re getting plenty of blood.

    After that, I have a follow-up appointment with my nephrologist.

    Then the following week comes the bigger one:

    An MRI of my kidneys.

    Trying to Figure Out What’s Going On With My Kidneys

    I had an ultrasound a few weeks ago that raised some additional questions.

    There are concerns about how well my right kidney is functioning, and the ultrasound also noted a cyst and described the left kidney as having a nodular contour.

    I’m not going to pretend I completely understand what all of that means.

    That’s what the additional testing and doctors are for.

    I’ve learned enough through this whole medical adventure to know that reading a few words on a test result and immediately heading to Google isn’t always the greatest idea.

    A medical report can make something sound absolutely terrifying when you don’t understand the context.

    So for now, I’m trying not to get ahead of myself.

    Blood work first.

    Nephrologist follow-up.

    MRI.

    Then we’ll see what the doctors have to say when they have more information.

    More to come.

    ❤️ Greg’s Take

    Today was another good health-check day.

    I’ll take it.

    After the fluid-retention scare earlier this week, seeing several days of stable numbers helps.

    I’m still working on trusting those numbers enough to stop being afraid of eating and drinking normally, but I suppose that’s going to take some time.

    Meanwhile, we’re moving on to the next medical mystery.

    My kidneys.

    Blood work Monday.

    Nephrologist follow-up.

    Kidney MRI the following week.

    I don’t know what we’re going to find.

    And for once, I’m going to try something I’m historically not very good at:

    Waiting until I actually have the information before worrying about it.

    We’ll see how that goes.


    Medical Disclaimer

    This journal describes my personal experiences with chronic illness, health monitoring and medical testing. It is not medical advice. My fluid intake, diet, medications, testing and treatment decisions are based on guidance from my own healthcare team. If you’re dealing with kidney, heart or other health problems, work with your healthcare professionals to determine what’s appropriate for you.