1. The deeper I move into life after receiving a third kidney, the more I am in conversation with the transplant team about the anti-rejection drug Tacrolimus. Every time I have blood drawn and tested, my orders include a separate test to measure the level of Tacrolimus in my bloodstream. I'm not sure exactly what the Tacrolimus level sweet spot is, but as my levels go up and down, whichever doctor I'm working with adjusts my dosage.
When I'm instructed to not eat certain foods or drink certain liquids -- like, say, grapefruit -- it's always because the food or drink interacts negatively with Tacrolimus.
Today, Nurse Jenn contacted me to say that she and Transplant Nephrologist Natasha Barauskas were concerned that the bloodwork I had done on Tuesday showed that my Tacrolimus levels had shot up.
Nurse Jenn wondered if I'd been eating flax seeds or grapefruit.
My immediate was response was that I had not, but a little later I thought about the Killer Dave Power Seed Bread I'd eaten and the Killer Dave Everything Bagels I'd enjoyed.
I looked both products up on the World Wide Web and, lo and behold, both included flax seeds in their list of ingredients.
I reported my findings to Nurse Jenn.
I'll lay off these Killer Dave products.
Natasha Barauskas adjusted my Tacrolimus dosage.
I hadn't been due for labs again until Aug 8th, but that plan has changed.
I'll have labs done again next week.
We'll see if my Tacrolimus levels come down a bit.
2. Because our WiFi signal from the router in the Vizio room is weak and spotty on the patio out back, when he was here a couple of weeks ago, Patrick suggested we purchase a WiFi extender.
Debbie did that.
Neither Debbie nor I could read the faintly printed tiny print on the instructions that came with the device, so today Patrick walked me through getting it set up via talking on the phone and joining each other on Google Meet.
We had several false starts while we tried to create a screen share between Patrick and me so he could see my laptop's screen while I went step by step through the set up process.
But, Debbie and Patrick connected through their phones on Face Time, Patrick watched me work on my computer screen by that means, and PRESTO! we got the extender up and running.
Now, I'm happy to say, the WiFi signal is strong on the patio!
3. For dinner tonight, I made a mushroom white sauce augmented with chopped Brussels sprouts covered with Panko and poured this sauce over penne pasta.
It worked!
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