1. I've haven't ever nailed down Copper's age. I've looked into it a bit and Dr. Cook made his estimate, but I'm not absolutely sure. It's no problem that I don't know, but let's say Copper is about 13 years old. That's the equivalent of nearly 70 years old in human years. In other words, Copper and I might be at about the same stage of life.
Today, I pulled back the curtains in the bedroom, hoping to photograph Copper using more natural sunlight. I took a couple pictures I enjoyed, but with the manual focus lens I'm using, I forgot to get the pictures in focus.
I did, however, snap one picture in focus and it's a picture that portrays many hours of Copper's days and portrays what I also enjoy doing as a seventy year old!
2. Today my lifelong friend Roger Pearson called me. He and Don Knott grew up together in the same neighborhood, both attended Lincoln Elementary and Kellogg Junior High and Kellogg High School together. They played guard together in basketball, were golfing partners recreationally and teammates on the KHS golf team, and were best of friends, like brothers to each other, over the years.
It did my soul a lot of good to talk with Roger about Don, especially as we discussed all the things we admired about him: his intelligence, generosity, concern for others, determination, and athletic skill, to name a few.
Later in the evening, in a group text, Roger, Terry Turner, and I reminisced about a wild afternoon and evening we spent on September 6, 1980 in Eugene, first at Autzen Stadium watching the Oregon/Stanford football game and then remembering how at Taylor's we watched John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors go toe to toe in a semi-final US Open tennis match. Terry and I got pretty rowdy watching the match, beating on the booth we were seated in and, looking back, I don't remember clearly if we were warned to settle down or leave or if we were actually escorted out.
I do know one thing: Taylor's was not our last stop that evening! Man -- forty-four years ago we had stamina and we could get loud and obnoxious and careless!
3. I like to use this blog as a way to write about what's going on with my kidney transplant.
The results of three of my blood tests came in on Thursday and Friday -- the results of these particular tests always take a little longer.
A reminder: the transplant team monitors either weekly or bi-weekly the levels of immune-suppresion drugs in my system. I need to have enough of these drugs in my system to prevent my immune system from rejecting my new kidney, but if my levels are too high, I'm vulnerable to viruses and infection.
What I'm about to write is not alarming.
My dosages of immune-suppression drugs have been a bit too high and two viruses have exploited my suppressed immunity and shown up in tests.
One is the BK virus, the other the CMV.
The levels of BK and CMV in my system are very low.
Ever since the transplant, I've been taking a medication to prevent CMV infection and this drug, along with the lowering of my immune-suppression dosages, will likely take care of this infection. Likewise, this lowering will help my immune system deal with the BK virus.
I do need to be vigilant.
I need to keep washing my hands, being careful about the social situations I enter into, and keep wearing a mask when I'm unsure about whether there might be people around me who are ill.
I also need to be monitoring myself for flu like symptoms, fever (I take my temp morning and evening), infections, and diarrhea.
I've been doing all of this anyway over the last four months, but with the appearance of these low level viruses, I'll be even a bit more attentive to how I feel and how I move through the world.
One last thing: you might wonder why the doctors didn't give me the exact right dosage from the get go.
First of all, we humans are not machines. We all respond to medication differently. Until some time passed and the doctors saw how my system was responding to the medications, they've had to make education estimates regarding the dosage of my immune-suppression drugs and adjust dosages as we move forward. This is routine, normal, to be expected.
Second of all, reality isn't stable. We live in a reality of continuing flux. In such a reality, a reality that my renal health is very much a part of (!), things are going to change, doctors need to make adjustments, and the whole process of testing, monitoring, and responding will continue on.
I'm confident and optimistic that this process is going well.
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