43) Phosphorous High

August 17, 2006
Thursday

El Milagro: Carol cannulated me again today. All of the regulars are here today; the woman who cries “Help”, the Hollywood lady, etc. I finished my dad’s new book and am really happy he wrote it. I am reminded of a time, some years before my mom died, when, for her birthday or some other gift day, I (or my brother and I) gave her one of those chart-your-life books where one fills in the blanks about their life; their early memories, favorites, etc. My mom was less than thrilled about the gift (my hallucination) and made some sort of verbal response like, “I am way too young to be thinking about what to write for my legacy”. I never saw or heard anything about that gift afterwards. So, a special thanks goes out to my dad for going way beyond the confines of that little book we gave my mom.

And as I finish his book, and I am now getting used to my practice writing on an almost daily basic, I am becoming more and more committed to the idea of adding my own edition to the two Nowicki books that already exist. I picture the day when there are three volumes sitting on the shelf: Kay: Letters & Memories, Kay and John, and something like, Jack, bound in the same library green hard back and basically the same size, typeface, etc. I am sure it would take me at least 6 years to get mine done too. There would be less pictures but there would be way more text to filter through to set up a chronological + relational story. Just dreaming now… we’ll see if I can materialize it.

Jennifer the Dietician rolls up to talk to me about my most recent blood work: my phosphorous is higher than ever before! In the last month and a half it has gone from 6.8 to 7.0 to 8.2! A good level of phosphorous for me would be 3.5 to 5.5. Clearly, the enchilada boycott is NOT working! Jennifer thinks that maybe my parathyroid gland is getting the wrong message and is causing “too much PTH to be released, which over time can weaken bones and make them more likely to break and develop renal osteodystrophy”* So, she is having Ron order another binder to add: Phoslo. I will take 3 of these with the 5 Renagel at each meal. In ending, she encourages me to give myself an affirmation about my bones: something like saying to myself, "My bones are healthy". I would rather say, "My kidneys are disolving their cysts.", but she has a good point.

Amanda (see Post #4) is here today and I said “hi” and gave her my blog address. She said she was going to write one but somehow never did, so I hope she enjoys mine. She is still on MWF, but came in today because she had to work all day yesterday and missed her Wednesday session.

Notes: In at 72.3 Kg. and out at 71.4 Kg.
* Phosphorous and chronic kidney disease (2005) Davita.com. Retrieved June 28th from http://www.davita.com/articles/diet_nutrition/?id=478