356) Clinic # 3

April 8, 2009
Wednesday

Morning: Liz doesn't feel good again today and now she thinks it might not be "allergies" so she calls ARC and gets an appoint NOW and rushes off to see a doctor. She returns with the diagnosis: a cold. She told the doc about our situation and she told her that it is NOT an air-born viruse... and that Liz could keep from spreading it with OCDish hand washing for the next five days or so. So she is coming home all sad and not feeling good either... pobrecita!

TNOYS: Today is Clinic Day and we head out a little early so I can stop by the office to get my Time Design a Children in Schools journal, and a book for one of my supervisees. I am in and outa there without saying anything but a wave to everyone I see... 'cept Kim, who happens to be in the hall while I am there. We talk briefly and I am outa there...

NAMC: We arrive at the loading desk or registration desk... and are immediately sent back to the Clinic waiting room, where Maxine is waiting for us to escort us back to the Clinic. Turns out Dr. Lewis has been called away to Chi-town for a family matter and Bernadette the Supervisor is running the clinic today. Maxine puts me in a treatment room, weighs, pulses, and checks my temp and BP and I wait for a few minutes for Bernadette. They ask Lizzie when we first come in to sit in the hall with her cold.

Bernadette starts by telling me that she has taken my Thank you card around to all the places that had something to do with me and that she really liked the message of the card and the way I said thanks. The she asks the protocol of questions that usually is used to prep the doc... and she focuses on the pain (a number of questions about when it comes on, descriptions of the pain, scaling of the pain, and she agrees that it seems like acceptable pain). Then I get off the table and down into a chair across from her and open up my manual and she wants to see my meds sheet first: this is leading somewhere, I hallucinate ~ and she pulls out her file copy of the meds sheet and asks me to go over mine as she follows on hers. When I get to #2 on the list; Neoral 25 mg. at nite and say "up again to 2", an she asks, and I reply, "where did that come from?""Lets see here, we upped that based on a call from you all on 4/1..." and then her mood turned very serious and she replied, "well, your level on the last labs was over the limit... up to 280 (?)... its supposed to be around 1 (hundred and something... short term memory lapse here). This is (bad),and we'll have to call Dr. Lewis to see what he wants to do... I imagine he'll lower it significantly... Don't take ANY until I call you later today after talking to Dr. Lewis!" We went back and forth about how she doesn't have any documentation in her file for a 4/1call to go back to 2 and I counter with the fact that we wouldn't write something in and/or change the meds unless someone told us to, and she responded that only she a Maxine make these calls and she usually listens in when Maxine makes the calls... until we just agree to move on through the fog.

Bernadette checks my incision and remarks that it looks good, listens to my lungs and heart, has me hop back on the table and pushes and pokes my tummy and then holds out a hand to help me back into sitting position.

Its my turn for questions and I have some listed: 1) washing the incision... all okay now; 2) Worries about sugar... she says my blood sugar reading from the labs is "normal" if a little high... and agrees that if I am gonna be eating sugar we do need to get me some more lancettes and she'll tell doc if I call and leave her a message about the type of pricker I have. 3) Liz's cold... be careful and wash hands more than usual; 4) rash in certain unmentionable places... try hydrocortisone ointment.

Thats it for today. We schedule another Labs for next week and another Clinic for the day after Labs. We briefly discuss hers and my talks with South Austin Hospital Express Labs procedures and I report that the staff over there are reporting changes happening and Rene's statement that all the orders have been available when we Post Transplant People get there. Alright! Bernadette tells me that as of today I can drive again! It's been a month since transplant on March 9th! WOW already a month!

So it goes in the world of post kidney transplants.
Onward thru the Fog!