Tuesday
Home: Today was lab day and I went in for labs at 10 instead of early, like usual... the reason: inadvertently took my meds at 10:50 pm last night... not at the usual 8:00 pm. I have had this slipping med time thing going in the last week or so. While out of town I forgot once or twice and by the time I remembered I was facilitating a training or driving cross country or some such other lame excuse. My getting back to life is impacting my meds regimen!
So, today I went in for labs late and then emailed Bernadette with the reason and my adjustments, since I know that they want the labs at the end of a 12-hour med schedule. Bernadette emailed me back with the following:
"Thanks for letting me know. I will remind Dr. Lewis when he looks at the labs. Your level will be off, since you had a longer time the night before, so the level dropped lower and, therefore will be lower in am as well.
Again I want to suggest that you carry an alarm with you at all times. Taking the meds 12 hours apart is crucial for the long survival of the kidney."
Lizzie was adament this morning that I GET AN ALARM... and then, this afternoon, when I had some free time at the office I ordered one from Amazon. To add to my lame excuseness, I can no longer wear my watch on my left wrist because of my fistula. I can't imagine 
wearing a watch on my right hand... it just wouldn't be right. So I went online and found a novel idea in a pocket watch;
a talking watch for old people! --->
Maybe I can program it to yell at me in my Uncle's voice " TAKE YOUR DAMN MEDS!!" in that way he used to yell and in the way I set up the computer to yell at Johnny when he was online long years ago. "Get off the damn computer" my Mac used to say... at the very least it has voices and three alarm settings so I should be able to have my pocket buzz or yell or ring out at 8 and 8 continually. That would be a relief.
So, that's my story and I'm sticking to it! Thanks Bernadette and Liz for getting on my butt about this whole thing. I must remember to take meds tonight at 9:30, in the morning at 9:00, tomorrow night at 8:30 ~~~ and then I'll be back on track... a "clean machine" (ala Dale) running on time.
7:15 pm: Bernadette just called with a lab results report:
- Creatinine is .09
- Cholesterol is 133
- Cyclosporine is a little low; "which makes sense since it was low last night and remained low today" with the labs. She talked to Dr. Lewis about it and he says stay on course and we'll check again on July14th.
All remains well. Namaste Bernadette.
2 comments:
i think you need a batman style utility belt, with a box for each time you need to take meds. then the belt could beep whenever you need to take your meds and automatically open one of the boxes. then you'll never forget to take them, you'll always have them with you, and always look COOL.
johnny
very funny johnboy. shayna and I are sitting at the only internet cafe in cloud croft... reading and drinking coffee and enjoying the weather being in the low 70's. wish you were here. I am here to blog-up from the past few weeks.
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