I have had appointment after appointment with hospitals, doctors and specialists, and the amount of paperwork and phone calls has been ridiculous, but I think I’ve finally got through the worst of it. Yesterday I had my much-anticipated consultation with a medicine doctor who had my results from Friday’s blood test, and I wasn’t expecting things to work in my favor. To my surprise, the results ended up being so much better than I had wished.
First of all, my kidney readings have risen to fifty from nine. I was preparing for dialysis after blood tests in hospital indicated this dramatic change. That’s an absolutely huge number compared with where I started. Thankfully I’m now almost back to normal levels. My kidneys took a real bashing after I took too much Quick-Eze for heartburn. I’ve made a couple of posts about that so I won’t repeat everything here, but I nearly died from a calcium overdose after taking too many lozenges. I was so ill. I managed to get to the bottom of that, but there were still more test results and developments to come.
Pretty much all of the results were good. My uric acid was a bit high — I get gout two or three times a year, which is never pleasant — but this was nothing like the worst-case scenario I had feared. I was prescribed medication to manage that. I also had an echocardiogram, which came back perfect, and chest x-rays that were exactly as they should be. I had assumed years of smoking cigarettes, vaping and using pot would have caused some damage, but surprisingly those tests were totally fine. I received two referrals: one to a new psychiatrist and another to a clinic that will attach a heart monitor to measure my heart rate over twenty-four hours. My ticker runs a little fast, but it’s more of an annoyance than a serious worry. I stopped my beta blocker about a month ago, so that might be the likely cause.
The main piece of good news was my kidneys. I had been diagnosed with kidney disease, and my levels were alarmingly low, so to see them recover on their own over a relatively short period was truly wonderful and has given me a great deal of peace of mind. I also discovered I was drinking far more water than necessary — I had been consuming as much as eight liters a day. The doctor recommended cutting that back to around three liters. Who would have thought such a big change would be so beneficial!