Good News!

Just wanted to share my good news from one of my doctors today. It seems for the past 3 months my life has revolved around home health care, hospitals & a LONG list of doctors to follow-up with. I went to see my nephrologist (kidney specialist) today and the lab results I had done to see how active my lupus was in my kidneys were back & MUCH improved from when I was in the hospital. My potassium level was normal which had been too high several times over the past months and it required another overnight stay in the hospital to get it corrected. They worry about high potassium with kidney patients because if your K+ gets too high...well your heart just stops. So, I was thankful that was in normal range.
She told me since I had a good report with my labs having to do with my kidney function that I could start the tapering of my steroids and she hopes to have me COMPLETELY off of them by May!! OMG!!! I am more happy about that than anything because that means I won't have a "puffy steroid face" by the summertime! I have never been able to successfully be off of the steroids for any length of time in the past, but I'm really hoping that this time will work and I can stay off of the steroids.
You have to be slowly tapered down on this medication, so that's why it's going to be over a period of about 2 months to get off of it. But, I'm so happy about that and I'm really hoping I will continue to do well as I taper down.
The other good news is my surgeon called me today and is going to take my non-working port-a-cath out tomorrow. He's worried with my history of blood clots that leaving it in and it not working and me not on a blood thinner that I may develop clots again in my chest & neck (where I had them when I was in the hospital). So, I am going outpatient tomorrow to have that removed & we'll talk at that point to see if we will put another in at some point down the road...OR just hold our breath and hope I don't have to have IV access anytime soon! :)
I had more labs done today at my primary care doc's office, have another appointment with my GI specialist on Tuesday to check out the pancreas with more extensive testing, so we'll see what he has to say about all this. It's been a hard two years since moving back to Illinois to find the right team of doctors, but the ones I have now I really trust & feel that I've finally got the right combination of docs to treat me.
So.........now that I've got all the health issues out of the way...I'll fill you in on other "stuff". Last night was my first night to cook dinner for Dale & Gentry and myself since November when I went into the hospital. It felt good to be back in my kitchen...one of my favorite places in my home to be. I fixed Chicken Piccata & Sagaponack Corn Pudding & the old standby crescent rolls. It was SO yummy and Dale loved it too. We've been SO sick of eating fast food or ordering from sitdown restaurants, or frozen dinners.
After my appt this morning I went and got a pedicure...I've been sorely lacking in "that" department since my "house arrest" too. It was nice to relax there for an hour. Then I went to a local specialty food market and picked up a few more things to cook with. When I got home I was greeted by my blonde-haired darling with those big blue eyes & a big smile...arms outstretched & Gentry running to hug me saying, "Mama! Mama! I missed you!" He truly does color my day...so he helped me put the groceries away & we rinsed off all of our produce together & then we made chocolate cupcakes. I was afraid I'd have to make mini "cake-cups" as Gentry calls them because we were eating so much of the batter!! He got up on his bar stool and helped crack the eggs and put the sugar & flour in & the chocolate. We had a blast!
I've got MaDonna's "Dego Chicken" in the oven & eggplant gratin to go with it for dinner tonight. The timer's beeping at me, so I need to run for now.
Thanks, as always for stopping by! I'll be back soon!
Thankful - Melanie