Today was lab day for this girl. Had to be at Mercy hospital by 9:00 so they could draw my tacrolimus level and a complete CBC (complete blood cell) panel. Just checking to make sure my kidneys liver, white blood cell count is normal. Routine maintenance I call it. While we were in clinic lat Monday I had labs drawn everything came back in the normal range, except for my tacrolimus level it was considered low. It was a 6.5 and the “normal range” is between 9-10. I was already on 5.5 mg of tracrolimus every 12 hours. Dr. SId said once you get about 5-6 mg of tacro twice daily, if you continue increasing the dosage it really doesn’t do any good. Your body keeps absorbing it a faster rate. So a trick the transplant team likes to use is to help slow your body metabolism down they put you on fluconazole, even though it is considered an anti-fungal medication studies have shown fluconazole can slow down the bodies metabolism of tacrolimus. For the past week I have been taking 2.5 mg of tacrolimus every twelve hours along with fluconazole every twelve hours. They cut your dosage in half, because they do not want your level to shoot through the roof. Fingers crossed this will do the trick to get my levels where they should be! With all being said I arrived at Mercy just before 9 o’clock good thing I was the first person to the blood draw site! It only took two pokes to fill two test tubes up! She tried my elbow, couldn’t get anything ended up going in the back on my hand. I can just hear my veins say “maybe one day can we please have a break from the vampires?” Ha! We will see!
After I finished having my blood drawn I ran upstairs and talked to my mom for a few minutes. You know just wanted to bug her! 🙂 Only took up a few minutes of you her time. Had to head back to my car so I could swallow all of my morning pills. On lab draw days you cannot take your morning meds until your blood is drawn. Plus I needed to go to the CO-OP and get dog food before I went to my chiropractor appointment at 11 o’clock. Which felt amazing by the way!
After I finished at the chiropractors I headed home to do a few things around the house. Had a few “honey-dos” that needed to be complete. Once I finished my chores I headed down to my dads shop with the dogs. They weren’t very playful they were more into laying on the office floor with the air conditioner blowing on them! They are spoiled dogs! We were down at the shop for awhile, my mom cam down after work, and then my Aunt Levy (who is my mom’s sister) and Uncle Terry are out here from Nebraska. My uncle has been asking to see my dads shop and what exactly he does. Us girls just talked up a storm, while my dad explained everything. You could tell on his face he was enjoying every minute of it. He has a lot of knowledge about saws, equipment, how to sharpen them and so much more. His job is really becoming a lost art. He really enjoys talking to people about his job and sharing his knowledge. I think my Uncle Terry might have enjoyed it too! Ha! No he did! Of course we had to show them the hot rod!
After the tour of the shop was complete we met up with the rest of the family at Kowloons for dinner. There was a group of 20 of us. Kowloons was one of my Grandma’s favorite places to eat. So it was nice to be surrounded by family and also know Grandma was having dinner with us as well. I said at the end of the table with my cousin Tawnya. She currently lives in Texas with her two kids. Its been almost a year since I saw her last. We totally had some great conversations! It was nice to have that one on one time with her! Growing up I used to be stuck to her like glue! Great memories! Now I know why I don’t eat at Kowloons very much, I always eat way too much! Good grief, I think my eyes were bigger than my stomach! Ha!
Well today has been a productive day, had a little cough all day. Hoping it’s just the weather and allergies thats causing it. Fingers crossed! Well it is time to eat a popsicle and watch one of my favorite shows Deadliest Catch! Hope everyone had a great Tuesday!
Until next time…….
~Jen~
“Just Breathe”
