A Day In My Life

Well, I'm not exactly sure where to start, but I know I have to start somewhere, and I told myself that this was something I was going to do, in case there was someone else out there that was reading this, going through the same thing. I went to the doctor last Thursday, a week ago today, and everytime I have gone for bloodwork, it seems as though my potassium has been "Extremely High", well with talking to my doctor, I asked him what was causing this, because when your potassium is very high, it can make you go into Cardiac Arrest, low potassium can be treated with medication or drinking a glass of gingerale, orange juice or eating a banana. But not with High Potassium, you have to watch everything that you put into your mouth. The first time I was told I had extremely High Potassium was back in 1999 right before my first spinal surgery, they almost postponed the surgery because of it, but then after the next blood test, it came down, we chalked it up to drinking too much orange juice prior to the first blood test, and every blood test there after. Well now that has all changed…

My doctor now says it seems as though my kidneys aren't filtering the way they should be, so now I have to watch very closely everything I eat, and he put me on a water pill to cleanse my kidneys, until my next blood work in 3 months. If my potassium is still high at that point, then he is going to send me for a series of kidney function tests, to see what's going on.

But now I have a lot of questions going on in my head…If anyone read my first blog, it was about my granddaughter Allie who has FSGS, a non-curable kidney disease. After doing a little research, I'm not wondering if it's a gene that is hereditary. Now the only reason I'm wondering all this, is because I'm now remembering all the kidney (not urinary tract infections) infections that I had growing up. And during my first pregnancy with my daughter I was hospitalized for a major kidney infection, that talk of dialysis was going on with the Urologist and my Ob doctor, but they did get the infection under control, and the Urologist who originally had come from Columbian Presbyterian Hospital in New York, said I have a CKI, (Chronic Kidney Infection) which meant it will always be there, and will always show up in a Urine test, and believe me it has.

So now I am going to try to keep up with this blog of any changes that is going on with me, and also with hopes of anyone going through or has gone through the same thing will share their experiences with me, if even through a personal email to me at: JerseyShoreBeachBum@gmail.com I would so love to hear from you, and please let me know if it's ok to publish your email, as it might help someone else going through the same thing. Please make sure you check back often for any updates, and for anyone sharing their story with us.