6/20/2016 - Liver Levels & Partial Staple Removal

Today was the first time I had been in the Hospital since last week.  It was the longest amount of time I had gone without seeing a doctor and checking my blood levels.  I was excited and slightly nervous about this

Twice in the past week, I had gotten splitting headaches and slept a lot.  I just wanted to be a dark, cold, and quiet room.  Since you know I have twins, quiet is not normally an option.  Thank the lord "Tita Shelly" is here to help Tessa.  I was able to crawl back into my room, put a pillow over my head, and crash.  This morning, I felt much better but I had decided to mention it at my latest check-up.

The bloodwork came back and I was "abnormally normal".  That's good!  She said it was odd to have most of my labwork look so normal.  For instance, my platelet count (due to the new liver) was actually in the "acceptable range".  With my old liver, I would consistently see platelet counts of 60-90k.  (Normal is 150k - 400k).  I don't ever recall having a count over 100k since my liver had deteriorated.

My ALT and AST, both of which measure the liver function, were in the normal ranges as well.  This was also a relief after the previous weeks where there was some concern if the liver was rejecting because of some higher levels.  This was not the case today, phew!

I did get an e-mail later in the day where I was told that my Prograff levels (Prograff is the drug that prevents rejection) was very high and this can sometimes cause headaches.  I was instructed to skip my evening dosage and the dosage the next morning and then resume with 1mg less (so 6mg in total) of the Prograff.  I'm going to follow the doctors orders and then go back in on Thursday, 6/23 for more blood work and hopefully, I'm back in line with where they want me to be.  I don't think I should be too concerned here as they told me there is some gaming of the levels that occurs with all patients.  They also told me I needed to take another magnesium pill as I was low in magnesium (usually due to the Prograff).  This will take me to 4 total, 2 in the morning, two for dinner.

Now, we know you're mostly reading because you want to hear about the staples and see pictures, right?  Well, I have 50 staples in total (I keep wanting to sing 50 nifty United States and 13 original colonies....).  I keep wondering if they have the staples in packs of 10 or packs of 25.  I mean, 50 is such a nice even number.

Today they had decided to remove half of them, so the pulled roughly 25 out.  There were a couple that were on my old scar from when I had my kidney removed in 1987 so they were more painful and I had her leave them in until my next visit, at my request.  Why pull staples today if I can delay them until next week!!!

What exactly are you looking at?  See below: