I'm being held prisoner

Today's been a LONG day. I have been so bored. I am feeling much better and I am feeling ready to go home. I just want O.U.T.!!

My creatine level is still at a 4 but at least it's not going up. The renal docs say that I will probably have the dialysis port removed on Monday and then I can go home! That would be swell!

My rheumatologist, Dr. Kazi, came by today. I was totally impressed that he came to see me on a Saturday. He was off today but pulled up my chart from home and thought he should come and see me so he did. I like him a lot. Here is a link to his website...click HERE

Erik hadn't met him before and even Erik thinks Dr. Kazi is "charming".

Anyway...Dr. Kazi said that he thinks I am going to come out of the auto immune thing without any further problems. He's tapering me off the Prednisone and thinks once I'm done I won't need any further treatment. He also said that he wouldn't say that I'm out of the woods as far as the possibility of developing lymphoma. That will only happen if the next CT scan shows that my spleen and lymph nodes have gone down. I will have another CT scan in a couple of weeks and we'll compare that scan to the one I had back in December. I am confident that I do not have, nor will I develop lymphoma. I am grateful that he is my doctor. I like him a lot. It will be worth the drive to Dallas from my house to see this man.

I will be so glad to have this episode behind me. Yesterday I realized that I will have spent half the month in the hospital. That's just crazy if you ask me.

For the past couple of days I've been venturing off my floor and going down to the gift shop. Last night I wanted a banana so I went to the cafeteria. There I was in all my glory, lovely oversized hospital gown, black robe and flakes of dead skin all through my hair! I am sure the people in the line behind me were wondering why I was downstairs spending .64 cents on a banana...which I had to put on my debit card because I have no cash with me.

I've been showering daily but the hair part is much more difficult because of the PICC line and the dialysis port. It's such an ordeal to wash my hair because the line and port need to be waterproofed with some sticky tape and my skin is so sensitive that I can't tolerate any more tape. This afternoon Erik helped me wash my hair and although it's by no means "flake free" it doesn't look the Abominable Snow Man is living on my scalp any more.

Hopefully I'll be "paroled" on Monday. I'll keep you posted.