Well, kind of. I had an in-clinic appointment this morning to discuss my transplant at UCLA, and they did agree to turn me over to my regular nephrologist. They tried to do this several times, but there was always a test outside of normal range. I guess all the test results looked good enough for them to finally release me, but I do have a follow-up appointment with UCLA in four months.
I was a long morning. My appointment was at 9:30 am, which meant I had to be there by 7:30 am to draw labs. Both Waze and Tesla navigation said about 90 minutes, so I left the house at 5:30 am, did not arrive until 7:20 am. The clinic was pretty deserted so I was called almost immediately by the phlebotomist, but that left me with a full two hour wait until the clinic appointment. I ended up at the main hospital cafeteria, ate some breakfast, and basically sat around for 90 minutes. Back at the clinic, the appointment was pretty quick. The lab results turned out fine: my creatinine levels dropped down back to 1.30, or within normal range. My calcium levels were a bit too low this time, so the doctor told me to stop taking Sensipar*. Of course, I just placed a refilled with my online pharmacy for a three-month supply, arriving in two days. They are keeping me on the Lokelma since it appears to help with my high potassium. The hemoglobin levels have fallen to normal range so we did not go over any of the issues I posted about here.
I asked the doctor about the kidney ultrasounds again. He repeated that the findings were pretty normal. My old kidneys have atrophied slightly, which was typical, and there are some benign cysts but nothing to worry about. For the new kidney, the arterial flow is a bit high, which usually indicates some blockage (renal artery stenosis). However, since the kidney is working well, they there is no concern.
I got back to my car at around 10:00 am, and the drive home took about an hour and was pretty uneventful. Traffic northbound on the 405 was still very bad, even at 10:30 am. On the way to UCLA, an American Airlines Boeing 777 flew over the freeway right in front of me near LAX. It looked really huge in real life, but the fisheye lens on my carcam made it look small.
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*The Sensipar prescription refill cost me a $10 copay, but my work insurance (or my company since we are self-funded) had to pay ~$2,000. If you divide that out assuming a 40 hour work week, it is about $4/hour for the medication. For minimum wage workers, that is >50% of their gross salary. I am all for free markets, but some of these drug prices are ridiculous.
Life with chronic diseases 