January 2023 Test Results

I originally scheduled an appointment with my nephrologist for January 6th. I totally forgot about this over the Christmas and New Year’s holiday and had to postpone the appointment to January 19th so I can get the blood draw for lab tests done. Even with the additional two weeks, I still procrastinated and barely got the lab draw before my new appointment time. Even though there was a two-day gap, most of my test results did not show up in time for the appointment.

Anyway, the results showed up today in the myQuest app. Here is a summary of important items:

Creatinine was high at 1.61. The normal range is up to 1.30. However, I have never been at 1.30 post-transplant, and results are usually a bit high. I also think I was a bit dehydrated on lab draw day so my doctor asked me to hydrate, and we will wait for the next set of results.

Hemoglobin is still high along with the correlated Hematocrit value. It is not any higher than prior tests so my doctor probably will not do anything different. I am unsure if these results were available during my appointment.

This test shows I have COVID antibodies. Of course, with so many different shots and getting COVID in June, this result is mostly useless. Antigens from getting COVID six months ago is likely gone by now, so these antibodies are either reaction from the bivalent vaccine booster, or the last Evusheld injection. From past vaccine experience, I have only minimal reactions, so the test results are not likely from the vaccine booster. We know the Evusheld antibodies will trigger the test result but are not really effective versus the latest BQ variants. The end results is regardless of the test results, I am likely not protected from the new COVID variants.

There was one more flagged test result for low Vitamin D. I have been taking one gel capsule daily. My doctor will likely increase that to two. These are over-the-counter stuff from Costco anyway.

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I forgot to mention that my Tacrolimus reading is low-ish at 5.5. I cannot remember what UCLA recommended, but five to nine sounds correct. My prior test result at UCLA was 10.5 so they reduced the prescription. We will see if my local nephrologist will raise it again.

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One more. I spoke with the Natera researcher at UCLA transplant center. I asked about test result feedback since I rarely hear from them, other than quarterly blood test lab draws. He told me according to their research criteria, there is no sign of organ rejection so far. 🎉