Daily struggles with dialysis > CABG > kidney transplant > fused right ankle > delayed tolerance program
For post #1601, I am going to plug my friend’s YouTube channel. We worked together at my current company, but she has moved on to a better job opportunity. Here is my favorite original song:
Please do the YouTube thing: like and subscribe. And share the YouTube link with your friends if you really like her music. Thanks.
==========
Newest full original song:
This is post #1600 since I started blogging on WordPress. I thought I would run out of things to post, but I keep getting medical issues. Initially I was posting about peritoneal dialysis, but then it started failing. I then needed urgent quadruple bypass surgery and had to go back to in-clinic hemodialysis. That was followed by COVID and a long-awaited kidney transplant. Finally, I recently broke my ankle and I am still stuck with a non-weight bearing cast.
After the kidney transplant, I started to post about random things but it appears I still have lots of material on medical related stuff.
Since I have to eat these by next Wednesday (February 28th), I went ahead and microwaved a second meal tonight for dinner. This is what I had:
There was a small cup (upper left in photo above) of what appeared to be garlic butter. The instructions said to “remove cup” but did not tell me what to do with it. Leave it cold on-the-side? Warm it up and pour over the entree? Dip the chicken breast? Here is what the entree looked like after heating:
There was more meat in this entree compared to the previous meal. I gave it three stars out of five. The chick was not flavorful, even after pouring all the (cold) garlic butter on it. There were also no grill marks on the “grilled” chicken. So, was it really grilled or boiled or cooked another way? I wished they would give a bit more broccoli and fewer potatoes. I was too lazy to plate the entree again, and I also did not have a knife handy. I picked up the entire piece of chicken and took bites out of it. Maybe if I plated the entree and cut the chicken into strips, it would look more appealing. The potatoes were fine, but they ended up sitting in a layer of garlic butter at the bottom of the tray, so it was really greasy. I washed my hands twice and it still feels greasy.
Nutrition-wise, this meal was healthier than the previous one. There was less fat, cholesterol, and sodium, but it had a similar amount of protein. If they added a bit more seasoning to the chicken, I would give it a higher score.
There is really nothing to update. I mentioned before that there was a three period between the last appointment on February 7th and the next appointment on February 28th. Well, despite thinking I would never survive the three weeks without a nervous breakdown, I only have five days to go. I am hoping that my ankle is healed enough to switch from a cast to a walking boot. Even if I need a few more weeks of healing, I want to ask the surgeon for a boot, and I can continue to keep the weight off my right leg. That would allow me to take the boot occasionally to put on lotion and scratch itches.
As for living at home alone, I have gotten a lot better at climbing the stairs on my knees. Two weeks ago, I had to rest on each landing on the staircase because I was exhausted. Now, I can climb up non-stop and hardly break a sweat. I still try to minimize the number of times I need to go up and down, but it is no longer an issue. I also have lots of food with the recent Factor 75 prepped meal delivery, and the remaining Costco family meals.
The amount of work I have to do has dropped off even more. I still offer to help, but I only “worked” for four hours the past two weeks. Due to being on medical leave, it is all unpaid except for disability, but I am okay with helping.
Based on a friend’s recommendation, I signed up for a prepared meal delivery service called Factor 75. I have tried a couple of them before, the last one being Freshly. I did not like the food at all from Freshly. Maybe they were trying to make the meals too healthy? I remember them as dry and tasteless.
Here is the first meal from Factor 75:
And how it looks in real life out of the microwave oven:
The taste was good, but you can see from the nutritional information, there is a lot of saturated fat and sodium. The serving size was smaller than what was pictured on the website. I followed the microwave heating instructions exactly but did not plate the entree and ate it out of the plastic container. The chicken and vegetables were seasoned well and tasty, but the creamy cauliflower rice was a bit salty. The chicken thigh meat was tender, and I wished there were more meat in the meal. There was a layer of oil at the bottom of the tray, likely from whatever sauce they used, and contributing to the high fat content. I did finish everything though. For a microwaved meal, I would give it 3.5 stars out of five.
Would I buy it again? Let us look at the cost. Since I am living by myself, I signed up for six meals per week. There are plans from four to thirty-six meals, with the same shipping cost.
That works out to $15.32 per meal including shipping. For the first week, there was a 50% discount on the meals, so my order was about $8.58 for each meal. The next week is more expensive because the discount is only 20%. At full price, the meals are much too expensive. I feel with delivery, $10 per meal seems reasonable. Of course, if I go with the thirty-six-meal plan, the cost per meal drops to $11.27 so maybe the service works out for larger families. My order next week will be $12.63 per meal.
That was just one out of six meals. I will have to taste all six to see if I want to continue the subscription in March.
==========
For comparison, here is a local restaurant that sells prepared meals for $10 each and up. Someone in my church cell group brought this for dinner a few weeks ago. Sure, the selection is smaller, and you must go pick it up, but the food is good, and the price is right. I am sure there are lots of restaurants that offer this.
I am going to order a few meals from here once I can walk and drive.
License plates for my new Model X have not arrived yet, but I did receive the title from the DMV today. I paid $847 for auto registration and my license number begins with 9K. Almost seven years ago, I got my Model S, and the license plate started with 7W.
if we assume all letter and number combinations can be used, the last five digits of the California license number can support 676,000 combinations. That is 26 x 26 x 10 x 10 x 10. If we start at 7X to 9G prefix, that is 36 different prefixes. Therefore, in the past seven years, California incremented through around 24 million passenger car license plate numbers. Does that sound legit? Am I missing something from the calculation?
==========
As long as I have the license plate number, I can go ahead and apply for California HOV stickers!
It has been only five days since my last update, but since I am now at home instead of my sister’s house, I thought I would share the experience so far.
Living solo at home with a non-weight bearing cast has been more difficult than I expected. I have plenty of equipment, with a knee scooter (thanks Doug) and a (cheap) walker upstairs, and a fancy walker with a seat for the first floor.
Finally, in the garage, I have a pair of crutches, another knee scooter I bought, and a wheelchair. I get around okay, but going up the stairs several times a day is very tiring.
My routine starts in the morning. I have a stash of pre-made protein shakes upstairs and I usually drink one for breakfast. I try to avoid going downstairs until lunch. I would also bring down trash, empty containers, or dirty dishes, one step at a time. After lunch, I would climb upstairs, usually on my knees, and stay until dinner time. Then I would repeat the cycle, bringing up stuff one step at a time too. Of course, stuff comes up during the day, so I end up going downstairs more than just for lunch and dinner.
I expected that climbing stairs would be difficult, but making meals, even if just microwaving, has been taxing too. I did not think about how I would transport hot plates and bowls using one hand since I still needed to steer and hold on to the chair/walker. I used to eat upstairs before the surgery, but now I just eat in the kitchen nook. Even going to the dining room is too far and precarious.
The best scenario is the surgeon letting me use a boot instead of a cast after the next appointment. The appointment was schedule three weeks from last Wednesday and I already survived five/six days out of twenty-one.
Last week, I wrote about having a reaction to my Humalog injections. It turned out that the NP at my endocrinologist’s office prescribed me an alternative fast-acting insulin pen. However, she did not send a reply, so I only found out when my local pharmacy called me to pick it up.
The new medication uses the same pen and has the same active ingredient, but their website says it has additional ingredients when compared to Humalog. Lyumjev is supposed to work faster so I should inject when I start eating, instead of fifteen minutes beforehand. It feels like the medication is more “effective” since I am getting much more low blood sugar events than with Humalog. Unfortunately, I still have a lot of Humalog pens and cartridges so if I keep using Lyumjev, all the Humalog in my refrigerator will need to be tossed.
I am also getting a lot of low blood pressure events, like right now as I type. Is this related to using Lyumjev instead of Humalog?
==========
Ha! I totally forgot to discuss the reason I was prescribed Lyumjev. I am still getting the hot flashes or flushing, but it definitely feels less severe. There is also a big difference in temperature between the two floors of my house, so I need to test my “allergic” response more.
Since I was staying at my sister’s house post surgery, I was not able to weigh myself on the connected scale. I did so today and was somewhat surprised at the result. I did have a few people say that I have lost weight, but it is hard to tell if you are just looking at yourself in the mirror every day.
The first drop is from the SPR program, which I posted about several months ago. The recent drop is from the surgery and recovery. There are no datapoints in January, so the chart just interpolates a straight line. So, since this summer, I have lost about 20 pounds from the SPR diet and exercise program, and another 10 pounds from basically not eating much, or all the muscle loss in my right leg.
==========
Hmm. People cannot see my leg inside the cast. So, if they think I have lost weight, it should be from my face or upper body.
Ever since taking the Six Pack Revolution (SPR) program last summer, I have been making a lot of frozen fruit smoothies. My freezer is full of frozen fruits from Costco and Trader Joe’s. However, while I was staying at my sister’s house, my parents tidied up my kitchen and I could not find anything. I am also out of unsweetened soy milk that is used as the base for my smoothies.
Since I do not have much food in the house after being gone for a month, I needed to make these smoothies. For the first one, I used a pre-made vanilla protein shake as the liquid base. Since it had a strong vanilla flavor, it made my smoothie taste weird. For the next one, I used water but also mixed in some powdered milk. This also tastes strange. I am likely accustomed to a specific taste profile after making and drinking smoothies for the past six months.
==========
In my freezer, I have Rubbermaid containers containing0 strawberries, mangos, blueberries, bananas, peaches, pineapples, oranges, and a berry mix with mostly raspberries.
It has been miserable. I underestimated how hard it is to climb up and down the stairs on your knees. I end up winded and sweaty after each climb up. That is okay except that I am sweating inside the cast too, and it is really irritating my skin. The cast is tighter too so I need to keep elevating my leg. Otherwise, the gauze is pressed tight and further irritates my skin.
It is 5:18 am and I have not slept at all today. It has been an entire day of trying to set up my house for a non-mobile person and it is very difficult. Since my sister moved back everything I brought over to her house, including a mattress, I think it will be hard for me to move back. I guess I need to stick it out for the entire three weeks until the cast comes off again.
==========
I have already made a big misstep and almost fell. Unfortunately, in order to regain my balance, I had to step down pretty hard on my right foot. I know the surgeon said it was healing well but I do not know if my big step messed anything up. Also, since I am moving around a lot more, it is very hard not to put a bit of weight on my right ankle. I hope I did not trade familiarity of living at home for more weeks of recovery.
==========
My right knee is taking a beating. There is still a piece of scab left from my roller-skating accident, and it is quite thick. That means it hurts when I kneel on it. If it becomes too painful, then I will not be able to use the knee scooter too.
Today is also my sister’s birthday.
I had my second follow-up appointment with the orthopedic surgeon today. After sawing off the cast, the surgeon said it look good healing-wise, and sent me off to get some x-rays.
I think they took four x-rays and it confirmed that my ankle is healing well. The surgeon even told me that I may switch to a walking boot during the next visit. I am not setting any expectations.
I got a nice new blue cast this time. The surgeon even got some alcohol pads and wiped down my lower right leg. It has been in a splint and cast forever so the skin was dry and probably stinky.
During the same appointment, I also brought up that my leave form has not been completed. The surgeon said he would take care of it and the entire mess was resolved later this afternoon. In addition, I was informed by our leave administrator that I would receive $1,620/week in short-term disability. That works out to $40.50/hour, which is a lot of money for me to sit around. Our work also provides supplemental short-term disability, but it caps at $1,600. Someone forgot to update the cap amount.
Right after the appointment, my sister-in-law packed all my stuff at their house and moved me back to my house. We had discussed this previously. If the prognosis was good, I would move home. I guess I did not think it would be within the hour. Oh well, I was going to get thrown out sooner or later, and I am fine with right now.
Expensive.
I have an old Oculus Rift that attaches to my PC and its video card. It works ok but the long cable is irritating, and it does not have augmented reality since you cannot see through the visor. There have been improvements and I thought about getting the latest Oculus Quest 3. It is self-contained and costs $500.
So, when Apple announced its VR headset, I was very surprised at the $3,500 price tag. Is the headset actually worth that much or is Apple exacting an early-adopter tax on a bunch of rich people?
I think I will wait for the inevitable Apple Vision Pro 2. Hopefully the pricing will be more reasonable.
Due to a $2,000 bonus many years ago, I have “Private Client” status at Chase bank. One of the benefits is sending out wire transfers for free instead of paying $30 per transfer. The only downside is a $250k daily limit on outgoing wires. That is not an issue until the day you need to send out a large wire. However, you can go into the branch, or set up wire by phone agreement to get around the $250k daily limit.
Last week, knowing I may need to move some investments around, I filled out a wire by phone agreement at my local Chase branch. The bank manager seemed a bit confused, but I was able to fill out and sign some forms. I just got off the phone with Chase Private Client and evidently the branch manager did not complete half of the form, so I am unable to proceed with the wire transfer. I went to the bank on Wednesday, so it has been at least two additional bank workdays. The CSR on the phone said she will call the manager to have them complete the form and call me to let me know I can proceed. So far, thirty minutes and no call back.
I initially started this post becuase the Chase Private Client phone portal is crap. After making me punch in my 16-digit bank card number, it asked if I wanted a callback instead of waiting. I pressed “1” for yes and I got an immediate callback. Why offer me that option if there is no waiting? Also, they do not inform the client about the wait time until after you make a choice. During the callback, the option to connect to a CSR did not work, and after three tries, the automated system hung up on me. Very not impressed.
==========
It has been three hours and no response from Chase Bank. This is pretty lame. I am sending out a wire today online and will need a second wire transfer tomorrow to finish the transfer. I am not sure who to talk to about this, but I guess I still cannot send phone wires.
==========
The fraud team from Chase Bank called me right away. They needed to verify my identity and then gave me a bunch of warnings about fraud and making sure I knew the recipient. I guess they need to do that for consumer banking but having been treasurer for three years at a large company, I know that wired funds are nearly impossible to reverse.
For about the past six to seven months, I have been experiencing what feels like hot flashes. The affected area has been mainly the back of my neck and down to my upper back. My skin feels hot, but sometimes I also get chills or start sweating. I do not know if there are any physical issues, but it feels really uncomfortable.
Usually when this happens, I try and take some vital measurements to see if my blood pressure or blood sugar is either too low or too high. However, I have not found any correlation to either of those two factors. On the Mayo Clinic site linked above, they said the primary cause of hot flashes is menopause. Obviously, that is not the cause for me so it is likely a side effect of the many drugs I take.
Just now, I woke up to use the bathroom. I measured my blood sugar and it was a bit high at 190, likely from eating too much rice for dinner. I was feeling fine, i.e., no burning skin sensation. My insulin app said to inject four units of Humalog, and after a few minutes, the burning sensation appeared on my back. I shoot Humalog several times daily. Is that the cause?
Even now, after twenty minutes and only four units, my back is still burning, and I feel a bit out of breath. I looked online and found some conflicting information. Some sites said Humalog can cause chills and sweating, but the official website listed sweating as a secondary side effect of hypoglycemia. Here is what is listed as common side effects:
And here are severe allergic reactions:
I have been taking Humalog since my kidney transplant three years ago, and I do not believe I have had any allergic reactions to it. I typically shoot both Toujeo and Humalog before breakfast so I will try injecting a small amount first to see if I get a reaction before injection an entire dose.
Driveway camera outside my house
I feel terrible this morning. It started with a neuropathy attack but that has mostly subsided now. However, both my feet feel like they are really swollen but it is not visible, not in my left foot anyway. I am also experiencing some sort of hot flashes, especially in my upper back. I feel very cold even though my skin is burning on my back. I check the thermometer and my room is at 69°F. That should be very comfortable, but I am alternating between feeling cold and feeling hot.
Since I woke up at 2:00 am, I am also very tired. Add to all that blurry vision and a slightly upset stomach, I really feel terrible and want to take a nap.
==========
Now I am starting to sweat a little bit. I am trying to find a thermometer at my sister’s house. I hope I do not have a fever or something.
==========
The cold sweats and bad feeling got worse, so I asked for a ride back to my house to get my old school glucose. However, the reading was 145, so neither high nor low. I felt better in the car, but I felt bad again right after walking into the house. Strange.
The current Libre 3 sensor is returning a page full of 373 errors, but the app has not asked me to replace the sensor. It is just showing the same sensor error screen.
The Libre 3 sensors suck. I just stretched my arms just now and I could feel some of the adhesive backing on the sensor peel away from my skin. This is the third sensor in a row that has failed in about a week. The life of the sensor is fourteen days, so I am only getting about half of the life. Usually, you can go online and fill out a form for a replacement sensor. I did not fill out a form for the first sensor that failed since I was at day 10, but the next one failed at day 7. The replacement has not arrived yet and the next one has failed already.
Whenever you get an extended sensor error and the log shows a bunch of 373 errors, the sensor is dead. Typically, this means the sensor needle has come out of the skin, and soon you will get a 365 error, which is to replace the sensor. Unfortunately, I do not have any more sensors at my sister’s house since I did not expect so many of them to fail so quickly. I need to go home and get more, but debating whether I should start using the older but larger Libre 2 sensors again.
==========
Well, the sensor finally failed and gave me a “Replace Sensor” message. Luckily, I have one more sensor at my sister’s house, but I had to go home to get my old finger-prick meter. I am also getting confused with all the Libre 3 boxes and sensors in my room and keeping track of which ones I need to send back to Abbott.
I am in the middle of another neuropathy attack this morning. The pain started at about 2:00 am in my left heel, and it is bad enough to keep me awake until now. I am glad the pain is not in my right foot even though I cannot do much about the pain. I think I will try to sleep a bit more. A friend is picking me up for lunch, so I still have time for a three-hour nap.
I have about five Norco pills left. I am debating whether the pain is bad enough to use one of the pills so I can sleep.
Assuming I can walk again by the time I officially quit my job, probably mid-May, I need to plan ahead with some activities. Otherwise, I feel I will just sit at home every day and do nothing.
Several options:
Travel: Since the future is unclear, I do not want to plan any big trips, i.e., international, until I know I will be able to walk. This includes my cousin’s wedding in Bali in early July. I have not visited many national parks in the Western USA, so I feel like a road trip is necessary. Not sure if I want to take my parents along. Maybe I can plan an overseas trip in mid-autumn, probably to Asia.
School: I have thought about taking cooking or language lessons in the past. There is a semi-professional cooking school nearby, and they offer twelve-week cooking and pastry courses. I can also try and learn Korean in person.
Hobbies: I do not have too many hobbies. I do realize I probably spent too much time playing computer games, especially solo. I want to do more music production so I may need singing classes or something. I also need to put together my e-bike kit that has been sitting in my garage so I can go out riding sometimes.
Financial Planning: I will need to spend more time on budgets and maybe on investing as I will not have a regular income. I should be more interested in investments, but I just want to set up some investment accounts and let other professionals deal with it.
Work: An ex-coworker showed me a job listing at her company. It describes my current role. I believe I can do well in the position, but it will be a lot of work and I am unsure if I will be ready for work so soon after “retirement.”
Church: I told my small group that I want to serve more at church. My main task at previous churches were either sound engineer, or bass player on the worship team. I can also lead singing and play guitar, but since my current church has a lot of people, there are many more talented people serving in those roles already.
Volunteer: I have not really researched this too much. It would be outside of stuff I do at church. I will probably keep talking to my “student” in Kyiv and find other ways to volunteer.
Life with chronic diseases 