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It's time

Lord knows I've delayed this as long as I could. But it's time.

Time to get in shape and to lose weight.

Did you know that centers have weight/BMI limits as part of their transplant qualifications?

They do. 

In some instances, they'll require weight loss before they'll add you to the active transplant list.

And if you attempt to lose weight (or not) and don't, they may even recommend bariatric surgery.

That seems a bit extreme... to have an invasive surgery so you can have another invasive surgery.

Additionally, there's some controversy about how much weight to lose. Studies show that heavier dialysis patients have better transplant outcomes than dialysis patients with lower body weights.

So what's the happy medium? How do you satisfy the transplant centers while assuring that your transplant odds are as high as they can be?

Honestly, I think it's just using some common sense and making an honest effort.

My goal is to bring my weight into what I consider a healthy, maintainable range for me - this factors in my preferences, lifestyle and body type. Technically, the CDC will still classify me as 'Overweight' but I'm okay with that. Anything lower will give me that gaunt, "she's lost too much weight/is she sick?" look.

With an eGFR of the high 20's, I still have a while before my weight truly matters. So I'll thoughtfully be addressing my eating & exercise habits (or lack thereof) and focusing on developing my coping skills (so stress doesn't equal ice cream binge). No "lose it all in two weeks" mentality for me.

I'm confident I'll get there in time.



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Round 2 deja vu

My doctor decided to keep me at the initial 45/15 mg dose for another months so I'm anticipating a similar water consumption. Here are the first four of seven (?) or eight (?) five gallon bottles of water. My local grocery store has a water bottle fill station for an extremely reasonable 39 cents a gallon. The frugal side of me thinks I should invest in reusable water bottles and take advantage of the savings. The lazy side of me thinks that it'd be a total hassle to wash the bottles, keep bugs and dust from falling into them before I'm able to refill them, remember to take them with me to the store (I can't even remember those reusable shopping bags) and then stockpile a source of bottle caps. It's just so much easier to buy these recyclable five gallon bottles. Lazy beats frugal.

Winner Winner!

Mon Apr 1 2019 - Just look what showed up on my doorstep (okay, it was actually a FedEx driver) by 930am this morning! Super, super exciting!!! I had that box open and my first dose taken in no time at all. My biggest concern now is whether taking it at 930am is going to mess with my sleep. They say that it's best to take the first dose as early as possibly (my plan is 6am) so you can take the second dose as early as possible (8 hours later at 2am) so you're not waking up all night having to go to the bathroom. As it is, I won't be taking my second dose until 530pm. Ugh. Fingers crossed. In the meantime, here's what everything looked like when I opened the box (yes, I took time to actually photograph this momentous moment). After the inspection of the non-med part of the box, I set my bottle of water next to me (I was working from home) and I waited. And I waited. How long would it take before I needed to go to the bathroom?!? Turned out to take 45 min...