The "Feeling Better is a Good Thing!", edition.

Good Monday morning!  I'm feeling better. It feels good to feel better. Yes, I doing treatment 6 days a week for a while. And we're slowly taking off excess fluid.  It's making a difference. Because my nephrologist suggested (ordered) me to increase the amount of fluid to remove and add a day of treatment and because I'm feeling a LOT better, I'm really trusting him. The coughing is easing. I'm still coughing because I'm still carrying extra fluid, but it's nowhere as much as a few weeks ago. I have more energy. My appetite has returned. And my blood pressure has dropped.  Yeah. The blood pressure was going as high as around 160/101. Not good. My reading at end of treatment last night was 101/69.  And no, I didn't get light headed.  Hah!  

As I have been dropping the fluid weight, I was concerned because there will be a weight I cannot go below and this will be my dry weight. At that point I'll get light headed, feel cold, clammy and flushed at the same time (how does that even work????) and will cramp and may even faint.  And let me tell ya' the cramping is freaking intense.  I've seen people cramp when I was incenter. I felt their pain just watching them.  This comes when too much fluid is removed.  But so far, so good. Right now I am 1 kg away from my new target weight.  To put this in perspective, my target weight will have dropped 3 kg or 6.6 pounds. I've been carrying an extra, unwanted, unneeded, made me very sick 6.6 pounds of fluid. At least 6.6 pounds. I could be carrying more.  Sigh.   And yes. Some of the symptoms mimicked the symptoms I had when my kidneys failed. Lessons learned. 

So that being said, I'm getting out among the living again. I went to a Target and didn't use or need the scooter!  I went to sorority meeting. Drove myself!  I'm not getting as tired so quickly and I'm not gasping for breath as much after physical exertion. I even cooked some seafood chowder, instead of "supervising" Brian. Oh seafood chowder?  Shrimp, lump crabmeat, clams, seafood stock, clam juice, heavy cream, shallot, celery, potato, bay leaves, cayenne pepper, bay seasoning. Delicious!!!  Made so much, we had to freeze some. Also made some spaghetti with an arribiata bolognese sauce.  That pot of pasta was the best I've ever made.  Yeah. I watch too many cooking shows!   Lol.  

Yesterday we went to Marys Hash House for breakfast.  Dad had eggs and sausage. Mary makes her sausage and the patties are huge!  And tasty. I had the corned beef hash, eggs and grits. Brian had a shrimp and spinach eggs Benedict. Mary makes her own jams, jellies and apple butter. I got jalapeño Apple, Brian got orange. There were at least 10 more flavors. She also makes her own sauces, like spicy ketchup, chipotle and habernero. I like the chipotle. It's just hot enough and complements the hash. Other hashes on the menu are roast beef, meatloaf, turkey, salmon and vegetarian and an everything hash!  There was also a chili omelet with hatch chokes on the daily special menu. And yes, the portions are outrageous!!  

That's it for today. We'll start the Christmas prep today. I'm finalizing my menu. And I'll be texting dishes on my will Guinea pigs....Dad and Brian. Lol lol. I took some photos of my treatment set up. I'll share and write about that later this week.  Have a wonderful day!!!!