Lead update: We are still trying to control the dust in the home, cleaning every couple of days and wiping down sills. He had another blood test Wednesday (per doctors request) and hopefully we will have the results today (probably Monday). We are also thinking of arranging for lead testing in the house which will hopefully happen sometime soon. The local health inspector showed up today with some information and will be stopping by Monday with a giant questionnaire for us.
Liam update: Well, little man has diarrhea and a horrible diaper rash. We have a doctors appointment today to have it looked at and to discuss more about the lead. They think the rash could be due to teething, stomach bug, or just a high volume of fruits/veggies. I wasn't sure if there was an ammonia buildup in his cloth diapers and so I have put him in disposable with tons of A&D. The washer broke last night and with all the diarrhea, I know I am not going to be able to keep up with him in cloth.
He has been walking more than crawling and climbing all over me. Sleeping has not been any better at night and with his diaper rash, he was with us in the bed all night last night. I just couldn't listen to him cry when I knew he was in pain from the rash.
Lupus Update: My ANA score is negative! ANA stands for auto-antibodies or antinuclear antibodies. They are antibodies that the body creates to attack healthy tissues (see here for excellent explanation and examples of scores). That means that they have suppressed the lupus from attacking my kidneys. The next step is to get my kidneys back and working.
When I had the initial blood test, my creatinine was 1.4. 1 week later it was at 1.8 and 1 week after that it was 2.2. After that it has been consistent at 2.0. At last weeks blood test, it had drop down to 1.6! He was happy and is having me do another blood test this coming Monday. My protein levels are back within normal range but my potassium remains high and my calcium remain low.
I went and saw a dietitian yesterday at the hospital. She was very nice and could see how overwhelmed I was becoming with everything. Liam was in a cruddy mood (had not napped all day, had diaper rash) and so he was a handful. We sat down and talked about the sodium/potassium restriction and came up with a plan:
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2000 mg potassium a day
2000 mg sodium a day
7 oz protein
8 servings of grain
5 servings of fruit/veggie
1 serving of diary
1 serving of non-dairy (i.e. sorbet)
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She wants me to eat a protein at every meal to keep up my energy (due to the steroids) and she said when I get hungry, snack on gummy bears, sweedish fish, or jelly beans (my dentist is going to love that). I was surprised how much a serving is, especially with meat. 4 oz is about the palm of my hand (half a chicken breast). An egg is 1oz. The main thing that I was going wrong with was whole wheat. Whole wheat bread has about 70 mg of potassium vs 35 mg for white bread. That means, no whole wheat for me until my potassium gets better. I am hoping to still find a way to eat somewhat healthy while on this damn kidney diet and hope that I can get off of it soon.
Little man just woke up from his nap. Time to head to the doctors.
