The Rest of the Story . . .

So, this morning I had my appointment with the superspecialist (that's what I call him) nephrologist at the DCAM Building at the University of Chicago.  It's a lot longer walk from the train than I was expecting, and it was raining!  It took me half an hour to walk over there.  But - hey, more steps in my day.  :-)

I've been feeling the stress of not knowing.  Of feeling like there is more to the story for me with all my kidney craziness.  It's not like I learned a lot of new stuff today - I mean, I already knew that a big piece of this was about less salt and more water - it's more about feeling like I now have the complete picture.  I've been to the best and no stone has been left unturned - pardon the pun ;-D  I feel like I know everything now about how to proceed.

Here we are!  Dr. Coe, me, and Dr. Coe's scientist, Joan, who works with him. 

They were pretty amazing.  I was disturbed that all the CT scans that I had at Northwestern were NOT on the CD that I waited an hour for back in January, but there was enough there that he was able to see what he needed to see - and to do what he does so well.

I have issues.  No surprise, right?  :-D  But, in the grand scheme of things, I'm fine - or I will be.  :-)

There is a genetic component to the calcium piece of this puzzle for me.  I have something called Idiopathic Hypercalciuria (IH) (it means excessive urinary calcium excretion).  It's not a disease, it's a stone risk, and for me, it is a genetic condition that I'm sure I got from my late dad, who died at the age of 33 from kidney disease (which is not the same as stone disease, but is important in the big picture).   If you want to know more about IH, this article: Hypercalciuria, was written by Dr. Coe.  Some info about IH is at the beginning, and the rest is near the end.  He plans to write more on this subject.

My urine chemistry is out of whack due to a number of things.  The IH is part of it.  My sodium is too high, my pH is still too acidic, and my potassium is too low, and when I can lower my sodium and up my potassium, more of my calcium stays in my bones where it belongs.  To be able to correct this will take a combo of diet and medication.  I will have to have another 24-hour urine collection test in the next couple of weeks, and I have to start taking horse pill Potassium Citrate again because my body's pH remains too acidic.  I will probably have to take Potassium Citrate forever.  I'm not keen on that, but it's way better than another stone.

I still need to watch my sodium.  And I still need to get more water in - as much as I can toward my 3 liters a day.  This is a really lot of water, you guys.  The super good news, is that I have no oxalate problem whatsoever - I think this means that I'm going to get to add a few vegetables back in (ones that I actually LIKE) that have been off the table for awhile now.  I'll know more after I meet with my Kidney Stone Prevention Coach, Jill Harris (she works with Dr. Coe).  Also - wacky/extreme diets are not for me . . . it's likely that the uric acid stones that made their presence known in October 2018 were caused from the high protein/lower carb diet I had been attempting to follow.  So, a more balanced approach to eating is going to be important for me going forward.

Getting my BMI to a better (read: lower) level is important and I continue to work on it. 

What I also know, is that I need to take more time for myself and find ways to relieve the stress in my life (there is a lot of it, and there has been for a few years).  That I need to seriously figure this out has been made clear to me in so many ways in recent weeks.  Not the least of which has been finding myself eating fast food for the past couple of days.  You Guys, I don't eat fast food - and here I am, grabbing whatever I can because I haven't taken the time to actually plan and physically cook. 

I MUST have enough sleep.  I MUST have time to meditate.  I MUST have time to write and blog.  I MUST have time to do Tai Chi and develop a yoga practice.  And I MUST have enough time to plan and cook healthy, lower sodium meals for myself.   And I MUST have time to nurture and build my relationship with my love.  These are the things that are truly important to me at this point in time. 

Having the time isn't really the issue - I mean, the time is there.  It's more about me consciously taking the time to do these things, rather than flopping down in my chair exhausted when I get home every day.  And after self-care . . .

. . . well everything else comes after self-care at this point.  I think it's time for me to pull out Cheryl Richardson's book, The Art of Extreme Self-Care: Transform Your Life One Month at a Time.  This is a book I've had for some time - I started reading it right after I got it in September 2016, so clearly I was feeling this way before I ever made my first stone.  And it's only gotten worse these past few years.

So - all things considered, I am going to begin looking at all my activities and figuring out what things I can release, how best to manage my stress, and how to keep moving forward in my life and in love.  I'll let you know how I'm figuring it out.  Oh - other good news of the day is that my BP was 129/59.  Yay!

So, it's onward - but for now, I leave you with an old favorite that I have always found to be relaxing - it's on my "relaxing music" playlist, from their second studio album, and before The Boss was on every major magazine cover when Born to Run landed.