What was I saying?

As I move further away from my diagnosis and surgery for Kidney Cancer, I find that it is easier for myself and others to really forget all that I went through.

Lately my left side at the rib has been acting out again. I would have thought that over two years later, I wouldn't still be dealing with this pain, but nonetheless, it remains a constant thorn in my side. I have to switch to sleeping or laying onto my right side because I can't be on the left for too long without it starting to swell and give me some pain.

As annoying as this may be, it really doesn't compare to some more ... sensitive things. Now that I'm back in school and having to work harder than I ever have before on a scholarly level, I'm noticing the changes in my study habits and abilities. While test taking has never been easy for me, it is even more difficult now. Quizzes in particular have cause me issues. The reason being? My memory retention and in particular, my recall/processing speed is crap. I learn things, I know them but when time comes for me to express and reveal that knowledge, I fail. It's like there is a lock in my brain and I'm fumbling with the keys trying to open it but I'm left in the dark and can't gain access.

Fortunately my grades haven't suffered unmanageably by this "defect" I now have. The thing that has been the struggle is when I am having conversations with people and it just takes longer to get a story or information out. It's like I have ADHD and my brain is distracted by other things it has to process and can only do one at a time, so my speech suffers. The worst is if I get interrupted. Having to remember where I left off and what I was on my way to saying is next to impossible now. I have to rely heavily on others in the conversation to guide me back to the point I was making, which honestly makes a lot of stories anti-climactic. It makes me feel very foolish, to be honest. And it is frustrating when I have to explain to people that my processing speed is just not there. They need to be really patient with me. But it is hard for others to remember this about me. It is difficult being smart but having people question that from hearing me speak. :(

I dislike making depressing posts but I was frustrated about this recently and felt like making a post about it. If you talk to me and notice that I'm having a hard time remembering what I'm saying or forget what I'm talking about in the middle of our conversation, please be patient with me. And don't give up on me. Chemo is hard on the body, but also on the brain.

The solo kidney

I can't believe its been almost a year since I wrote! I am probably the worst at consistently writing in blogs. I mean, I do have SEVERAL of them, but I don't keep up on a single one. Granted, life has been busy, as I've moved 3,000 miles away from home and am in the last stretch of my first semester of graduate school. Craziness!

With that being said, I haven't forgotten about my endeavors toward being an advocate in the fight against cancer. I try to keep up with latest info, I read articles all the time, I have an entire Pinterest board devoted to stupid cancer (not the organization, just cancer, cause it's stupid), I post facts on my facebook page regarding signs and symptoms, statistics, etc mostly with Kidney Cancer in general (although I'm on a facebook hiatus currently. Good thing to do every once and a while!) But I think most importantly of all, my advocacy has become a career goal. In fact, I wrote a blog about it a couple months ago on my advocacy blog (Don't think I mentioned that hear. I am so bad at this stuff!) You should check it out: Life With One Bean

So, the "inspiration" for blogging here again came from some recent events regarding my health that had me wondering. I've changed some things about my diet and am on a new path toward health but I wanted to make sure I really was doing it right this time. I was curious a few days ago what I could find regarding diet and health with one kidney.

/sidebar: After surgery, my doctor literally only said regarding life with one kidney was "lower your sodium intake." That was it. Ok?? And I was seeing a nutritionist, and while she was a very nice person, she didn't really know anything about living with one kidney and to be honest, probably wasn't qualified to handle my obesity problem. I took some general information she had given me but at that time it wasn't practical in my life. /endsidebar

I did some google searching in class the other day (done with everything in that class, so I'm starting to phone it in) and for the first time, I actually found stuff out. Yes, I've done the exact same searches before but always came away with nothing. Not sure why this time was different. Here is what I learned about living with one kidney:

• When you lose one kidney, your remaining kidney grows in size to accommodate. Because of your now enlarged kidney, you're at more of a risk for injury, especially with regards to contact sports. 
• A daily sodium intake should be between 1,500-2,000mg. Any higher causes hypertension, thicker blood and then makes your heart beat faster.
• Protein levels should be lower too in order to prevent the protein from leaking out of the blood stream into your urine. Once this happens, your body will retain the fluid in your abdomen and ankles. (Now I understand why my doctor was always checking my ankles at each appointment. He could have told me.)
• Urinalysis and blood levels should be checked yearly and kidney function (looking for the GFR efficiency) every few years.
• Lowering phosphorus or potassium or else it can lead to calcium deficiency and bone disease and irregular heart beat.
• And of course Diabetes is a major underlying factor for kidney failure. 

This is all interesting information. I've been eating extremely well for the last few weeks and have actually acheieved the water intake I've been striving for for years. (Don't know why drinking water has been so hard). Because of this, my body has been going through a transition because it is essentially detoxing! Part of the reason I got into the right mindframe was I could actually feel my body holding on to too much sodium and crap. Now that I have this info I can try to keep my sodium levels as close as possible to a healthy level. It's really hard. REALLY hard. Calories? Old news, that's easy. Sodium? Not so much. Basically if I eat more than 1 processed food item in a day, I come dangerously close to going over the limit. Whole foods is the way to go!

It's taken 2 years to understand it, but it's finally time to treat this one kidney RIGHT! I want to have a relationship with it that's healthy for the rest of my life. We're kind of attached to each other.

Hold on... WE SHOULD NAME IT! We named my other kidney and I got rid of Vlad because he was bad... but this little guy (big guy now..) is GOOD and needs a name. Suggestions??