Lifted Up

Krista's bladder infection is now under control with the antibiotic. There hasn't been any more pain, and the frequency of urination has decreased. That's good news because there were some other possibilities for her symptoms that would have been much more complicated to deal with.

The labs results from last week's endocrinologist visit are finally complete. They show that Krista's adrenals are properly generating aldesterone when stimulated. The doctor started looking over Krista's other labs and found some things that need to be addressed. Her thyroid level is a little high, which accounts for some of the anxiety and "sped-up" feelings she's been having. There's also some glucose in her urine, that may be a result of some minor diabetic-like effects from the Cyclosporine she takes to prevent Graft-Versus-Host Disease. The labs hadn't measured her triglyceride level, which might be important because if it's elevated it can cause a false low-sodium reading (an effect of hypertriglyceridemia). Krista's going to need to do some additional lab work on Friday when we go back down to UCLA.

Krista and I were really blessed to have some visitors come over today. Bob brought us chicken soup for dinner which was really nice. This was the first time we had met him, though Krista knew his wife Michelle from homeschool events. We had a great time getting to know him. Also, our Australian friend Maxine, whose family is living a couple of blocks from us for a short time, had her friend Christine visiting from Australia. Christine and Krista have become friends over Facebook, so it was nice to get to meet her in person. Alyssa also picked up our kids to take them to Robin Hood, as performed by the local Artios drama club. Yesterday, we were also blessed to have Willow bring us a dinner of chicken and mini-raviolis. Thank you all for your loving comfort and support!

It's very encouraging for Krista to get visitors, as it helps distract her from the pains she goes through. She has had a hard time explaining the pains, but today she came up with a pretty good description: all-over pressure from the internal organs out. When it happens, there's no way to get comfortable and moaning is the only way to deal with it. These kinds of pains seem to be normal for transplant patients, as Krista was reminded in a very encouraging phone call with a 20-year survivor of a bone marrow transplant who not only related with the symptoms Krista is going through, but said that Krista is doing amazingly well. Kenon was in the hospital for the first 100 days, and it took her 9 months before she had a glimmer of her old self.

Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
(Psalm 42:11)