Day + 14: Straight Flush

The hair continues to shed, which not only itches like the dickens, but it's starting to leave unsightly bald patches on various areas on my head. There was nothing wrong with the thinning hair, but the patches make me look... very sickly. I'm now wearing a hat when I go out as not to make others think there are zombies among us, but in the next few days I'm planning on going to the barber and finish the job.

Another thing that I am watching is my water pill intake to deal with the swelling in my legs. During the first week of treatment, I seriously cut down my dosage of Lasix, as the medicine drains me and makes me feel miserable. As a result, I gained about 5 pounds of fluid in my legs. During the second week, I got back on the medicine, and through a couple days of aggressive doses, I was able to remove everything that I had gained.

Now, I'm back to trying to find the right amount of water pills to take. It is the same struggle that I have on a daily basis since I was released from the hospital after my first transplant one year ago. Too little of a dose will cause me to gain fluid. Too much, and I feel drained and miserable. Right now, I seem to have taken a little too much, as I feel really lethargic and very moody right now.

It is my hope that I my kidneys will react positively to my second transplant, and that I will eventually be able to cut my dose down to more reasonable levels. I am currently taking 80mg of Lasix twice a day, which is an extremely high dosage. My goal is ambitious: to get down to 40mg a day. Nobody has any idea whether or not I will ever attain this goal, so I deal with it on a day-to-day basis, and hope for the best.