Every Last Drop!

We have a new Mexican restaurant that just opened next to Lana's salon. It is called Nando's and we love it. There has been another location near Leslee's house, we actually went there for Leslee's birthday when Dave and Nichole were here in November. That is the last time dad went out to eat now I think about it. Now we have one just around the corner.
I took mom and Leslee to lunch on Thursday, we shared a delicious Appetizer platter and as you can see, mom shared my drink with me. Yup, mom has turned into a Diet Coke drinker! Actually, she grabbed my drink while I was not looking and finished it off. The funny thing is she told me that there was not that much drink left, (1/4 of the glass) and that it was quite diluted with the melting ice. Well, the rest of the story goes like this...

As we were finishing lunch, giving mom plenty of time for the caffeine to kick in, she started to tell us about a nurse grandma had. He was a male nurse and was quite "light in his shoes". Leslee and I both looked at her as though we didn't hear her right, and she repeated it again. Then she said "You Know....that is what we used to call feminine men". Isn't that the funniest thing ever?
But, on with the rest of mom's "caffeinated" day.
Mom went with Leslee to the farmers market but stayed in the car as there are so many people there was no way she could have gone in with the wheelchair.
Mom went to Leslee's house and sat in the wheel chair and walked herself around Leslee's house.
Mom went in their backyard and watered some plants and the grass.
Mom picked up an orange from their backyard on the ground that blew off the neighbors tree and sliced it and ate half and commented on how delicious it was.
Mom played with Leslee's dogs in the backyard.
Mom pulled some weeds in Leslee's backyard.
Mom listened to Leslee give lessons.
Mom helped Leslee make dinner.
Mom told Leslee how to cook fresh green beans.
Mom told Leslee how to broil chicken.
Mom told Leslee how much salt to use.
Mom didn't get home until about 9:30.
Mom was very tired when she got home.
Mom was very tired this morning, and got back in bed to sleep rather than get up.

As we were talking today about how her day went with Leslee and she started to tell me everything she did, I told her no wonder she was so tired this morning. As she was telling me about all the talking she did, and about all the suggestions she gave Leslee yesterday, she realized she was so active due to the "little bit" of Diet Coke she had yesterday. She decided it was a good idea as it gave her enough energy to do something during the day but not enough to keep her awake at night. She is doing so good, I am just amazed.
She has been having quite a bit of cramping at dialysis though and today was no exception. I asked the clinic to use a "crit line" that measures the water in her body to determine how "dry" they can take her. It seems to me that they need to try to take a little bit less water off of her and she would not cramp. As it turned out, they were pulling off too much water and will start taking less next week. That should make a difference.
She also had a drastic drop in her hemoglobin this week. She went from 11 something to a 7 something. That is not very good and means she is not producing enough red blood cells and is anemic. That is a typical side effect of kidney failure, but dialysis should be helping her keep that number in the normal range. They gave her epigen with her dialysis to help her body boost that up. She has had epigen injections off and on over the past several years, I had to take her to the hospital for those once a week. She has only had epigen once since starting dialysis and that was a 1,000 unit injection. Today they gave her 15,000 units. They drew blood again and we should have the results Monday.She was tired tonight, but she is typically tired after dialysis, especially if she cramps.