Quick Health Update, Back to Yoga, Winter Activities
My creatinine continues to bounce around between 2.45 and 2.7. This is still better than the 3.15 it was at, at one point. My iron is slightly low and I will be going for one to two iron infusions starting either next week or the week after. I have been steadily gaining weight, a little too much, perhaps due to the birth control I have been on. I'm perpetually hungry. I weigh more than I have in a very long time. I also find I can't eat as healthy as I'd like because I'm limited to 2,000mg of potassium a day. I'd love to eat bananas, especially when I night eat, rather than the junk I have been eating. Just in general though, it's hard to get a lot of veggies in. My lungs are doing well. I can breathe well. The airways are clear, and I don't have my usual squeaking bottom right lung; or at least I can't hear or feel it. I can even lay on my right side at night without mucus vibrating and making it uncomfortable.
I started back at yoga two weeks or so ago. I have been doing it via live stream as I'm a bit out of shape from not really moving much while I was out of breath and not feeling well for several months. I believe the anemia I have from CKD is also contributing to me not feeling as strong. I like that I can do the yoga at my own pace and take classes that are a little more challenging than I can handle, that I would not want to take if I went in person. At home, I feel comfortable and I can just not do the hard parts without feeling self-conscious. I can also cough up mucus without being looked at like I'm sick or drawing any unwanted attention my way. I don't get a lot of mucus but now and then a little builds up and doing the different postures helps to loosen it. After lung transplant, I have always had trouble just coughing up my mucus, and it takes me several coughs to get it out. I don't like to go full on cough in yoga in a class full of people. If it only required one cough that wouldn't be so bad. I find it's also a plus to do yoga at home in the winter for two other reasons. One, my chances of catching something is much less as there's a lot going around right now, and two, I usually have to park on a side street as the parking lot fills fast and the class before usually gets out late, so even arriving early, the parking lot is already full. Every now and then I get lucky and get in the parking lot but not usually. The walk isn't that far, it's just cold. I do plan to go back to the studio in March. I wish it was warmer so I could walk outside. I suppose I could put on a bunch of clothes and a hat and walk but I do seem to have a cold intolerance that is magnified by the kidney disease which causes anemia. The past few winters were not as cold. I could walk if it 45 degrees or above and no wind.
Winter is a little rough for me as I get a bit of seasonal depression. I like being outside. I miss going to the park and taking a stroll. I feel like even music just sounds better in the spring/summer. I also need the sun to be out to feel motivated, regardless of the season. I've been reading a lot and doing some jigsaw puzzles. I go for drives. I've been kind of hermitting for the winter. For my birthday, my sisters and a family friend went to see Chicago and then we ate pizza at my favorite pizza place. It was a super fun day. We also have plans to see Mystic Pizza mid February so that's something to look forward to. There are some vacations down the line that hopefully will pan out, so long as my kidney cooperates. I go to sound healing sessions on Wednesday nights. I had gone briefly to a yoga studio some years ago, specifically just for sound healing sessions. The studio closed when covid hit. A few years later, I got in touch with the teacher that used to teach and expressed how I missed the classes. She told me would be hosting class in her basement in a week. I couldn't believe it. So now she hosts class there every Wednesday and we hang out afterwards and talk and it's a lot of fun. In slightly warmer weather, we gather around a fire pit and talk outside instead. On Fridays, I got to my sister's house and hang out with her and my two nieces, as I've been doing even before they were born.
