Mastodawn

good thing I opened that packet of paperwork before my doctor's appointment next week. Apparently I was supposed to get bloodwork done before showing up. Guess who's leaving for a 1:40pm blood draw today.

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da_667 2d ago

the last kidney doctor I went to was like:

"How you feeling?"

me: "alright, I guess."

doctor:"Good, give me blood and urine. See you in six months."

This is the same dude who I had been seeing before my primary care physician got acess to their lab work and discovered I was in the middle of CKD in December, nearly a full year after I started seeing this dude.

@da_667 Yikes!

@mattblaze life sucks, I didn't know how bad it was, but I'm more well-informed now. At last check, it was at stage 3 (stage 5 is full kidney failure, and requires dialysis). Which means the damage is manageable with extremely close control of diet, and in general being healthier.

I've lost 56 lbs since December, and have taking a much more active role in eating healthier things. So, I'm on the right track, and just hoping it isn't too little too late.

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da_667 2d ago

@mattblaze according to internet resources, the biggest thing I have to do aside from already managing calories, sugar, and fat to help improve my A1C and Cholesterol numbers, is managing sodium, phosphates, and excessive potassium. Sodium is the biggest hurdle, requiring a lot of preparation and planning to get no salt added variants of things that I enjoy eating.

@da_667
Low salt is the hardest. Its. In. EVERYTHING. As you already know. We Americans really like our salt.
@mattblaze

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Tindra

@chillybot @da_667 @mattblaze obligatory plug that Penzeys spices has some solid No Salt blends.

But, yeah, salt finds its way into the weirdest things. Like, poultry products (esp ground turkey from what I’ve seen, but also found this in chicken breasts) will have salt added. Just to plump everything up.

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da_667 1d ago

@TindrasGrove @chillybot @mattblaze yeah, I'm always extremely careful to read nutrition labels for meats, because I've heard the same thing -- that some companies pump the meat with saline to make the weight and size bigger.

Pork chops are like 55mg per 4 oz, the ground turkey we use is like 85mg per 4oz, and boneless skinless chicken is like 75mg per 4oz.

Its manageable, and I'm finding that staying under 2300mg sodium per day is something that is very workable so long as I'm well prepared and know what I'm doing in advance.