An immuno-compromised individual (transplant recipient) should have a value between 226 and 524. My value was 114. The nurse told me that that is the lowest they've seen in any of their patients. This is a good indication that I am taking more medication (Prograf) than I need to be taking to suppress my immune system.

There is some concern that the medication(Prograf) is increasing my blood pressure and now that the doctors know they can lower it, they think that might also lower my blood pressure. That effect will be tough to see, since I started training for RAAM, my blood pressure has been dropping.

After thinking about what the American Red Cross had to say about my hematocrit, and thinking back over the past two weeks, I went in and had my blood checked by a lab. Looking back, I had been feeling like my hematocrit was in the low 30s, but I was ignoring the symptoms. I think this is a good time to point out that if you feel like you are going through your day with a "parking brake" on, or in my case, you are so tired that you are taking naps in the afternoon, you may have a kidney problem and you should get checked. Around the time that I started feeling fatigued, I had started baking my Grandmother's Christmas cookies. I assumed that I was tired because I was eating too much sugar (flash of energy and then a crash). It is very common to rationalize symptoms away and it takes something big to make us sit up and take notice and usually, by then, it is sometimes to late to do anything about it.