Learning Something New

The last time at the clinic, we had good news, and bad news. The bad news were that Sandra's remaining kidney functions has deteriorated to the point that they only have half of the output of urine that they had three months ago. The good news are that her hemoglobin values are still so high that the doctor is of the belief that she is getting epo shots, until he checks her records. The kidneys produce a hormone, which in turn prompts the bone marrow to create red blood cells. Most people in renal failure, including "Epoman", to whom I gave a tribute in my last post, has to take Epo-injections to help produce red blood cells. Sandra considers herself lucky so far, as the thought of having to inject herself does not appeal to her. For someone who thought that the kidneys' only function were to filter the poisons out of our system, I am sure learning different.