Melody's Blood test results, High Urea Nitrogen???
 

Well, last week I went to my former primary care physician and because I haven't had the standard blood tests in a long time from him (and even though on January 18 I'm going to Cornell and have all these same blood tests, ekg, EVERYTHING done for my two year checkup, we still did the blood test thing.

Got the results in the mail today.

The only things that kicked out of range are as follows:

UREA NITROGEN 28 Range is 7 - 25 mg/dL
FYI, my creatinine was 1.0 which seems to be in range.

BUN/CREATININE RATIO........ 28.0 Range is 6.0 - 25.0

URIC ACID .........7.7 Range is 1.7 - 7.5 mg d/L

Oh, my total cholesterol is 161, HDL IS 48, LDL is 93,
CHOLESTEROL/HDL RATIO IS 3.4

Triglycerides were 98

HEMOBLOBIN A1C was 6.8 (used to be 9.0 when I first went to Cornell)

So all in all, everything is okay EXCEPT FOR THIS UREA, NITROGEN AND URIC ACID THING..
I looked this up on the internet and it says many things can contribute to kidney disease (which I don't, as far as I know have). I urinate quite fine, thank you very much. This means I have protein in my kidneys right?
I do have diabetes for 18 years. I don't eat any red meat (said somethint about GOUT in the article)., never been diagnosed with that.

Also, in all three things which I had out of range it said that thiazide can contribute to a high reading. Other meds can do the same.

Now I am on Zestoretic 20/25 (for over a year now). This is a high blood pressure pill combined with a water pill right?

So why do I have a high count in these three things?

Tomorrow I'm taking him to see Dr. Fred about his foot so if the guy has time (He's going to be my new primary care physician), I'll just show him this and say "do you want me to make an appointment sooner than later or do we wait for the full workup at Cornell"? KNowing him (because I already told him about Cornell, he'll say, "do the Cornell thing and then we'll see the results".

My question is "From these results, am I getting kidney disease,? (I eat and drink water appropriately), I exercise (not to excess) I don't eat red meat) so can it be that because I have diabetes for 18 years, this is what happens? I basically live on fish and grilled chicken. I once in a while (like last night and last week) had scallops and shrimps, but mainly I like salmon.
I'll keep on drinking water, that much I can do!!!

Thanks for any answers.

Melody

Hi Mel
 

I really am not certain, but a long time ago on one of my routine blood tests my creatinine & Bun were lower than the normal lab values. But they told me that was perfectly normal in someone my age,and a sign of good healthy kidney function.

I find blood test results very confusing as it could be this, or it could be that...

I am sorry I could not be of more assistance.

My guess is you were a bit dehydrated when you had the blood drawn. Just a guess.

Thanks to both of you.
My mind was having me have all kind of kidney stuff and this and that.

I know what uric acid is. I had a old uncle who had gout and he used to eat lots of red meat. I havent eaten meat in 20 years.

I do live on Fish. I hope the doctor doesn't tell me "no more fish".

I mean, what else is there for me but grilled chicken, fish and veggies and salad. Don't mind this way of eating because I like it but if they start telling me I have to live on soy, well, I don't know.

I wonder though. Don't the people on the Atkins diet have to have uric acid because of all the protein they eat? Isn't this dangerous?

yes, but Melody, could you have been dehydrated? If you had the blood in the morning and had not drunk a good deal of water, that would be possible, for instance.

it is probably the
 

hydrochlorothiazide that is doing it.

HCTZ commonly causes gout. You can discuss with the doctor, changing
to plain zestril for a while, and see if your blood pressure stays good, and
the uric acid readings go down.

Since you are doing well, you may have no problems with a slight change/adjustment in the meds.

Just my opinion.

The morning I took the blood test, I had to do it on a fast.
So because I never eat after 7 p.m. in the evening., I had nothing to eat from dinner the night before to the blood test which was 9:30 the next morning. Now I probably had a glass of my totally light (think crystal lite but with splenda instead). I ususually drink that with meals.

I never, and I mean never drink just plain water.

I am used to the totally light drink.

So think about it, I went from 7 p.m. till 9:30 a.m. the next morning with nothing but maybe a glass of Totaly Light in between. That is definitely not enough liquid is it??

Never realized that.

Will tell the doctor about that.

Wish us luck today!! we find out why Alan's foot is swollen

Mel

Mrs D--Yah, I missed that Melody is on a diuretic, somehow.

Mel--between the diuretic and not drinking, that's the explanation. You gotta drink water!

Melody...THAT is not ....
 

enuf liquid at ALL! Fasting, usually does'nt exclude WATER. And probably encourages it tho, maybe IT only... Bet you probably got a bruise at the draw site as well? That could be the dehydration aspect. Soo, don't panic. Think of it all as well, 'concentrated' for the interim.. I'll bet that they will probably want a 'follow up' test soon. Gee, cant' imagine why!

Hugs and good things for the interim? - j

I don't think it is dehydration...
 

If it were lots of people would have factitious elevated BUN...uric acid.

The effects of HCTZ are because of specific actions on the kidney.
Diuretics increase absorption of urate in the kidney.
Melody's test results are not too out of range... the serum creatinine is normal. The doctor may overlook it all.

Just got back from Alan's doc, He's mine now too!!!
 

First we went to the podiatrist and he takes one looks at Alan's feet and says "Oh they look beautiful"!!! I look at him like he lost his marbles, and I say "they're beautiful, he has psoriasis, and god knows what else on his toes, they're beautiful???" the doctor burst out laughing and said "oh yeah, but for Alan, today they are beautiful. There is no sign of an infection, and the ulcer is all healed (underneath). Now we have to make a decision whether to operate and shave the bone, because if you asked me right now, I'd say Alan's foot is just fine and he doesn't need any operation, but we've been doing this back and forth for 8 months, but honestly TODAY IS THE BEST HIS FEET HAVE LOOKED".

So I said "why not wait until the next visit and if you see the ulcer starting up again, you'll have your answer and we can make a good decision". The doctor looks at Alan and says "thank god you married her". Alan burst out laughing.

He also said that the best psoriasis medicine is something over the counter called PHOTOTAR. I'm going to look it up. Believe me, if Dr. Baird likes a med, I'll get the med. He cured my nail fungus with a bottle of something called Gordochom that he sells out of his office. Best $12 I ever spent.

So then we leave this doctor and go and see Dr. Fred (who is now my primary care physician but since I don't have my MediBlue card yet, I have not see him officially yet).

So we go there and we take off Alan's shoes and socks and he sees that there WAS SWELLING but that it is significantly improved.

We discussed Lyrica and he said "unfortunately, that's the one big side effect of lyrica, the fluid retention".

I had brought the pancake syrup with me to show him the sodium content and told him Alan was eating Blueberry muffins at Dunkin Donuts and they had a lot of sodium. The doctor said "His ankles are not swollen right now (this was at 3:30 p.m.) so in the past few days they have gone down dramatically.

Alan has decided (for now) to go off the lyrica and see what happens. He will take a sleeping pill at night because that is when the PN is the worse.

The doctor said "that's fine, so give it a week and if you need to be back on lyrica, you can go back on". I asked "what if he swells up again"? I said "will you give him lasix" He said "I really don't like to put Alan on any more drugs and really, I'm looking at his ankle and it has all gone down so it might have been the added sodium that he wasn't used to or it could be the lyrica. Let's just wait and see". I then asked "so we watch his feet for a week, and if they well up again, I call you". He said: "Absolutely, but I really don't think that's going to happen, he looks really good"


Alan says "what do you mean I look good, I'm fat, look how bloated my stomach is". Dr. Fred starts laughing and said "Alan, you lost 70 lbs, that's excess skin". Alan can go back to the gym so he's ecstatic about that!!!

THEN HE LOOKS AT ALAN AND SAYS" "Aren't you glad you are married to this woman, she takes such care of you"??. Alan and I burst out laughing

Now we get to ME!!!!
Dr. Fred knows I am going to Cornell for my full 2nd year workup. The plan was to go to Cornell, get all results and then officially go to Dr. Fred and make him my primary care physician.

So there I was in his office (with Alan as the patient of record today, right?). I asked Dr. Fred. Do you have a moment, I'd like to discuss some of my test results with you now even though I don't have an appointment".

He said "sure, what's the matter, I said well, my uric acid is high and my urea nitrogen is out of whack, and I have the test results with me".

He immediately said "show me". I took all the results out of my bag and he's reading all my tests results and he immediately goes "hm hm , oh, your numbers are great, this is good this is good, "oh, I see what you mean, this looks like dehydration to me". Drink more water" I said "yeah, I know about rehydration now. Then I explained about the blood presure pill I'm on with the water pill in it and he says "Okay, don't worry about these test results, I really do think this is dehydration, but go to Cornell and speak to them and show them these tests. They'll probably take you off the portion of the blood pressure pill that has the water pill on it. They'll see how that goes".
Then when you get all your results, come back here as a patient, we'll run all new blood tests in March. Okay??" I said "I love you." He laughed.

He took the time to read my tests and I didn't even have an appointment with him. He takes the time to speak to you as a human being and he listens.
He also went out and brought back some more samples of plavix for Alan and said "don't worry, I will put more away for you for the next time.

Soooooooo, I now have a brand new primary care guy who looks like Arnold Schwartznegger but has the compassion and the grace of a Mother Theresa,.

I feel very very fortunate that we are in the hands of such good guys.
And I get to go to Cornell too!!!!

So Alan feels good, his ankles and feet are no longer swollen and he is off Lyrica (for how long, we don't know).

So right now I'm so hungry I could eat a cow.

Will have grilled chicken.

Thanks for all the info guys.

Love, Melody

Your doctor visits
 

Hi Melody:

Things sound much better for both of you. So drink more water already...

Shirley H.

I'm drinking, I'm drinking.


http://bestsmileys.com/drinking/5.gif

Notice...
 

I am thinking about moving to New York... You guys all seem to have such great docs there.
Cathie

To Melody
 

Good girl!

Shirley H.