More tests are necessary

I definitely need a new phone! I have an iPhone 6 which has no storage left, and now there are no notifications - it doesn't ring, ding or vibrate when a call or text comes in. So I have missed several calls from my PCP. I did finally connect with her Monday morning (January 6.) She said that the kidney function tests were still elevated on Saturday but trending down which is good. She said the ultra sound of my kidneys didn't show anything, but it showed something in my bladder - they don't know what it is so I have to have a CT scan. She also wants me to see a nephrologist. So that was some good news, but I still feel like I am in limbo re the "bladder thing." We discussed the hip revision - she said that I could go ahead with it and we can follow up with the scan, labs, and nephrologist postop. I told her to call the surgeon and cancel it - I'd rather get this all settled. She was pleased with this - she said she had thought I wanted to get the revision as soon as possible - she thought this was the best decision. I told her that I just don't have a good feeling about the revision - it is not an emergency - I just can't walk any long distances - and sometimes I can't walk short distances, but I am functioning - my biggest concern is that it is my right leg, and I need to be able to drive. So my PCP is going to set up the CT scan and the nephrology appointment - and will repeat labs in another couple of weeks. I did apologize for missing so many phone calls even with my phone right beside me or in my pocket. She just said that she knew something was up when she couldn't reach me.
So I guess I will be going on the cousins cruise the last full weekend in January. I thought I would be canceling it - as usual I kept putting off canceling it - but I am glad now that I did! This year is the first time we will have rooms with balconies! Adjoining balconies! We fly down to Miami on Thursday the 23rd and will stay in South Beach. Now that I am a lady of leisure, I wish I was going a couple of days early. Oh well, next year.
I think I have said before that I can get obsessive about things. I am spending way too much time researching the trip to Italy since we decided to extend it. Only because I have so much sorting and packing to do. I had been obsessed trying to find information on Gortdromagh in the British Parliament papers a week or so ago - now it is Italy. So I spent most of Monday morning going through the library books. I finally roused myself and headed out to the Post Office to mail packages to Mairead and JB. Then I walked along the beach at the Heights and went to the store to pick up split chicken breast. I made the best chicken soup ever - it must have been the little bit of red and green pepper I had left in the fridge - they gave it a little bit of sweetness. I usually throw in any leftover veg with rice, barley, and baby pasta - sometimes a little oatmeal to thicken it. NO salt and a no sodium bouillon packet - yes, there was 8% potassium in one cup, but I added it to a couple of quarts. I used Mrs. Dash and white pepper for seasoning. I had 2 bowls of it!
Yesterday, I made 2 loaves of Irish bread - raisons are off the diet for kidney disease so I may be in big trouble as I do love this bread! I was taking my brother to a doctor appointment so I made a loaf for him. I had made a loaf for Fr. Tom Mahoney and one for Fr. Steve Madden before Christmas. I mailed Steve's to Melrose but bringing Steve's to Belmont when I went up one day to see my brother. Both had offered to say the funeral Mass for Johnny Murphy - both had been very comforting at that time. Steve had been pastor at St. Pat's in Watertown - he actually signed the forms for my Irish citizenship. He led the Resurrection trip to Rome about 2007 when Mairead and I had such a wonderful trip. 
Tom was associate pastor at St. Pat's and also worked at MGH. He was there for my family when my cousin was dying of multiple myeloma, when my sister had colon cancer, when Danno had the lung transplants, when Johnny Murphy died as well as other times along the way. Tom was a chaplain at MGH when my friend Beth's husband had a lung transplant for pulmonary fibrosis - he was very good to David - he was there when David died there.
So we have a real connection to both of these priests. They both love Irish bread - look at those last names - Madden and Mahoney - so I wanted to sent some for Christmas. I was hand delivering Tom's before Christmas, but ended up giving it to my brother after he was hit by a truck when he was delivering the mail in Brookline. So Tuesday I was finally going to deliver it to him.
I picked my brother up at 3, and we headed to Mt. Auburn Hospital. This is one place I had never thought of working - and it is so close to Watertown. It has all changed since the last time I was there in 2007 - I was going to the lab for blood work after my initial right hip replacement. It was a long walk for my brother who has been unsteady on his feet and dizzy since he had a small brain bleed and concussion in the accident. But he did better than the last time.