6 January 2026
It's been a statistically interesting week. She had a blood test Friday and another today. I'm comparing those numbers to her recent admission and discharge numbers.
Joyce's Blood Urea Nitrogen level has gone from 65 to 46 to 25 to 28 today. You want that under 50 mg/dL.
Her creatinine has gone from 2.12 to 1.76 to 1.28 to 1.35. You don't want that higher than 1.11 for a woman.
I was also concerned about her estimated granular filtration rate, which was 44 Friday and 41 this morning. It was 24 and 30 at the hospital in December. You want that up (30 to 59 indicates moderate loss of kidney function).
So except for the creatinine, she's going in the right direction.
When I got home I emailed Dr. Holland, the surgeon, to see what he thought. A nurse at the hospital told me that the earliest surgery date would be Jan. 9 but I hadn't heard if anything had been scheduled -- or would be with her creatinine still elevated.
He got right back to me.
He said her creatinine "is roughly stable and a reasonable level to do the surgery we have anticipated." And he confirmed a surgery date on Friday at 8:30 a.m.
He said the doctor at Golden Heights (a new one, I just found out) would check her creatinine level on Thursday. If it's going the wrong way, they'll hydrate Joyce before the surgery. Otherwise she can just come in on Friday.
She has a podiatry appointment Thursday afternoon, which I had already confirmed. Dr. Holland didn't think that would be a problem. I am very relieved she (probably) won't have to endure wound dressing changes over the weekend at the SNF.