@fiesty76, I kept my face expressionless until I got home and cried into my dog's neck! i WAS TERRIFIED. At almost-75, I'm not ready to leave the party. To be fair to my former primary, my labs showed declining kidney function but the numbers were consistent with aging so the "surprise" certainly wasn't his fault. He died before my numbers tanked. New primary immediately referred me to neph who immediately ordered scans and we learned left kidney was completely blocked (I have a history of kidney stones - make that past tense had) and the left kidney was atrophied. To put it bluntly, pretty well gone.

I am not criticizing anyone with the next remarks, it's merely an observation from my own experience: many dietitians have no clue about renally "safe" foods, even some renal dietitians are surprised when I tell them there's a well-known potato chip company which offers "lightly salted" snacks or that my grocer offers a store brand of unsalted chips. (Yes, they're relatively high in potassium but ok in half servings OCCASIONALLY if this doesn't make one's daily potassium too high.) Or that Azteca makes a corn tortilla WITHOUT ANY PHOSPHATES! (They were delighted for me to mention their company name.) Again to be fair, my nephrologist also shops at the same store I have my groceries delivered from and was already aware of several renally ok items but was surprised to learn that small amounts of Roma tomatoes were ok also. (She's willing to learn, which tells you how good she is.)

As for the shingles, I still have post-herpetic stinging, itching and aching along the nerves underlying areas of skin where the blisters were and my docs tell me it could be a year or perhaps longer before this finally resolves. Some days are better than others.

The sequel to the original recipe collection is at a bit of a standstill since two or three companies whose products I use in the recipes have refused permission to name their brands so I've been challenged to describe some products without actually naming brands but with enough information that anyone who follows the recipes can look for similar products wherever s/he lives.

I am in nearly full quarantine on the advice of my nephrologist since I'm such high risk. No visitors except a neighbor couple who help take care of me (the hubby is my service dog handler and a CNA) and building maintenance personnel who mask and glove and handwash on the rare occasions they need to fix somethiing in my apartment. I have several layered cloth masks with filter inserts and wear one whenever I leave my apartment to go to the lobby for my mail or to my bank monthly or to one of my doctors. I carry disposable gloves and hand sanitizer in my wheelchair pack and wash my hands constantly and tend to throw clothes into the washer immediately after an outing.

TMI, probably, but you asked. <smiles at fiesty>