u/WingsOfFibre

My results show mild igA Nephropathy, nothing currently active or super serious it sounds like.

My other dx is "stage 3a chronic ckd" as my egfr has been in the 40s to 50 for the last 8/9 months.

Only taking losartan 12.5mg for under a month now, but will wait to see what nephrologist has to say going forward.

I already have one autoimmune disorder(ulcerative colitis) so I've been waiting for another one to crop up lol.

Happy to have an actual answer, now just trying to take it easy as I recover from the biopsy from Wednesday.

There's a lot of backstory that would give this all more context, but that post was getting far too long.

So, uh, yeah, I've seen this nephrologist twice now, she's my first one, and she's being relatively proactive, but kind of feels like she only half listens to me and seems like she's kind of fixated on 2 aspects of my current medications.

1. me being on testosterone. I am ftm and have been taking T in various forms since early 2016.

My egfr has been in the 100s until last year. My last measured rate before the drop was 114 in March 2024, then it dropped to 57 in September 2025, and now (June 2026) it is 50. Lowest number I've seen recorded so far is 42.

My T levels are closely observed and are low compared to my 2018-2019 levels when we were still figuring out my dosage. My egfr back then was like 160 lol.

Anyway, it definitely borders the "trans broken arm syndrome" where all your problems stem from your HRT affording to your doctor(or others I guess).

Of course if the biosy shows that is the case, then I'll deal with it.

The 2nd med she seems to hate the most is clonidine. I've been taking clonidine "as needed" for around a year for anxiety/panic/Insomnia, but I took it nearly exclusively at night when J Found how sleepy it makes me lol.

It seems to work decently for my anxiety which manifests physically Primarily, but I have today been rxd losartan for the kidney protection, only 12.5mg since I don't have routinely hbp.

She wanted me to quit the clonidine at night cold turkey and replace it with losartan, but as far as I know, losartan and clonidine work differently despite having similar effects, and everyone and everything says to not stop taking it suddenly.

I asked specifically if the losartan reducing blood pressure would prevent the hypertensive rebound effect that quitting clonidine can have, and she said yes, but it feels like such a gamble when I've finally found something to let me sleep through clonidine. The last thing I need right now is for my anxiety and stress to get any worse, but idk it felt like my concerns were only being partially recognized.

She seemed 50/50 on biopsy, but I confidently assured her I wanted to do the biopsy, but she seems to think I just need to drink more water. I drink probably 96oz of water daily minimum(at least three 32oz bottles), I'm always thirsty....

I guess all I'm trying to say is, I can't tell if my nephrologist knows the functions of my medications very well, and thinking I might just go down to 0.05 clonidine at night and as needed with losartan being taken with breakfast, or just try this cold turkey swap since she wanted me on it at night.

This week I'll be decorating the outdoor enclosure I have prepared for my russian tortoise. I live in Washington state for reference on climate. Current temps are around 70s during the day and 50s at night.

My tortoise inside has basking spot to 100f +/-.

I haven't decided if I'm going to bring her inside at night (when temps are 50s+, below that I would) or not, but my question is, should I set up a heat lamp anyway so she has a guaranteed way to warm up?

I also have a deep heat projector, I could set that up and leave it on 24/7 so she's always got access to warmth without disruptive light if I leave her outside at night.

My is a pre-built for reference, I am not super computer savvy, but I just replaced the graphics card because I thought the old one was dying in regards to its display ports.

I use 2 monitors, one is a display screen tablet for digital art, the other is my just normal monitor.

Previous gpu was radeon rx 6700 new one is radeon 9060 xt

Both monitors work when plugged into the hdmi, but there's only 1 hdmi and multiple display ports. (old card had 3 dp and this one has 2) but literally nothing is working to get the display port to work again

Sometimes power cycling it works and unplugging everything and plugging it back in and turning it on, but the moment the computer screen goes off(sleeping/idle) it doesn't come back on. I literally don't know what else to do with it working with the hdmi and not display port. I've fucked with every power setting I can find and nothing is working