Skillet day

365 ptoject. I was silly and talked my sister into a mini shopping raid to Midland. Stopped to Midland Cultural Centre to view exhibit at Quest Gallery. Almost became a permanent display. I sat down in an extremely low couch. Had a heckuva time getting out. Renewed my Quest membership.  Got a few things at the Walmart.  Here I am taking a break at Walmart.

The cap I had made up. SMC stands for St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto. 1977 is the year I graduated.

I applied a drybrush filter to the photo.

week just past

ending May 23rd, Saturday

old photo of mine – a still life of tiny shells and a crayfish claw, all from our shore

Odd weather, two nights of frost, hard on the eager to get started gardeners.

My dialysis runs were mostly smooth.  A couple of days I used cane. Other days I shape shifted with my walker. I am trying to make my view of my situation more positive but still realistic. My leg ulcers jumped ahead in healing following debriding by a general surgeon on Tuesday.  Debriding is a somewhat neutral term for using a knife to cut and scrape away dead tissue from an ulcer.  Once the two ulcers are healed, my  heart surgery can proceed.

This reminds me of George Carlin‘s remark that the terms “wetland” and “rainforest” were invented by people who found it hard to raise money for swamps and jungles.

Canada geese families have been coming by to lunch on the plants on our shore.  The golden  goslings are tiny but that will change quickly.

I hope to get over to the Midland Model Train Show this weekend.

wrinkles

1. Seems they have to give me a new chest line for dialysis
2. I need heart valve surgery

So problems are getting clarified and solutions are being arranged.

had a kidney for two minutes

Not your average day.

For about two minutes I had a donated kidney for transplant.

I had the call about fifty minutes before I spoke to Jamie

The call was to explain that there were two issues regarding the donor kidney, slight risks.

I accepted the kidney.

That means I would have gone to Toronto and the kidney would have been put in sometime in the next twelve hours or so.  If it was working correctly which was likely it would have worked right away. Then the trick is to control rejection.  This is fairly commonplace.

But

The doctor making the call asked me about my general health.

I explained the low hemoglobin and two tests, endoscopy and colonoscopy scheduled for Nov. 25th.

He said that was a show stopper.

So I handed the kidney back so to speak.  I had it for about two minutes.

Surreal.

I decided to call the dialysis unit in Penetang they were just finishing up Saturday.  They were very empathetic  and suggested that I should  I call the two scopes doctor and tell him about this offer and see if the scope could not be moved up.

My sister was pretty upset, upset for me.  I am bit dazed to be honest.

So I am at the very top of the transplant list.  But I am temporarily “off” it to get this hemoglobin question answered.

On Monday end of the day I see my family doctor as was arranged last week and will discuss the situation.  Perhaps the scopes can get mover up.  Perhaps a cancellation.

The unknown is what is causing the low hemoglobin and what can be done to fix me up and of course how long will it take to schedule and how long to make the necessary improvement happen.

Meanwhile my 6th anniversary of dialysis falls in the first week of November.

Dialysis on a warm Friday

Smooth run today.  We had a visitor drop by, John, a former dialysis patient who received a transplant five years ago.  He brought chocolate mint cookies which was kind.  The hospital gives us a snack, coffee or tea or juice and two digestive cookies.  I usually opt for cranberry juice on ice.  

Warm, warm warm today, above ten Celsius.  Grace and I sat out on our back deck basking for half an hour.  I dragged out an old wooden kitchen chair.  

I began dialysis a little over five years ago.  I have been told to expect a kidney transplant this year by December.

Reset

Got a call from preregistration for my parathyroid surgery this AM. I had been told July 3 for surgery date, but this is not the case. The true date is July 31st. I have also scheduled some heavy duty oral surgery for August 13th. This will all work out.

One problem though, the parathyroid trouble has finally kicked up some bone pain in my hips. Hurts like a bastard when I walk. Seems the surgery will help, but it can take a month to reduce if not eliminate the bone pain. Fortunately it does not hurt to sit or lie down.

I am having to limit my activities. Back to using a walking stick. Things could be a whole lot worse.

Miss Bella watches – taken before dialysis

Miss Bella watches

Originally uploaded by William J. Gibson, the Canuckshutterer

It is often difficult to get a good photo of a black cat or dog. You end up with a silhouette. This one of Bella is not bad.

I checked the EXIF data and hmm, i had thought I took this with the external flash attached. But perhaps not. It was taken in summer 2008 when my renal failure was progressing rapidly to the point where I entered the dialysis treatment in November via the crash method. I was in deep denial and fear about the whole thing and had stopped seeing my nephrologist and at that time had no family doctor. One of the blessings of this past year is I finally got a family doctor up here in God’s country.

That denial period was one more example of the stupid moves in my rather silly life. At least when i was suffering from congestive heart failure I managed to summon enough brain cells to walk into Emergency.

dialysis today

A smooth run, no cramping, which has been a problem lately.  Monthly blood work results back.  My phosphorus is now mid range normal as is calcium.  No word on my cardiolite stress test results from two weeks ago.  The next step in the work up for transplant, not that it is iminent or anything, is several interviews down in Toronto.  Unfortunately these are not scheduled in one day.  The patient next to me in dialysis had to make three separate trips for the interviews.  That is a lot of gasoline and parking costs. Oh, well.  I cracked a few jokes with the nurses today as I usually try to do.  The time passed faster than usual.