1/1/09

310) Happy New Years Eve 2008

December 31, 2008
Wednesday

El Milagro: I get here on time and Rosie the Tech gets here at the same time... we are all ready for the last blood cleansing of 2008! Let's see... about 122 dialysis sessions over the year... or, 488 hours... 20.3 DAYS hooked up to the machine of life! WOW!

So, Rosie sets up this last session and I am feeling puny... trying to figure out why and where while Rosie continues to hook me up. Aha! No wonder: my standing BP is 65/49... the sitting is 69/40. I point this out to her and she replies, "I got you." I sit here and begin to feel a little better... "I gave you some saline..." what a way to
start the last session of the year...

I lay back and tune in to college basketball on the tube... watching with the volume muted while listening to KUT's Jay Trachtenberg with the volume up in my earphones. Jay's play list for today is exceptional: New Year's inspired jazz and folk! Check it out on KUT.org.

Amanda the Tech comes by to say "Hi. Your BP line is crimped..." now my BP is okay... and she adds to that statement that she "won't be around much anymore" after the first... she starts Nursing School at ACC... and quickly adds that she'll still come by to see us. I say I'll miss her and am sure she'll do fine in school. We discuss professionals attending school and how some of them just go to further their profession without enjoying the expereince, and how others really get into the being a student thing. She replies that she likes school and knows she'll enjoy it. And, of course, a 22 year old professional returning to school is much different than a 35 year old professional returning to school.

I look at my little cell phone and realize that Katie my Daughter has called me twice since I called her early this morning. She is with friends down in Port O'Connor for the holiday... bunch of college kids at the coast for New Years? Yes, I am a bit worried. She's supposedly with her new BF and his parents down there. I call her back and she answers in her usual way... talking loudly in the midst of great noise in the background... sounds like a party maybe. Katie says she is having a great time... went out in the bay on a big fishing boat and the guys cooked some sort of catch for the girls last night. The guys are out "hunting" right now... Texas boys for sure. I tell her my usual Dad's line; "Well, have fun and don't get too wild. Remember that you have parents who'll get crazy about various things you might decide to do." She replies, "Okay dad..." and leaves off the call with me just a little more worried than before. Now my BP is 101/52.

Rosie comes by and I ask her to warm me up a bit and she turns up the temp on my blood coming back in... one of my favorite things about dialysis. When I get too chilled in this place they turn up the temp on the blood and I get this warm feeling spreading thru my body... nice.

Basketball update: Wisconsin over Big Blue in 2nd half by 15! My dad's happ
y. Jay's playing B.B. King's "Bringing in the Brand New Year"... Thelonious Monk, Roosevelt Sykes... all doing their new year's tunes. Time to read my novel as the Decemberists sing... "I'm sticking with you... cause I'm made of glue..."

Read, read, read... doze a little, and then read some more thru the rest of this last session.

Happy New Year Ev
eryone!

Notes:
In at 76.5 and out at 75

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