250) Kerrville Folk Fesitval '08 Report

K-ville, Texas:This year's KFF was the best yet... mostly because I was there and healthy throughout the whole three weekends. I received my dialysis each Saturday at the Kerrville Dialysis Center and the staff mostly remembered me and took very good care of me. Alas, since it is a few weeks now, I can't remember who to thank by name.

The first weekend my son, John, and I went together without Liz and the girls, and had a Father / Son "bonding" time together. We set up the new pop-up and on Friday night his pals, Sara (green shirt) and Eddie (green cup) came out for one night and they were fun to have around. The next night John worked in the staff kitchen until half way through the main concert, came out and sat with me until afterwards, and then he talked our friend Palmer (who has her own booth this year as well as working on Kitchen Krew) into going out to the campfires all night long. He did make it in time for the last call for breakfast. I miss most of my breakfast work cause of dialysis, and usually do some errands for Cari (Kitchen Krew Chief) and then help out making cookies, deserts, or some sort of thing all afternoon.

The music the first weekend was really excellent across the board: Friday night the Two High String Band played blue grass that featured several of the best of Texas, Eric Hokonan and Billy Bright (from EP). Last of the five groups t o play was Dale Watson and his rocking western band. Dale was the best I've ever seen him. After the show on the Kennedy Stage, John, Eddie, and Sara went out to the "meadow" , where musicians play all night.

I turned in and set my alarm for 4 am to get to the dialysis center by 5:30. I got there on time and they thought I was coming at 8, so it was awhile before they had my chair ready. I got poked and went back to sleep fairly quickly although this center keeps all the lights on all the time, unlike mine that turns 'em all off after people are hooked up.

I picked up some supplies for the kitchen and helped clean up after breakfast and then headed down the the Threadgill Theatre for the New Folk Concerts, a line up of new singer song-writers that competes in this nationally known contest. The music is fresh and the talent is usually quite amazing. After about an hour I saw Kim, Emma, and David come in and I visited with them for awhile.

The evening concert on Saturday featured a lot of my favorites, including Chuck Brodsky, Shake Russell, Caroline Aiken, and ended with Jimmy LaFave... who I missed cause on my dialysis day I usually pass out early... tonight Caroline ended up around 11 and I turned in.

Sunday morning I worked my whole shift, from 7 til about noon... and then worked on, making 1000 chocolate chip cookies for the dinner. When I finished I shot over to Threadgill's for the finals of the New Folk and then back to the pop-up to do a little work on the top.
Sunday's evening concert featured Sara Hickman, Eliza Gilkyson, Kevin
Welch, and my fellow El Pasoan (recently moved to Wimberly), Tom Russell.

Monday John and I relaxed most of the day and he went swimming before his shift and I took a nap. That night was the highlight of the whole weekend (the only CD I bought week 1), The Bellville Outfit; one went to Montessori and the Science Academy with John. The young woman playing the fiddle in both pics is Phoebe! She was putting up her dinner dishes and saw John washing dishes and cried, "Johnny! What are you doing here?". John replied, "Dishes?" Anyway, these kids were really something to hear. Later Jon Vesner, Albert & Gage, and the Lost Gonzo Band played to finish up the first weekend.

249) Message to Andrew

Sunday, June 29, 2008
Home

Andrew ~ I briefly discussed with Ester the concerns she has about your reluctance to begin dialysis. I only have a few things to ask you to consider.

#1: Before you make a decision about this thing we sometimes call "life-alysis" (as opposed to dialysis), please do a lot of research about the process and how it can impact whatever kidney situation you have. Look up your condition and how it responds to dialysis. Look on the Davita website for the info they have on the plusses and minusses of doing dialysis (http://www.davita.com/dialysis/). This website can answer all your questions.

#2: Beginning dialysis is scary for everyone who decides to add this time-consuming thing to their lives... AND one thing you can do is to find out everything you can about the actual process. Before I started, I visited a local dialysis center and interviewed the nurses and a few of the people on the dialysis machines. Also, I had a good friend of mine go with me the first few times and that helped my anxiety.

#3: I don't know how you are feeling, health-wise, but when I started dialysis, within a week or so, I felt completely like my old, energetic self. The toxins that are running around in your body may be making you feel depressed, run down, cranky, and worn out. Dialysis will clean your blood and you will feel better. Almost everyone on dialysis says that.

I hope reading my blog is helpful to you, and I can fully understand why people are hesitant to begin this dialysis thing. Good Luck to you! And, please contact me if you have any questions or thoughts you have. JN

248) ANNOUNCEMENT

I have been too busy to post for the past few weeks! I'm working on some posts covering the following:

Dialysis in Kerrville, Texas
The Kerrville Folk Festival ~ weekend 1 (lots of pics)
My Father / Son Bonding weekend

247) KICK KATS SOCCER

May 10, 2008
Saturday

Morning: Shayna has another tourney this weekend; a game last night that they won 2 to 1 (Starlettes) and a game this morning at 8 am that they won 4 to one (Dynamites). Shayna played aggressive defense in both games and as forward played well but still hasn't scored this season. The third game is starting right now so I'm off back to the fields to watch...

10 AM Game: Another win for the girls; three zip against the Bobcats! Now Shayna is off to a bat mitzva and then back to the fields for a 5 o'clock game. I called in to El Milagro and got a 12:30 chair, and called Ciscos* to make a reservation for a 9 am table for 10 tomorrow for a mother's day surprise for the family mothers: Liz, Joan, Jen, & Diane


El Milagro: In around 12:45, after voting for the environmentalists for city council... Amanda the Tech sticks me better than ever before. Carol the Tech announces following Joe G. to go to Cedar Park soon. I settle in to trying to find the Spurs but they aren't on yet. Settle on seeing Father of the Bride with Steve Martin and Diane Keeton for the 33rd time... love that movie...

Call about Shayna's game and they are in the championship... were down two nothing but then caught up and ended tied two, two... and now in the first of two 5 minute overtimes!

Later called again and they are now through the overtimes and doing goal kicks... still tied 2 - 2 and I am watching the end of the Iast Indiana Jones movie where they have found the chalice and the girl is about to go down into a crack in the earth, trying to reach out for the chalice...

...and now I am set to be de-clamped and head on home... will call Lizzie for an update when I get home...

Later: Well... on goal kicks, the Kick Kats WON the tournament and are the champs for their age grroup in SAYSA! WOW!

Notes: In at 76.1 and out at 74.4 kgs.
* Ciscos, online at www.rateaustin.com/austin/ciscos-restaurant-bakery/12022/ - 21k -

246) HAND UPDATE

PICS FROM TODAY'S MEETING WITH DR. LOWN:

THE GLOVE COMES OFF TO SHOW SOME COOL STITCHES!

THE FINGER IS STRAIGHT AS CAN BE!!

SO NOW HE PUT ON A PLASTER SPLINT THAT ALLOWS ME TO TYPE A BIT BETTER AND WE WAIT ANOTHER TWO WEEKS, AND THEN I GO IN ON 5/28 TO GET THE STITCHES OUT AND MEET LISA THE REHAB GIRL.

<◊><◊><◊><◊><◊><◊><◊><◊><◊><◊><◊><◊><◊><◊><◊><◊><◊>

May 8, 2008
Thursday

El Milagro: I arrive and show off my new splint… Joseph the Hulk, who has written “Big Daddy” on his clear plastic face shield, comes to stick me, so from now on we’ll call him Joseph the BD. We talk about standing up for yourself in 8th grade and ways to avoid bullies… Celeste the Nurse does my eval and checks my TB test.

Sherry the Nurse reports on her work related to my “bill” from the DC trip last fall; turns out that the ins paid and it and “…they put it in a column and then someone moved it up but it shoulda stayed back down, so she’ll move it back down, blah blah blah…” any way it is taken care of now. I thanked Sherry and now we have to get to work on FW and K-ville trips.

The sad news today is about Eddie Arnold passing on: I can’t remember a time when he wasn’t on my radio… like a Ray Charles or a Hank Williams… the voice of buttery maple syrup, according to Diana Shore. For Eddie, the world has gone away, and RIP.

Tonite are my shows but I also want to see the Spurs and Hornets, who my dad is afraid are gonna bury his spurs… “they’re too young and too fast” he frets, “and they’re down two games…”… so, I want to catch part of it so we can talk about it later.

Here’s the TV run-down: Survivor ~ the women trick the last boy into giving uo immunity and then they throw his ass right off the island, which he deserves btw, for being so stupid! Gray’s Anatomy ~ more of the same round robin soap. LOST: coming on when I get home. Spurs ~ they never get the pre-game hoopla done before I am unhooked, clamped up, unclamped, bandaged up, and ready to go… I think it is 4 to 0 when I leave… but hey… they are in SA, so they gotta win this one, right? They are the CHAMPS!

Notes: In at 78.4 and out at 74.6 Kgs.
Eddie Arnold’s website: http://www.eddyarnold.com/
New Readers: For an INDEX, click January 2008 on the Sidebar and page down to post # 207.

245) POST HAND SURGERY

May 6, 2008
Tuesday

El Milagro: TODAY I ROLL IN HERE AT 4:30, HAVING LOST TRACK OF TIME AT WORK AGAIN. I’M TYPING IN ALL CAPS CAUSE I’M NOW A REGHT-HANDED LEFTY… SINCE MY RIGHT HAND LOOKS LIKE I’M WEARING A BOXING GLOVE. I DECIDED TO USE ALL CAPS (ALA STEVE BEWSEY) INSTEAD OF NO CAPS (ALA ee cummings) CAUSE IT’S EASIER THAN TRYING TO USE THE SHIFT BAR ALL THE TINE.

ROSIE THE TECH STICKS ME.
CAROL THE TECH MOTHERS ME: SETTING UP ALL MY PARAPHENALIA AND EVEN ROOTING AROUND IN MY BAG FOR SOME CANDY AND PLACING IT ON THE CHAIR-TABLE WHERE I CAN REACH IT.
A NEW NURSE GUY DOES MY NURSING EVAL.

ROWDER THE DOC COMES BY FOR THE DRIVE BY AND I TELL HIM ABOUT MY APPT WITH MORITZ AND ASK IF HE’S OK WITH THAT…”SURE; IT’S ONE LESS PATIENT ON MT LIST!” HE QUIPS. HE IS ALSO CURIOUS ABOUT MY HAND AND I TELL HIM IT WAS A SLICE JOB FOR DUPY’S DISEASE AND HE KNOWS THE CONDITION AND MAKES A NOTE IN MY RECORD.

JEN THE DIETICIAN STROLLS UP AND MAKES SOME JOKES… AND THEN GIVES ME MY CURRENT LABS… PHOS IS BACK TO 4.2, WHICH IS REGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF TE ACCEPTABLE RANGE OF 3.5 – 5.5.

SHERRY THE SOCIAL WORKER COMES UP AND WE DISCUSS THE ONGOING BILL SITUATION FROM MY TRIP TO DC LAST FALL AND MY BP GOES UP TO 151/75 JUST TALKING TO HER ABOUT IT… SHE IS ON MY SIDE AND VOLUNTEERS TO CALL TONYA ABOUT THE WHOLE THING. I THANK HER!

I AM SOMEWHAT WORN OUT TODAY… SO I AM GONNA CRASH OUT FOR A NICE SNOOZE AND WRITE ON SOMETIME LATER…

ONWARD THRU THE HAZE.

Notes: In at 78.5 and out at 75.5 Kgs.
New Readers: For an INDEX, click January 2008 on the Sidebar and page down to post # 207.

244) Dupuytren's Disease?

May 3, 2008
Saturday

Morning: Liz is out with her girlfriends for the weekend at Rocky River Ranch, kicking back and enjoying themselves without kids and hubbies. Shayna and I have a Soccer Tournament today and tomorrow: 3 games today and 2 tomorrow... so, I'll be going to dialysis at my regular 4 o'clock time and the coach will take Shayna to her last game and deliver her to Calla afterwards.

This is also my last weekend for doing two-handed work around here for awhile, since I'm having hand surgery for Dupuytren's Disease*! Nope... I never heard of it either but I do have it and it is time to do something about it cause I can't really shake hands anymore cause of my atrophied tendon in my little finger. I don't know how all the rest of you 60 year olds are doing, but it seems that I am just falling apart. I actually noticed this shrinking tendon thing a few years ago and at one time mentioned it to the doctor (Clark Race) who injects my index finger joint with Hyalgan for arthritis every three or four months. Dr Race said he could fix my atrophied finger but by the time I relented, he looked at it and said, "This is a job for the hand doctor!" and referred me to Dr. Era Lown. Now I have an appt for this hand surgery on Monday because we want it to get done and healed by Memorial Day weekend when we work at the folk festival. I talked to the pre-surgery interview nurse and she suggested I ask the anethesiologist for a kind of knock-out that'll not impact my going to see Lyle Lovett and Guy Clark** at 8 pm (my anniversary gift to Lizzie).

So, anyway, I finished painting the top of the pop-up yesterday and want to finish the inside ceiling this weekend, along with attending Shayna's soccer games... busy weekend again.

Noon: First game down, the Kick Kats' first loss of the season, to a San Antonio team; the Comets, 4 to 2.

Mid-afternoon: Second game down, Kick Kats' second loss of the season, to an Austin team; Blue Rush, 3 to 1. Maybe its a good thing I'm missing the third game of the day!

El Milagro: Got here on time... sitting in the front corner by the window, where I can see out on the parking lot and the whole room. Jason the Tech cannulates me with his usual style and Jo the Nurse does my nursing evaluation as we discuss parents and soccer tourneys.

I turn on the TV and find the 134th Kentucky Derby on NBC. Somehow I find it every year and have watched the two minute race for the roses almost every year. I remember watching it with Shayna the Horse Lover and chuckle at her picking winners based on the colors they sport, or their names. These horses have wonderful names; this year there is Big Brown, Z Fortune, Cool Coalman, Bob Black Jack, Eight Belles, Smooth Air, and Colonel John (who won the Santa Anna). I recall too, years ago, when my friend Albert had a commission to paint some of those thoroughbreds for someone and he produced some very colourful paintings that I really liked... I wonder what became of those paintings? (Al: if you read this, send my a photo of one of those for this blog) So, after several hours of TV time preparing for the 2-minute race, the race is on, and the announcer screams as Big Brown comes up on the outside and races out ahead of everyone except Eight Belles the filly. The filly is second by a few lengths! ...OUCH! She goes down... it doesn't look good. They finally report having to put her down cause of two broken ankles... what a sad day for her people.

Also, today is Pete Seeger's 89th birthday so I must tip my hat to this great activist who has reminded me throughout my life that there are always people to be spoken out for and causes to remember.

After the race and some Pete Seeger on Folkways, I turn to a movie to relax with and find The Incident, starring Walter Matthau and Susie Blakely***. Let me tell you about Susie Blakely... she was one of the kids that hung around briefly with the "in crowd" at the Ft. Bliss Officer's Club pool in the summers of '64 and '65, best I recall. I remember her as a fiercely motivated teenager who used to claim that her career goal was to become a famous actress. Actually, that is my hallucinatory memory... she might have not been that seemingly arrogant... she wasn't really overly outspoken about her dreams, but I do remember a few conversations at an umbrella-ed table out in front of the snack bar Dale, Jay and I worked in where we talked about going to California... me talking about a dream of going there to learn to surf, and her about acting. I also remember several of the guy lifeguards having various designs on her body, but she really wouldn't have any of that. She was protective of herself and not involved with the girls acting seductive and "cute" for playing up to the coolest guys kind of trip... she was more aloof and somehow seemed to me to be more interesting: later, as the women's movement was developing, I remember thinking back to her as an independent person who was my idea of a woman being liberated. And most of the guys who hung around the pool, and the lifeguards of that mid-sixties era didn't take well to women who were breaking away from "playing the game". I remember several guys remarking that she needed someone to put her in her place, and some who poo poo'd her statements about chasing her dreams of acting.

So, anyway, whenever I see her in a movie (she was in Rich Man, Poor Man) I take the time to watch it, simply because it is neat to see someone one once knew in the movies. And BTW, they have her age wrong on Wikepedia: I swear she was only a year younger than Dale and Tom and us who graduated in '65! She was born in '48, not '52. '52 would make her the same age as my little brother, and he and his crew were "little kids" in the days I am remembering.

So, this movie with her and Walter Matthau is worth watching... about a lawyer defending a Nazi in the post war years of the late '40's. Great era CARS too. I actually get to watch the whole movie and then I'm done with my dialysis. As we used to say back then, "Caio!"

Notes: In at 75.5 and out at 74.3 Kgs.
*Dupuyten's Disease, retrieved online May 3 from The Austin Hand Group,s website, http://www.austinhandgroup.com/injuries/dupuytrens.html
**Guy, Joe, John, and Lyle, retrieved online May 3 from the Paramount Theatre website, http://www.austintheatre.org/site/Calendar/1544269710?view=Detail&id=15062
***Susan Blakely, retrieved online May 3 from Wikepedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Blakely

243) Workers Unite!

May 1, 2008

Tuesday

El Milagro:I am late again… and beginning to worry about this habit of being late, but the staff don’t seem to mind. They never criticize me for coming in late and even though I’m usually the last person to leave at night, they seem totally okay with my comings and goings. Of course, I haven’t asked Ron the Nurse, but I hope he would mention to me if he has a problem with my flexi-schedule.

I’m on the back wall today in the chair beside the doorway to the back rooms. Joseph the Hulk is there to stick me and I am getting to like his power sticks. He lines up the needle (trocar), slants it, and then jams it in so fast it veritably POPS into the fistula. He smiles afterwards as he tapes it up and I hallucinate that poping fistulas is his joy.

My beginning BP today is 128/69. Ron the Nurse comes up to perform my nursing evaluation and asks the regular questions: any chest pain; any nausea? “Well, let me tell you… I have had some nauseousness in the mornings, usually before eating anything, except sometimes after some coffee. I don’t throw up and it usually goes away after about half an hour or so.” Ron strokes his chin, looks up at the ceiling, and says, “HMMMMM. Do you want something for it?” “NO!" “ I don’t know what thay could be. We should ask Rowder.” We discuss this a bit further with no real direction, and then I ask him to note it in the file so we remember to talk to the doc about it.

For awhile I read an article for work on the Youth Efficacy Scale; an interesting scale designed
to assess youth perceptions of selfefficacy with respect to managing their own mental health condition.

I listen to NPR ATC: Some claim they are on the recession diet, paying 4 buck a gallon for milk and gas. Food banks are hurting cause there is more need for their foods and less donations. Sherry the Social Worker appears and we talk more about the details she needs to set up my K-ville dialysis and some about Da Vita paying for my dialysis way back when I went to Washington. Seems no one wants to pay for the dialysis at K Street. "Won't be me." I assure her.

I settle in to the Thursday schedule of watching Survivor, Gray's Anatomy, and LOST and somewhere in the middle of the end of Survivor and the beginning of Gray, my BP goes down under 100 and Joseph takes me off dialysis. I stay off cause we all forget me and then finally I remember and ask Ron to put be back on. He reports I only have ten minutes so we call it a wash. Then, when I leave I weigh out at 74.5, exactly what Joseph had set as my goal.

Figure that?

Notes: In at 77 and out at 74.5 Kgs. (Ending BP 111/60)
New Readers: For an INDEX, click January 2008 on the Sidebar and page down to post # 207.

242) Snoozeville

April 29, 2008
Tuesday

El Milagro: I am almost 30 minutes late today. I walk in and find the stack of newly printed newsletters ready for me to hand out, so I walk around the place giving people a salutation and a newsletter. All but one person wants one and most people immediately set about reading it, making me feel like it is a useful service I provide. This month it is late again, mostly because I have had these incredibly busy weekends so I hadn’t had time to get it finished. However, late is better than never.

Rosie the Tech comes over to stick me and we discuss Susanne the Administrator’s article in the paper, and plans for making the meetings in the daytime so more folks can attend. Both of us are worried that after a year of PAC meetings, more than half the initial members have dropped out and there doesn’t seem to be any interest amongst people to re-inject the group with new blood (Ha Ha)

I get situated, stuck up, settled in and watch the news: consumer confidence is the lowest since 1992. ABC News reports on a bereaved husband testifying to congress on tainted Heparin killing 81 dialysis patients and that the FDA doesn’t have the control to catch these things. The Heparin came in from China through Baxter* and it is believed that the contamination was done purposefully to save money. I look over and see my Heparin shot sitting there and sigh. Do I tell the Nurse “STOP… don’t shoot me with that tainted Heparin!” or do I just “take my medicine” and trust in the good old USA? Do I trust my luck of the draw? Do I give it up to God? Do I refuse my meds and make El Milagro staff prove to me that my Heparin is Clean? "ARGGGGGGGGG!"

I fall asleep to escape these serious thoughts, thinking that at least I’ll ask them later what they are doing to protect us from tainted Heparin. Mostly I sleep and sleep and sleep, only waking to catch part of NOVA’s show on the Yamato and part of Carrier, life aboard the Nimitz.

Here is my Editorial in the new issue of the El Milagro News:
**********************************************************************************************
Editorial ~ We are a community here at El Milagro: perhaps a society of compulsory and even reluctant members, but a community none-the-less. As a community we are all responsible for keeping this place the safest and most agreeable place it can be. It is administration’s job to deliver a well-organized medical service to us, the customers. It is our job as customers to receive this service as any service given by professionals and to respect the administration’s service in our interest. They need us as much as we need them… making it a true collaboration between a delivery system and the customers. Since it is not easy for any of us to shop elsewhere, I believe it is in all our interest to participate in making this collaboration work as smoothly as possible.

The PAC is a committee of patients who have taken the responsibility for representing all of us in meeting with the El Milagro administration and in serving the other patients. We’ve been doing this for a year now and four of the original six of our volunteers have made it clear that they are ready to pass the torch along. Some of us here are in more severe medical conditions than others and we must respect folks when they say they must move on. We need new blood (pun) in our PAC.

Think about your own medical condition. It is true that the more active patients get in their care, the better they do with their treatment. So, if you volunteer some time for your PAC, you should do better with your dialysis, statistically. Also, you will feel better, knowing you are contributing to your community. We need four or more people. Join with us.
**********************************************************************
Notes: In at 78.5 and out at 75 Kgs.
* Tainted Heparin appears Deliberate retrieved online from http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ikP1hN91jmfr4buDa4Bw_5JpeYPA
New Readers: For an INDEX, click January 2008 on the Sidebar and page down to post # 207.

241) Arbor Day

April 25, 2008
Friday

El Milagro: As I sit in my window chair facing the rest of the room I notice that Amanda (the patient) is here with two of those big black splint boots on her feet that folks wear after foot surgery. The grape vine has it that Amanda has had a hard time over the last year… she got a kidney transplant that didn’t work out, her diabetes has worsened and she recently died on the operating table during an operation. She is alive today but looks a little worse for the wear. I want to talk to her but don’t know what to say. She does smile and say “Hi”. I thought I had several references to her in this blog but today can only find #4, April 2006 where we met.

My BP is a low 105 over 56 to start today. Carol the Tech and I decide to take off 3 pounds to prep me for 4 days away. She sets the machine and sticks me and we decide to stick 1/2” closer to my wrist so as to not overuse my dead spot. And it is PAINLESS too! WOW… I’m surprised! James the Nurse comes up and does my nursing evaluation.

When I come over here on my off days I notice how disfamiliar all the faces are, and I hallucinate they are looking at me the same way. “Who is this new guy walking in on our treatment?” they seem to say with their weary eyes. I smile bashfully and yet want to show that I too am now a veteran. I do recognize some of my PAC brothers and sisters and of course the staff is the same tonight. I'm here today so I don't hafta do dialysis on Ken's wedding day.

BTW, I forgot to blog my 2nd anniversary of dialysis back on April 11th! Two years and it is such a regular part of keeping this old body alive, like breathing, that I didn’t even notice the anniversary’s passing.

“So, lift one up for old Jack the two year old dialysis guy.” Where ever you are, I’d appreciate a toast next time your having your favorite drink.

I’m listening to Morgan Freeman being interviewed on ATC and he is very interesting to hear talk about his 50 years in acting. He reports loving the movies since he was a kid in Chicago, finding coke bottles to turn in for 2¢ each… six bottles = 12¢ and a movie ticket. About returning to the stage after 20 years in movies, he quoted, “Lush likes to drink; alchy has to drink”.

There is nothing about Arbor Day* and it makes me wonder if it is on my office calendar by mistake… well, I just checked Google and it IS today… why no news? Do trees care if they are in the news? I care. Arbor Day has always seemed so GREEN to me. Plant a Tree! There have been a number of years when I planted trees on Arbor Day, and I want to hear about others’ celebrations of this important day IN THE NEWS! I even once claimed that Arbor Day was my favorite holiday… in order to take the day off when I worked for the state and Arbor Day was one of the only days they didn’t recognize in their 'hundred days of holidays' for state workers. Really; it seems like state workers have a holiday every time you turn around. Boy those were the days... Anyway, if you care about trees, just go out and plant one as soon as practical. Or, if you're lazy, just hug one.

After my regular chain of ATC, ABC, PBS… I surf around and find Oceans Twelve**, which I haven't seen, and settle in to watch it for the rest of the time (2 hours) until I’m done and yet it is still going. Will have to rent it cause I can’t hang out here and watch the ending.

So, Arbor Day… Celebrate! So it goes.

Notes: In at 75 and out at 72.8 Kgs. Starting BP 105/55 and ending at about 101/60
*Arbor Day online at http://www.arborday.org/arborday/
**Oceans Twelve on All Movie Guide: http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=1:289385~T00
New Readers: For an INDEX, click January 2008 on the Sidebar and page down to post # 207.

240) TV Nite in Dialyland

April 24, 2008
Thursday

El Milagro: I’m here at 4:15 again, having left my office at 4 today. This might be a habit now. No one here seems to mind and my chair is always ready by 4:15 so maybe I’ll just keep coming in at this time. Carol the Tech is here to stick me and I show her the dead spot on my arm where there is no feeling, wondering how long I can use this spot.

Tonight is TV night, so I settle back for a nap and then wake up for the ABC News; switch to McNeil Lehrer, switch to Survivor, switch to Gray’s Anatomy, get unhooked and zoom home to catch LOST. Quicksilver Dialysis!

Notes: In at 76 and out at 74.1 Kgs.
New Readers: For an INDEX, click January 2008 on the Sidebar and page down to post # 207.

239) Earth Day 2008

April 22, 2008
Tuesday

El Milagro: I’m here at 4:15, having left my office at 4 today. Upon hitting the parking lot I realize my blue bag is at home so I don’t have my candy, radio, or headphones. I do have my blanket and pillow. I call Liz on her phone and ask her to bring the bag if she has time later. I find my chair and Alma the Nurse is trying to set me up and poke me while Rowder is doing his Tuesday Drive By. He looks at my lab work and says all looks fine except for the phosphorous, which he notes has gone up steadily for the past three labs: 5.6; 6.6; 7.5. “What’s the deal?” I report on my email to Jennifer the Dietician about chocolate, tortilla chips, and avocado and also tell him about my nightly nauseousness. He has no suggestions or recommendations about it, replying “we’ll see if it changes…”.

Jennifer the Dietician walks up and reports on my labs officially and wants to give me a copy of the report that cannot be read because the copier is kaput. I decline to have papers I cannot read. Alma is poking me as we talk. She says, in a nutshell: blood count – great; parathyroid – good; potassium – good; calcium – great; phosphorous – the pits. How many chips am I eating, “a grab bag?” she wonders. “No silly. A ton of chips with salsa. I have no control. 7.5 won’t give me a heart attack or kill me this week, will it?” She warns that it won’t kill me and it is still very important to get those numbers back down and I should be able to control my eating, as I have done in the past.

Sherry the Social Worker comes up to report on her work to secure my Kerrville Dialysis for the folk festival at the end of May. She says I’ll have to have another TB test. I remind her that my perfect time is noon til four if she can make that work. Also, that I have already contacted the head nurse down there to let ‘em know I’m coming. Sherry also mentions my being on the list for “nocturnal” dialysis at the south site. I wrinkle my brows and wonder about that… I think I said I am interested in hearing more about it, not that I want to jump in with both feet. She nods her head in understanding and begins to give me more information: it’ll be from about 8 until 3 in the morning; MWF; 6 hours dialysis is better for the body, etc. and my brain is integrating this with all the other things I have to fit in (work, not cuddling with my sweetie, travel, UT, etc.) and reply that I’ll think about it. She says it won’t even begin until the summer sometime. Sherry goes off to write down my “perfect” time and I settle in to writing this Earth Day Post.

Her conversation reminds me that I have to ask Ron our Head Nurse for a switcheroo on times for this weekend so I can attend Ken’s wedding. Ron finally has some time and I call him over and after some consideration, we decide I’ll come in Friday afternoon for my Saturday dialysis. Those 3rd session times are always easier to fit into than the 1st shift times. I thank him profusely and comment on his new haircut.

So, Earth Day. I remember taking Johnny and Katie to Earth Day celebrations in the park when they were little kids. There were lots of booths with information about living GREEN, face painting which Katie always likes, running wild which Johnny liked, Jazz or Folk music, and lots of bumper stickers. Here in 2008, according to the news-media, it is all about living green. A couple of things we can each do to participate in a greener home are:
1. Switch out light bulbs for those curly energy saving bulbs and turn them off during the daytime
2. Turn off computer when not using it
3. Keep thermostat at 68-75 degrees
4. Recycle aluminum, waste paper, and plastics
5. Use re-usable grocery bags
6. Buy used stuff instead of new stuff
7. Sign up for donating all organs

I doze for awhile, dreaming of greening up the world and what it’ll be like when it is done… and then wake up to watch the ABC News and doze some more and then wake up to watch the last few minutes of McNeil Lehrer and then NOVA comes on and it’s Tom and Ray Magliozzi… the Car Talk guys doing a show on the future of CARS.

I love cars… always have since I was a five year old cutting the roofs off cars my mom had cut out of magazines for me to play with. “Do they ALL have to be convertibles?” she used to inquire. Little Hubley, Tootsie toy, and Matchbox cars in grade school, AMT Model Cars in Junior High School, real cars in high school, and hot rods ever after.

Ahhhhhhhh. I am in hog heaven watching this show. Sayonara!

Notes: In at 78.1 and out at 74.3 Kgs.
The rest of the story on Post # 236!
New Picture of the '84 Coleman Columbia on Post # 235!
* Earth day online à http://earthday.envirolink.org/
** Car of the Future, retrieved online April 22 from NOVA’s website, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/car/
New Readers: For an INDEX, click January 2008 on the Sidebar and page down to post # 207.

238) Passover, 5768

April 19, 2008
Saturday

Morning: The phone rang right at 6:30 am: it was our wake-up-call, ringing “Wake up, Wake up!” As I rolled over and picked up the phone to my ear, I knew that I’d hear nothing and I wondered why I put the phone up to my ear anyway. Who in their right mind would call us at this hotel in Arlington, Texas at 6:30 am? We jump outa bed and are ready to go within about 20 minutes. We go downstairs for the infamous La Quinta breakfast and I am amazed to find real fresh food instead of packaged foods. We grab some stuff and some coffee and head back up to pack and get outa there. We have to pick up Johnny in Denton at 8 and get back to Austin for my 1:30 chair at El Milagro. We wish we had time to lay around and enjoy this suite… it is really nice and comfy and begs us to kick back and relax. "No. We must Go".

Also, waiting in Austin, are Liz’s mom and sis: waiting for Liz to help them finish preparing our Passover meal for tonight. As usual, our Saturday plate is full! We are here at the old La Quinta Conference Center on 157, right beside Six Flags. We (TNOYS) used to use this place all the time for our Metroplex trainings, so when I drove up I was surprised to see that the place looks 100% different. The lady at the desk says, “Oh yeah. The conference center is that field out there. They tore it down and built this new building behind where it used to be. That’s why it looks different to you.”
Weird!

~◊~Lizzie and I drove up here last night for a date! Dayenu!*
~◊~We left the munchkin at her friend’s house overnight. Dayenu!
~◊~We secured this beautiful suite with my “free rooms”. Dayenu!
~◊~We dressed up in our fancy finery! Dayenu!
~◊~We attended my mentor, Wayne Duehn’s, retirement Extravaganza. Dayenu!
~◊~38 Years of teaching, research, and leadership, at one university! Dayenu!
~◊~We visited with Jack’s HBSE professor, Ski Hunter at the bar. Dayenu!
~◊~We visited with friends from afar: both in time and miles. Dayenu!
~◊~We saw Jennifer’s delightful daughter Vivian for the first time. Dayenu!
~◊~We ate dinner with David and Cathe and Bonnie and Jim! Dayenu!
~◊~We had a fabulous salad and excellent cake! Dayenu!
~◊~We listened and laughed at Wayne’s Retirement speech! Dayenu!
~◊~We filled Cathe Jordan with Jack’s agenda for the NASW Board! Dayenu!
~◊~We moved on to the party after the party and visited with Tony Arrangio! Dayenu! ~◊~We met the monster dog Torgor and he sat on Liz’s lap! Dayenu!
~◊~We approved of Wayne’s new wall art! Dayenu!
~◊~We retired to our suite to luxuriate in a really comfy king size bed! Dayenu!
~◊~And... we slept like lambs in lavishness! Dayenu!

After checking out, we cruised up to U of North Texas and woke Johnny up several times along the way and he still wasn’t awake when we were parked in front of his dorm. But he eventually came out with his bag of laundry and various winter things he is bringing home. And, he talked about his post-graduate plans and current classes and work all the way to Waco before crashing out in the back seat. We made it back to Austin in time for dropping off John and Liz at the house before I returned the rental car and headed over for dialysis.

El Milagro: I arrive on time. Joseph the Hulk sticks me and I pointed out where he should stick… and, lo I showed him the spot with no nerves. And lo, it was painless! We are happy. I wonder how nerve endings are dispersed in my arm and make a note to ask Johnny at dinner tonight. Joseph the Hulk smiles too.

The session is uneventful. I doze for awhile. I watch the women’s 8-ball championship: Allison Fisher wins! In the final game she makes a really great jump shot to set up a combo on the 9 for the win. Very COOL! In the back of my mind the things I could be doing to get the house and yard ready for the Seder are rolling around in there. Front porch. I did ask John to pick up the pile of leaves and bush cuttings on the driveway. My brain is rambling around while the blood leaves and gets purged and comes back clean and springy. Part of me keeps and eye on the TV although there is really nothing there that catches my eye. I am ready to move on to the house and relations and seeing my son. Sometimes this dialysis is a real drag!

So it goes.

And now it is time to unhook and zip out to the rest of the day: I note that I can’t just go home and crash out, which I usually do after dialysis.

I have a house full of relations who are waiting for Jack so they can begin our first Family Passover Seder to ever happen on the actual first night of Passover! A historical moment. I’ll have to stay awake, drink a tiny bit of Passover wine (also something I don’t do after dialysis), and act hospitable and friendly… which I can do. The Seder proceedings will be conducted in the traditions of Harold Baldauf, as translated by Larry Baldauf, the current head of the family. The whole thing will be a combination of reading the Haggadah with humor and honor; calling out in unison, “Praised art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, WHO HAST CREATED THE FRUIT OF THE VINE!”; throwing the plastic plague representatives (ants and flies and crickets and two dead cows); eating the many deliciously different Passover foods; and finally singing the Had Gadyo with great FEELING. And, Shayna will read one of the prayers in Hebrew for the first time. It brings a warm feeling to me as I drive and imagine this close future of mine.

Notes: In at 76.5 and out at 74.5 Kgs. Starting BP 105/55.
*Dayenu. Retrieved online from Wikepedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dayenu
New Readers: For an INDEX, click January 2008 on the Sidebar and page down to post # 207.

237) Regular Tuesday

April 15, 2008
Tuesday

El Milagro: I get here on time. Joseph the Hulk cannulates me and this time he shoves the needle into my arm painfully... after I sarcastically said I like the pain... maybe he is testing me. He takes the 5 or 6 vials they take for monthly blood work. Jo the Nurse comes over to do my nursing evaluation. My BP is 116/76.

Rowder comes by to do his weekly drive by and says this week they are focusing on fistulas. How's my fistula? "Fine".
"Okay. Anything else?"
"Nope."
"Next week we'll have labs to discuss."
"Okay."

I listen to ATC, watch the ABC News, and Jim Lehrer's News Hour. Then surf through a bunch of bad TV until I find the last half of The Magnificent Seven. What a GREAT Movie!

So it goes on a Tuesday evening in dialysis.

Notes: In at 76.2 and out at 74.4.

236) The Medical Runaround

April 14, 2008
Monday

Warning: This is a non-kidney, non-dialysis post! However, writing it is helping me to calm down and somehow feel better about documenting my frustrations.

TNOYS: So, I happened on my referral from Dr. Race to Dr. Lown and thought, "Ah yes... today is a good day to call for this appointment." so first I call my primary care doc, Krienke's office and talk to the "referral office". According to Rosemary I don't need another referral besides the referral to Race, cause that referral is good enough for my insurance. So I call Lown's office and explain that I went to see Dr. Race about this atrophied little finger and he wants to refer me to Dr. Lown for the surgery. The lady asks me if I have a referral and I say "No, but..." and describe the little consulting introduction form I have and she says they must receive a referral from my doctor of record. I replay the story of talking to Krienke's office and the lady replies that then they have to receive a referral from Dr. Race's office. So, I call Dr. Race's office and talk to a nice person who says with my insurance I can just call Lown and set an appointment. I explain what Lown's office told me and the Race woman goes off to check my record and comes back in a few minutes and says, "We can fax the doctor's notes over there and call that a referral". I ask her to call them and explain that to them and then call me back, and she agrees... nice person that she is.

So, then, about 20 minutes later she calls me back and says that she did FAX the stuff to Lown's office and did call them and they tell her they must have a referral form so she has also FAX'd the material to Krienke and asked his office to refer me to Lown. I thank her for her work and end up sitting at my desk shaking my head. I have just spent 30 minutes trying to get an appointment and don't yet have one!

Arrrrrgh...

Note --> 4/23: When I got my snail mail referral, yesterday, I called Lown's office ready to tell the lady I got the damn referral; and a guy, Ken I think, answered. "I have a referral from my primary doc." "What's your insurance?" says he. "Blue, select from UT" says me. "You don't need a referral." he says. "Arrrrrgh..." says I. "Sir?" say he. I grumble, "The lady at this phone last time said I did even though I told her I thought I didn't" "Oh. Sorry." say he. So, I have an appt for Thursday, April 24th.

235) Enter the '84 Coleman Columbia

April 12, 2008
Saturday

Morning: Gladys the Tech called me at home while I was raking the front yard with Liz & Shayna… a family project with Chelsea running around like a wild dog. We negotiated for me to come in at 1:30… in an hour and one half. I had trimmed the Mountain Laurel and tended the two new purple sages and the transplanted hibiscus and we completely raked the front and the side yard… only have the back 40 to go.

Also, this morning Shayna and I went over to Texas Truck & Trailer to buy a drop-down ball mount, since our NEW pop-up is lower than the one we used to haul. Yes, we did finally find a ’84 Coleman Columbia for a very reasonable price and now all we have to do is find a place to put it, since Westcreek Assn. has rules about trailers in driveways.

El Milagro: I arrive on time and Herman the Nurse points out my chair, right beside John the Reader. As I settle in by putting out my blanket, pillow, book, New Yorker, radio, and earphones, Herman takes my BP and I’m talking away to John and I look over at my BP and it is 235 over 180! My eyes widen with disbelief and I look at Herman and say, “What? Can blood pressure even go that high?” and Herman calmly says, "lets try it again…" and he does and it is just about the same. I am freaking out! So, Herman takes the cuff off me and puts it on himself and does his and it is 140 over something… “That’s a little high for me” he concludes. Jason the Tech is now standing there too, looking suspicious about the whole thing. Herman tells me about a woman patient he used to have whose normal BP was 250 over something and she continually told him not to worry about it. I say, “Well, mine has NEVER been this high and I don’t like it one bit?” Herman puts the cuff back on me and pops the button again. While I am feeling the clamping on my arm and worrying I tell myself “Calm down” while another part of my brain says, “Easy for you to say… you’re friggin BP is off the planet!”. Another part of my brain is yelling, “SHUT UP! Your’re not helping anything! Just chill out…” Soon the cuff says, "pffffff" and I swing around to see the machine: 115 over 76. Herman listens to my chest and concludes that my pulse is 76 and I am okay. We decide to keep track of the BP for awhile and it seems like I am back to normal. Even though I question the machine and this anomaly neither Herman or Jason the Kid have any idea or seeming concern about it. They are happy to just go on with life without questioning the universe, the machine, or my own constitution. I am so happy to be back to a normal BP that I let out a big sigh and I too choose to just move on along time's highway.

Jason carefully sticks me with his usual conscientious and patient-centered approach. He puts in a needle, attaches a syringe pumps the blood in and out, asks how it feels, reports how it feels to him, and then goes on to poke number two. Once I am set up, I am ready to finish reading a story in the New Yorker while telling myself "I SHOULD be reading my Saleebey" book. Before I even get my earphones on, John the Reader and I start a conversation and I end up putting away my magazine, book, and earphones.

We start off our conversation by commenting on the teen girls in Florida who videotaped beating up a girl and put it on U-tube. John posits that even though we (and he is probably a generation younger than me) did crazy stuff as teenagers, this kind of thing is way out of line with appropriate behavior. I share that my thought is that it has to do with a changing value system and that these new generations are the first to develop their values based on popular culture and their peers rather than their parents and the “adult” culture, and that this is due to the proliferation of technology that permits teens to insulate (“build a wall” according to Ron Taffel) their peer culture (Taffel’s “second family”) outside of their parent’s span of control. With teens’ use of instant messaging, cell phones, and email, many times parents don’t even know who their teen’s friends are, much less “approve” of them. Even though there are good peer culture influences, there are also many more opportunities for experimenting with, and documenting, behavior that dances on the edge of societally appropriate. Historically, teens’ experimentally aberrant behavior was relegated to behind the barn and whispered about. Today it is out front and on the web for everyone to see. [I wonder if Hans, with his new book, Youth & Subculture as Creative Force might offer something to this conversation?] Even after my discourse, John shakes his head and cannot understand the violence and stupidity of these girls. Any youth out there? We'd be happy for your take too.

We move on to talking about some of our own upbringing, our take on the political situation, and our kidney situations. John hasn’t yet gotten on the kidney transplant list because he wants to stabilize his health more first. This strikes me as an admirable and ethical stance. As I understand it, he doesn’t think it is ethical to get on the list before HE thinks he is an appropriate candidate for a new kidney. He evaluates his own situation with some suspect, since he has been hospitalized five times since starting dialysis. He says something to the effect of, “I would hate to take a kidney from someone and then up and die… that would be a waste.”

The flow of the conversation rolls on: hospital drugs to the similarities between vodka gimlets and kamikazes. The impact of liquids on our kidney situations. I share that they always told me not to drink more that 32 ounces a day. John is limited to a liter and a half a day and he says he can’t go one glass over that without having serious complications leading to another hospitalization. So, how much is a liter and a half? Herman comes to solve that one: “32 ounces is a liter” and then he adds, “approximately… that’s how we remember a liter” so, John can supposedly drink a little more than I am supposed to; although I admit to him that I seldom pay attention to the number of ounces I drink per day. He laments that he has to watch it very carefully, which is a reason to drink vodka gimlets rather than gin and tonic. The tonic is a waste of precious liquid.

Finally, John is about to leave and having to wait a bit for his BP to come up and the common dizziness to go down so he can drive. He leaves and I settle back to watch TV for my last hour. I watch the Masters and although Tiger has finished already it is fun watching the young guys, Immelman and Snedeker and hearing about how Tiger is in 5th place but that really means to the commentator that he is winning. Before I know it it is time to unhook and head home. Jason unhooks me and all is well. It is still a bright sunny afternoon-like day out and I look forward to checking out the lawn when I get home. So it goes.

Notes: In at 76.2 and out at 74.3 Kgs.
*Skott-Myhre, H. (2007) Youth and subculture as creative force: Creating new spaces for radical youth work. Toronto, ON: U. of Toronto Press.
New Readers: For an INDEX, click January 2008 on the Sidebar and page down to post # 207.