171) Off the Wagon in Laredo

September 27, 2007
Thursday

El Milagro: Carol waits to poke me as Jennifer the Dietician smiles and Dr. Rowder mans his chart cart and asks the recurrent question; “How are you doing?” and today I have something to say back! I tell him I need a 3 month script for Requip cause it’s working fine for me after a month of trial. He agrees and whips that script right out. Jennifer the Dietician has some bad news: my phosphorous is UP again; this time its jumped from 5.1 to 7.3, she scowls. Actually she doesn't scowl... more like a frown... she is concerned and I am too. In my brain I say, "Let’s see… they took blood last Tuesday… what was going on on Sunday and Monday? Oh Yeah! I was in Laredo having Luis feed me luscious Sylvia Food on Sunday and then eating tamales and guaca-Mole on Monday". (Its Luis' fault!) I confess to the doc and Jennifer that I must’ve fallen off the wagon in Laredo… and we agree that I should just climb back on that renal diet wagon and move on into the future without looking back. Carol quickly cannulates me after the doc rolls around the corner and we talk briefly about the DC trip. All the staff around here are curious about the trip, the dialysis center, and if I think we did any good.

I start reading the New Yorker about a hospital closing and the ambulance paramedics telling their stories at the close-down party (9/17, Talk of the Town, 911 Dept: Last Call). Reminds me of the old days in El Paso, when I worked for Gold Cross Ambulance Company (you reading this Fred?) while going to college. The New Yorker reports crazy stories these paramedic guys tell are almost word-for-word our stories and it surprises me that the macabre world of ambulance people doesn’t change much over time and space. They have a sense of humor that only they and emergency room orderlies could love. In the New Yorker they tell of a guy who jumped off the building to kill himself and instead impaled himself on a railing two stories down. Darn! I remember the story of getting a call just as we were delivering a corpse to the morgue at the county hospital and rushing to unload the body so we could rush back out. Rushing through the emergency room waiting room, we turned a corner and got the wheels on the gurney all faced the same way and that sucker just fell right over on it's side. I quickly bent over to try to catch the sprawling body, and Fred theatrically turned to the gasping waiting room, threw up his hands, and said loudly, "Don’t worry folks! He’s already dead!” Ah yes… those dead body ambulance stories.

Herman is here this evening and he comes over to visit… he’s read the DC posts on this blog and asks if it was Kent Thiry (KT) I was referring to in Post # 166 at the end. I had called him an “ED” and Herman asked what that was, to which I replied, “an Executive Director”. Actually, KT is the CEO of Davita, not the ED. We compared notes on our impressions of KT and we agreed that he must be a passionate and sensitive guy… and that in the El Paso / Fabens / Clint area crying in front of an audience wouldn’t go over very well (KT has been known to cry when talking to large groups). And Herman was also curious about the meetings on the hill, etc. I asked Herman about my cautious feelings about the non-profit DPC being bankrolled by the for-profit company and he too thinks it is an okay thing because the work is in the interest of kidney patients all over the country; more humanitarian to lobby for kidney legislation than for oil rights, by Herman’s philosophy.

Later I watch the second episode of Survivor: China and find it to be very muddy with half naked bodies wrestling in the mud, trying to win immunity for their tribe. Great Stuff! I missed the first show while in DC, but I can catch up. Haven’t picked my favorite survivor yet but I am excited to be back into a schedule of watching Survivor at dialysis. Then, of course, its Gray’s Anatomy and I find that I’m not as drawn to this show as in past years…. tonight it just seems like too many things are happening at once to wrap my fuzzy brain around. I kinda watch and I kinda read the New Yorker jokes at the same time and I find myself lost because I missed some nuanced look between two of the characters that I no longer care about. Might be downhill from here.

So it goes with da TV shows.

Notes: In at 75.6 and out at 72.4 kgs.
New Readers: For A Welcome Post, click August 2006 on the Sidebar.