231) First Week of April

April 3, 2008
Thursday

El Milagro: I arrive almost on time, after stopping by a convenience store to pick up some hard candy to snack on while blood cleansing. Carrie the Tech sticks me. Herman the Nurse is here and stops to kid me about missing the training session last Sunday. Our PAC had set up a session to learn the dialysis machines for 10 am last Sunday, and out of the 10 people who signed up, only one showed up and he already knows about how the machines operate. I apologized to Herman that I completely forgot about it and although it was in my calendar, I usually don’t look at my calendar on Sunday mornings. I asked him to consider another time, and he just laughed, so I will wait a few months to schedule it again.

Jennifer the Dietician came by and we discussed the idea of dieticians bringing healthy snacks once a month and she clarified that they are willing to do a snack in the first few weeks of the month and the PAC can do something the second two weeks of the month. She is concerned that we not bring donuts and I replied that we can plan to bring recipes we have made from the DaVita website.

Tonite Survivor is back on and I am glad about that, having missed it for the past few weeks, and then, while watching it I am kinda bored by the show’s happenings and again wondering if the whole Survivor thing is over for me. Afterwards I switch over to LOST only to find another repeat. But, after that there is a new Without A Trace, which I hurry home hoping to not miss to much of the beginning.

Notes: In at 77.3 and out at 74.2 Kgs.
New Readers: For an INDEX, click January 2008 on the Sidebar and page down to post # 207.
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April 1, 2008
Tuesday

El Milagro: I arrive 20 minutes late and my chair is ready. Alma the Tech, who is the diminutive opposite of Joseph the Hulk, comes to stick me today. She is small and seems very comfortable with her job and sticks me fast with NO pain. Rowder and the dietician come by with my labs from Easter and my phosphorous is up again and Jennifer the Dietician wants to blame it on Easter and then catches herself, saying “you don’t do Easter, do you…” but, I do eat… and, who knows what spiked the phosphorous. So, as usual, they ruminate and we decide to wait and see what comes up next lab. Rowder asks if there is anything I need and, as usual, I reply, “no”. I check the clock and again wince at the idea of my insurance paying for a two minute doctor’s visit.

I read my Saleebey book for awhile while my brain is plotting next steps for the social work licensing mess we have in Texas. I am thinking that a “call to arms” letter in the NASW Newspaper might be the way to advertise the problem in a broader way and get folks rallied to work on some rule changing activity.

I turn on NPR to get these plots out of my head. One thing about spending so much time in dialysis is there is plenty of time for plotting, thinking, and just generally considering lots of stuff we don’t usually have the time or luxury of considering. It’s like the modern equivalent of Thoreau’s sojurn at Walden Pond… not as naturalistic and idyllic… but, it does force one to sit and think.

By the end of ATC, I am looking through the TV channels (which Thoreau didn’t have at Walden Pond) and find the History Channel’s series on the Universe and immerse myself in the collisions of the universe and forget all about all my little concerns.

Notes: In at 79.1 and out at 74.5 Kgs.
New Readers: For an INDEX, click January 2008 on the Sidebar and page down to post # 207.