313) Of GERD and Diet

January 8, 2009

Thursday

El Milagro: Before Rosie the Tech is ready to poke me, Kate the PA comes up to do doctor talk. I bring up my recent self-dialgnosed GERD, describing the regurgitation in the middle of the night symptom, my use of Tums, and the extreme cough this episode left me. Kate agrees that it is probably GERD and recommends the following after I tell her I don't want to add another med to my list: 1) Read more about a GERD-reducing diet on the internet; 2) Keep an eye on the cough and talk to Venkatesh if it doesn't get better (she warned that GERD is nothing to ignore because it can become cancerous); 3) take Tums, Milanta, or Prilosec when the blotting is bothering me.

Sometime during this conversation, Jordi the Dietician strolls up and reports again that my phosphorous is back down and the and Kate are sure it was due to my changing my diet, although I maintain the high 10 was a lab mistake. Jordi does have some comments on my food chart. Both swordfish and oysters are high phosphorous! And, "How could anyone put oysters in stuffing? You must be from up north somewhere." I ponder that and dig back in my memory to the origion of oysters in stuffing... "My family came from up north but they didn't put oysters in their stuffing... I guess it came from some group Turkey day celebrations along when I was a young adult out on my own..." and I wonder if adding oysters came from Clifford from New York or someone else from my Upper Mesilla Valley Group. Jo the Nurse pipes up that she loves oysters on the half shell and we talk about the difference between gulf oysters and northern coast oysters, while Jordi wrinkles up her little nose in disapproval. Jordi goes on to mention the 'cookies' on my list and I reply that those cookies are all home-made, not box cookies, and she nods agreement about those. I ask again about the clemintines, and she reports that they are low potassium but higher in phosphorous and I shouldn't be eating a box of them! DAMN! She and Kate also want to know about my staying off rye and on to the white bread bolillo rolls and they are happy that I have integrated those successfully into my diet. Jordi opts out of the conversation with a reminder that we have BIG labs next Tuesday. She is proud that the whole clinic had comparatively low phosphorous scores this past time, and bemoans that she didn't get any positive feedback about that from administration. I take this opportunity to applaud Jordi's efforts to get El Milagro patients to follow their diets and take their binders! Hurray Jordi! Keep up the good work kid!

As they all move on to other patients, I see Sherry Social Worker and am reminded that since Tuesday's call to Social Security I haven't received the form that Ms. Blanket promised to send me... so, maybe I should stress the bureaucracy by following the instructions on the letter they sent me and write them back a letter describing my call with Blanket and my request for a different start date than they are offering. By doing this, I will be 'covered' in case my phone call with Blanket doesn't achieve anything.

As I'm writing this I remember that tonight is the BCS championship game with Florida and OU and I need to find out what time and channel... right now I'm hearing about auto show models and how they followed Marjorie Kress (?) in becomming "gearheads" in the mid 80's in order to prove they have brains as well as brawn. What? It is time to switch to network news... ABC here I come... off radio, transfer earphones to TV and here is Charlie and the news... which I watch while beginning to read my Alex Delaware novel.

Later I watch the boring game thru the first half and wonder why all my colleagues want Florida to beat OU. In my brain, a Big 12 winner of the BCS is at least a winner from our own conference... I don't get it... and the announcers don't catch on that they should clear this up for me. Oh well. I doze off a number of times during this game and then it is time to unhook and go home. And so it goes.

Notes: In at 78.6 kgs and out at 75.2 kgs.
Happy 68th Birthday Joan Baez!