My life with dialysis and kidney disease
Archive for November, 2005
SCOTUS Falling Apart?
Nov 28th
By now you’ve all read about the Supreme Court losing a piece of marble.
I can’t believe this qualifies as news. Well, now that I’ve said something political I can move onto something else.
What do you want for Christmas? What does Christmas mean to you? All I’ve heard about since the weekend is how wonderful (or how dismal) the shopping season is. Is this all Christmas is anymore? Doesn’t anyone watch Miracle on 34th Street anymore? Christmas should be about something else right? I mean, all religious connotations aside, Christmas should stand for something more poignant than bottom lines, and YTD totals on sales right?
Not to mention that for some of us it signifies one of the most important moments in humanity (though Pascha, or Ester ranks higher).
So what does Christmas mean to you? Is it a time of giving or receiving? Is it a time of stress, or one of rejoicing? Is it something you look forward to or something you loathe?
Feel free to leave a comment
Today on My Way to Work
Nov 26th
Just kidding….
I didn’t work today. I’ve enjoyed the last few days off immensely, and hope you all have as well. I didn’t get a chance to say it on Wednesday, so it’s today: Happy Thanksgiving!
Of course we’re all very aware this time of year exactly what we’re thankful for. As we sat around the table Thursday voicing what we were thankful for, these are the things I said:
My beautiful wife
My health
My wonderful family
I feel so blessed to have the life I have right now. As I sit here in the dialysis chair I realize just how fortunate I am (looking across the room at someone who is currently 20 kilos above their dry-weight after deciding to dialyze only twice over the last three weeks).
I truly feel blessed to have the things I have. I have a wonderful wife, a fantastic family, a cute little kitten, and a German Shepherd who wants desperately to eat her (well, mostly he’d just like to catch her … probably wouldn’t eat her but I’m not finding out).
I have a smile on my face now thinking about all of the things that go right in my life.
I wish this week that you all can sit for a brief moment and think about all of the wonderful things in your lives. We all have these things, no matter how horrible things seem. We all have positives, we just get very good sometimes at training ourselves not to see them.
My wish today is that you would see what is wonderful in your life, and share it with someone. If you have wonderful people in your life, tell them they are wonderful.
Talk to you soon.
Long Time No Blog
Nov 21st
Sorry for not posting much the last few days. Here’s a quick recap (I only have a few minutes left on the machine).
After my "worst cramp ever", I’ve had a couple treatments that just haven’t been so great. I don’t know if it’s because my body is fighting a cold, or because of something else, but it seems the last week I’m having a harder time with fluid gains, and more importantly, fluid removal. After a few nights of cramping, and "foggy head" syndrome, I decided to up my dry-weight a little bit. So things are going ok so far this evening, though both calves are flirting with a cramp. I’m hoping they don’t hit it off *rimshot*.
My Brother Christian, and niece Caroline visited us this weekend. It was a marvelous time we had with them, and we felt very blessed that they could make it. You all saw the new land-beast truck my "Pa" bought a couple of weeks ago. Well he sold his car to Christian, and so Christian flew out with Caroline to pick it up and have a Father-Daughter road trip back home. They will be leaving tomorrow morning, and we will miss them.
One plus though, is that we were able to celebrate Thanksgiving this weekend while he was home, and have some yummy turkey-n-fixins. We all slept very well last night after filling up on turkey and apple pie, and can’t wait to do it all over again on Thursday.
This sort of kicks off my favorite time of year… the time leading up to and including Christmas. I love the Holidays first and foremost because of their spiritual significance, but also because I thoroughly love spending time with family. I really enjoy the music, the lights, the colors, and everything about Christmas. I look forward to the next month of mystery and wonder as we approach that all-important morning: Christmas Morning. We’re not quite sure how that Holiday is going to play out with both families right now, but we’re not worrying about it either.
I look forward to shopping for gifts for my wife, and curling up to watch movies like "National Lampoons Christmas Vacation," and "Elf". Thursday evening will officially kick things off with turkey and football, and will probably end with a showing of "Christmas Story" to officially start the Holiday season.
So tell me about your Christmas/Holidy traditions. Do you spend it with family? Alone?
Worst Cramp Ever
Nov 16th
I’m writing this just having come out of what might easily be most painful thing I have ever endured. The dialysis cramp.
Sure, we all get cramps from time to time when we push our dry-weight a little bit, but this one was over the top.
So what does a dialysis cramp feel like?
Well, they come in a variety of flavors. Typically they feel like a nasty charlie-horse you wake up with in the middle of the night. And typically if someone pushes against it, you can work the muscle through it. As they get a little more severe you need a little more help to push through them. This one was tight enough that it took a few minutes to push through it, and during that time it felt (without exageration) as though a knife were inside my leg. Like I said, I’ve had dialysis cramps before, but this one brought tears to my eyes.
I really don’t want to go on and on about it … there’s no benefit. It’s something that happens here, and God knows I’ve watched my fair share of people scream though a nasty cramp or two. This one just seemed "noteworthy" for some reason. After getting through it, I am physically exhausted, and mentally unclear.
Awesome… I can feel my leg tightening up again. Let’s hope it didn’t decide to come back for another go.
Tonight is one of those nights where I look forward to being able to get home, where I am comfortable, and do nothing for the rest of the night.
I was planning on going home to practice my hand as a citizen of Project Entropia, but perhaps I will instead just sit back and watch the tele for a bit.
I should note before signing off that I am very blessed in this life. Posts like this seem negative, but aren’t. Even reading back over it I realize it seems as though I am miserable writing it. I am not. This is a very real part of my life, and while I would like to, I simply do not always have the strength to come out with a smile on my face, or a joke on my tongue. Tonight is now 8 minutes from over, and I will go home smiling, having conquered yet another day. I truly feel blessed.
My Favorite Gaming Post EVER
Nov 12th
I’m sure you’ve all read a lot about MMORPG’s in recent days and weeks. These are Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games. They have taken the gaming world by storm recently, offering a place for people to live alternate, virtual lives. It takes the traditional role playing game to the next level by offering a 24/7 role playing experience for thousands of users simultaneously.
So I’m doing a bit of research on the MMORPG called Project Entropia. It is a free MMORPG that has it’s own currency. One that follows OUR currency. Meaning currency earned in the game can be turned into real-world currency. Long gone are the days of selling my Diablo II items on Ebay via PayPal for a profit. Now experience and smarts can be turned right into cold hard cash.
Anyway, to the point of this post:
I was reading a forum about MMORPG’s and came across a post that made me laugh. Nothing in particular funny about it … just the spelling, punctuation, and grammar. You can read the entire thread here.
Until then, here is the post in particular that cracked me up:
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sorry this makes me sick! the games just mensioned are like retro style. rune scape web based not good enuf graphics and well everwars speaks for itself there not got graphics thats just as bad as nuke zone if u want a good one to play goto www.darkeden.com/en now thats a real game only play this if u have braod band it will take broadband uses 1hr and a half non broad band users it will take 6 hrs ok cos my m8 tried it without broadband a fialed exprement so only play if u got broad band or are very very paitent lol well it is basicly where you go round as a vampire or a slayer kill monster to level whwen you level u get skills like vamps poision trun to bats sllayers are harder to wrok out so im not explaining but they can rdie vehcles instead of transform butr lsaays alspo can makew tornados but vampires can get married lol im not sure botu slays and also vamps and slsays can telport at lvl 100 well thats it and vams can make metors
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That’s awesome, you’re probably a highschooler, but would be bested by my 4 year old niece in a spelling bee.
