My Kidney Story - Part 4

If you are new to reading my Kidney Posts, please feel free to catch up with Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

In picking up the story following my three treatments of Cytoxin.....

After having endured more than enough of my nephrologist, and already living in Virginia, we made the decision that I needed to change to someone more local for my kidney treatment. After doing a little research I found Northern Virginia Nephrology Associates.

Great find, in retrospect. My first appointment, though, was not good at all. I had an appointment scheduled at 3:30 and finally got in to see my new nephrologist at around 5:30. Not the way to start. Though I knew that my former doctor was old-school and antiquated, I never had to wait in his office.

This was also my first experience with a Dialysis center. As it turned out, the doctor only visited the satellite office once a week, so they just used two offices in the Dialysis Center. People sitting around me were there for completely different reasons. Some went back for dialysis, and some just sat and waited (and waited, and waited) for doctor appointments.

When I finally got back to see the doctor, things just got worse. He had received my records from my previous nephrologist only the Friday before (it was a Monday), and had read bits and pieces. He informed me of two things right off the bat, right after "hello, my name is":

I would be on dialysis in five years and
I would have a transplant in ten.

Extremely scary words for me to hear. (still) He proceeded to tell me that it was his last day, and they really should not have sent a new patient to him. He would be starting his own practice, but that was at least a year off.

I left his office that day feeling less confident about life than when I had gone in. I was upset to the point of rage. Why would they schedule me to meet with someone new, just to break the bad news about my future to me, so that when I got to meet with a longer-term doc, they would seem to be more lenient? I didn't care. I was told "5 years, 10 years" and did not have an appointment to see the new doctor for two months.

It was well worth the wait! I met with Dr V. Broumond about a week into his partnership with Neph. Assoc. of NOVA. As this was his first practice, I was one of his first patients. I became a challenge to him almost immediately. When I told him what the other nephrologist told me about the 5/10 year "plan" - he reassured me that we would find something to circumvent that idea and get me a much longer life.

We gave prednisone another chance, to no avail. Dr. Broumond talked to me about going onto Cyclosporine, which is a drug typically used for transplant patients. It's an immunosuppresant.

I was more than a bit nervous about it, but agreed that we had to have a new plan of attack. I started out quickly on 150 mg twice daily, which brought my protein levels in my urine down to much more manageable than they had been since getting sick.

About a year later, we began to lower my dosage slowly, which sent my protein back up. Not skyrocketting by any means, but we decided to keep things at a higher level, so long as my long term health was not in danger. I have continued on Cyclosporine, and am still on it.

Since that brings us to the early part of this year, I am going to close this post. I will have one more "My Kidney Story Part ##" to follow soon, and then will just keep things updated as they happen!

Okay, I want comments!

An earlier post asked what your favorite Christmas Song is and I got nothing from nobody. I'll ask a different question:

What is your LEAST favorite Christmas song? We've got one of those two-weeks-before-Thanksgiving-playing-24-hours-a-day-Christmas-Music. Anny is addicted, and I will listen to it in place of commercials on other stations.

My least favorite Christmas song has to be Christmastime in Washington. I detest it at this point. I am a huge fan of cheesy music, but this one crosses the line. Just gross.

Do they even play Christmastime in Washington in other regions? I'll be in Saint Louis this weekend, so I'll keep an ear out for it while I'm there.

But really: what is your least favorite Christmas song?

Happy Birthday to....

ME!!!

And Anny too?!?

Yes, my wife and I share a birthday. We don't do gifts, so my gift is letting the world know that it's her birthday.

Happy Birthday Anny!

Last Year UCC. This Year UMC. When PCUSA?

Another year is wrapping up, and we all know that this is the time of year that those who do not normally go to church look for a place to worship. Our Presbytery is doing an ad campaign on local talk-radio station WTOP. It directs people to one of three websites that we (I) have updated to reflect services that our churches are having.

Our Presbytery put up the cash for this campaign. We are the ones that, in response to our churches, organized it, too.

Last year the United Church of Christ put on a media blitz with GREAT commercials that ran across the country. The commercials were moving, and directed people to their special advertising site where you could find out more about their denomination.

This year the PCUSA has once again passed up on the idea, and the United Methodist Church is doing GREAT things. I saw this one today:



I know that the PCUSA put money into developing a campaign, but stopped short of ever putting it into action. Oh well. Maybe that is a contributing factor to our "dieing denomination."

(You can find other UMC advertisements HERE.)

If you're in the DC Metro Area this Christmas and are looking for a congregation to worship with, check our our sites! Maryland is HERE. Virginia is HERE. Washington, DC is HERE.

Barack Obama on Monday Night Football

I didn't catch it live, but saw it yesterday and had to share! He had me fooled for about half of it!

**As usual, I don't like to leave videos up, so here is a link: http://www.youtube.com/v/xdLhw6bgyLQ

Another Music Post

We bought the new James Taylor Christmas CD and have not been disappointed! Leave it to JT (not Justin Timberlake, you crazy reader!) to take even the traditional and make it fun!

Anyway - On his CD there is a song called "Some Children See Him" which I had never heard in any sense before. I googled it this morning and found out that it's a "Traditional Poem" that apparently missed my tradition. It's a great poem and so I will share:


Some Children See Him
By Alfred Burt

Some children see Him lily white
the infant Jesus born this night
Some children see Him lily white
with tresses soft and fair

Some children see Him bronzed and brown
the Lord of heav'n to earth come down
Some children see Him bronzed and brown
with dark and heavy hair (with dark and heavy hair!)

Some children see Him almond-eyed
This Saviour whom we kneel beside
Some children see Him almond-eyed
With skin of yellow hue!

Some children see Him dark as they
Sweet Mary's Son to whom we pray
Some children see Him dark as they
And, ah! they love Him so!

The children in each different place
Will see the Baby Jesus' face
Like theirs but bright with heav'nly grace
And filled with holy light!

O lay aside each earthly thing
and with thy heart as offering
Come worship now the infant King
'tis love that's born tonight!

'tis love that's born tonight!

Again, just thought I would share!

I'll post again soon. I'm not avoiding posting, there's just a lot happening right now!

Tis The Season - for Music?!

I'm an eclectic music listener. On my Ipod I have something from almost every genre available, and always look to add others as I discover something new and fun.

Country? Yep.
Christian? Yep.
Rap? Yep.
Classical? Rock? Oldie? German? Yep all around!

Now is the time of year that I get to pull out the Holiday playlist, and it makes me smile. I have my Ipod on in the office everyday from about 10 until I leave at 4. This week I have been playing the holiday playlist almost non-stop. It all comes back to being eclectic in what I have.

Country Christmas? Yep. (Reba McIntire)
Christian Christman? Yep. (Reliant K)
Christmas Rap? Yep. (Run-DMC!)
Classical? Rock? Oldie? German? Yep, Christmas all around!

One of my favorites is Bing Crosby singing White Christmas. Simple and classic. Anny's is by far "Hippopotomous for Christmas" which is a bit rare and random, but cute.

What is your favorite Christmas song? Do you listen to you local all-christmas-all-the-time radio station this time of year?

Black Friday is FINALLY here!

I love this season! I miss working retail on Black Friday - the day after Thanksgiving for those that don't know. I used to work at a sporting goods/athletic shoe store and loved every minute of the Thanksgiving shopping weekend!

There's something about the people shopping. Everyone is hopeful and usually happy. Employees take longer shifts, but are usually in better moods as well. Sales have just started in some stores, though others have realized that they can get some sales started a little earlier now.

When I first started at Champs Sports the holiday sale season was the "Big Six." Everyone was focused on getting the sale started exactly six weeks prior to Christmas.

My third year at Champs, we moved up to the Super Seven! I guess they figured they could get even more money with an extra week.

I left before they got to eight. We used to joke that it would be the "Elite Eight" and would have a college basketball theme. I don't know if they have ever gotten to that, but I know they thought about it!

I miss the working, but will do my part of shopping. Anny and I will head out to Rehoboth, Delaware, when she gets out of bed. I'm actually thinking about going to Target now.

Yeah, I think I'll go.

HAPPY SHOPPING!

Stanger Than Fiction

I began writing this days ago, so if it is choppy, please forgive me!
If you're going to see the movie Stanger Than Fiction please either a: don't read this or b: don't be mad at me for ruining the movie for you!

Now that that's out of the way...
Stanger Than Fiction was a GREAT movie! It's not Will Farrell the traditional sense, but that is not to say that he was not funny. The cast around him was great, which I don't think that the commercials or interviews are getting enough of. I won't take time to ruin the movie, just put down a couple of parts that stirred my thinking.

The premise is unique, but simple. Will Farrell character is hearing the voice of the person narrating the story. The key is that he does not know he is in a novel up until this point in his life. He sees a shrink who tells him to go see a literature professor at the nearby college. Immediately they begin to rule out what kind of story he is in. They narrow it down to tragedy or comedy.

I don't know that I could narrow my life story down to comedy or tragedy, but it's a movie, so this was an easy process!

When it's established that the author always writes tragedies, and ALWAYS kills off the hero of the story, he begins to freak out. His solution is to go directly to the source, so he hunts down the author and shows her that she's not just writing fiction, she's writing about his life, as he is living it.

Farrell gets an advanced copy of the end of the book - therefore discovering how he will die. He reads it and realizes that in order for the story to be complete, he must die. He just has to.

She ends up changing her time-tested method of killing off the hero, because she now knows that he's a real person. She instead writes into her book, a deadly accident with a commuter bus, but he lives. In the next scene you see him in a hospital room all casted up. Not fun, but cetrainly better than death.

So - what it got my brain to getting at - If I had a chance to meet my Author would I try to change anything that has happened? Would I ask that my future be re-written for my sake, or realize that my particular story is written for the greater good, no matter what it may seem like to me?

I haven't had the hardest of lives. I lived in a nice area growing up. I have never needed anything that I could not get in some way. (Not that I haven't wanted something else, though!)

But maybe there are things I would have passed up, particularly my kidney disease. I keep in mind, though, that I'm not as sick as other people are. (read - it could be worse) I think that my kidney disease has been almost a blessing. My priorities changed, and they needed to.

Would I change anything that I could know would happen in the future? I just don't know. I don't think any of us can know, and that's a good thing.

So, this my questions for you:
What would have changed, in retrospect?
What do you know about the future that you would change, if you could?
What would you ask your Author, if you had one question to ask?

Wax Advice

Our little miss Maggie (the beagle puppy) last week pulled a stunt that I could never have even imagined. She managed to knock over a candle.

Not a big deal, right? Just clean it up and get over it, Rob. It's just wax!

Well, we have prefered wickless candles for several years, because if we forget to blow it out, we don't worry about burning the house down. There is an independent candle maker out in Deleware that sells wonderful candles. (See the website HERE!) We really love to go into her shop when we are out there. She always has a smile on her face, and something new for us to try out.

Anyway - she sells very scenty and wonderful wickless candles. You put your jar of scented wax on a ceramic pot with a light bulb. Very nice.

Maggie knocked ours over last week at the worst point. It had been warming for about two hours, so it was completely melted. When she knocked it over, it did some major damage:

1/4 on the floor
1/4 on the WALL!!!
1/3 on the dog (very weird to have sticky hair on the dog)
1/2 on the couch.

The couch is the issue. We've cleaned the dog. We need to paint this room anyway, so the wall is not a big deal. The floor wax came right up off of the hardwood. The couch, though, is ruined.

One arm is completely waxed. We have thought about just getting a couch cover, but the scent is just too overpowering. I tried to sleep on it Saturday morning and realized that it is hopeless. We really like the scent in a candle, but when it's concentrated onto the couch, it's a bit too much.

Hopeless, that is, unless someone out there in internet-land has an idea. ANYONE???

We've got a replacement couch in it's place from the basement, but don't like the look of it. Does anyone know how to get both wax and scent out of a couch?

Let me know, after you vote today, if you have any ideas! Thanks!