Nephrologist Visit

I was dreading last week's visit to the Kidney doctor for weeks.  I knew several things going in:

• I am feeling okay, which tends to not be a good indicator for me
• I'm extremely tired emotionally and physically right now
• I have not lost any weight like I said I would
• It's my fault for the aforementioned lack-o-weightloss
• I did my labs on time, even a little early for nephritic standards

When I got to the office I made the usual chit chat type of conversation.  I had an apointment a few days before Abby was born, so we always have that to chat about.  (Good thing I like to talk about Abby, because people ask me about her more than they ask about ME!)

After being weighed and having my blood pressure taken, the doctor came in.  He was disapointed by one thing - my labs were indeed NOT in my folder.  He asked the nurses, who of course would have filed it if they received it.  They got on the phone with the lab (only withholding the name for this post, I totally play to put them on blast in a post soon) only to find out that they had not processed it to completion, meaning that my information would not be available.  Waste. Of. Time.

He did look back at my history and said that I need to be on a Vitamin D supplement.  It's not surprising, though, since I don't get in the sun much and am supposed to limit my whole milk consumption.  He said that both he and his son take it, too, so it's not really that unusual.  (Wait, did he mean to imply that I'm otherwise unusual!?)  Then I proceeded to get a flu vaccination AND a pneumonia vaccination.  Yick.

My doctor agreed to just call me later after he receive the paperwork. 

So I went on about my day - Starbucks Shaken Black Iced Tea and an Apple Fritter and straight to my desk at work - and waited patiently for his call, again dreading words of disapointment.  One of the other things we were looking for was my cholesterol levels, which were a little high six months ago. 

When he called he didn't have a single bad thing to say.  I believe his words were "everything is status quo, nothing to be concerned about."

So my kidney update is that there is nothing new, but nothing out of the ordinary.  This means that I get to coast for another six months without worry!  I am trying to be better about what I eat (with a little success) and exercising (with NO success) in the time between now and then. 

A Fundamental Difference

(Watching the end of the debate before heading off to work)


Mr McCain,


I can not think of a single person that I know that is "pro-abortion."  Please do not ever use such language again, for you hurt more people than you know.  While you're at it, please stop saying "young women having to make that choice" because it is not only young women.  What about the woman that is in her 50, thinks that she's beyond child bearing age (with good reason) and finds out that she's pregnant?  What if a woman's doctor lets her know up front that there will be a choice, because of disease, between her life and the fetus she's carrying?

Think before you speak,
-rob


************************
No one is pro-abortion.  A good post by a pastor friend that sums up the way I feel is HERE.  Abortion is a choice that no one wants to have to make, but the reality is that sometime's it's necessary.

I have been a part of such a decision, and it is not an easy decision that is made ever, and not one to be taken lightly.  (For the record, the pregnancy was not mine, I was dating her sister)  She was devastated to have such a decision to make, and was devastated afterwards, as is expected.

What is of much more value is education - conservatives need to open up to real, honest sex education.  It needs to start early.  I was astounded at my last church about the things that our Middle Schooler's did NOT know about sex and reproduction. I was more astounded to find out how much their parents did not know.  We need to reshape the curriculum and not go after school boards that try to make that happen.

I am obviously pro-choice.  Our country is based on choice and freedom.  You can probably glean my views on other issues like gay marriage, too. 

(Please, if you're going to leave comments, be kind and courteous.  Come back (or support) with knowledge and truth to facilitate conversation, not words of hate.  Thank you.)

How to Ruin an Awesome Day

We went to the zoo Saturday with a family from our church.  It was awesome to spend some time with them outside of the normalcy that is the church nursery.  They're cool folks, but the last time we tried to meet up with them there was a little chaos and we just never connected.

Only I can come up with two, yes two, ways to completely ruin this day.

1 - it seems that there was a marathon in Baltimore.  We typically go into the city through 295, which brings us in by two of the coolest stadiums in the state of Maryland.  The aquarium is only a few blocks to the right of this way into the city, so it's easy in that respect too.

Because of the marathon, though, the cut off one of the north-south streets, pushing a city's worth of traffic north with no real options for getting to the middle easily.  We spent 90 minutes sitting in the car just plodding along.  Unbelievable.  We finally found a way south and went in another way - with absolutely no delay.  Argh.  Two hours late is not the way to start awesomeness.

That could only be topped by one thing - burning our house down.  Okay, the thought of burning our house down.  About halfway through our drive home we were talking about what to have for dinner and it occured to me that I hadn't turned off the stove, so I hoped beyond hope that Anny had.  She had not.   I was making hard-boiled eggs for our salads this week, and luckily had left the heat down, or we really would have been homeless.

We threw away the pot.  There were four eggs - each in a different state.  One was in tact, but empty.  One was completely crushed and empty.  One was half full. The fourth, though, was fun:

On the right of the picture is the egg shell, on the left is the fully cooked yolk.  It seems that it hopped out of the pot and shot it's yolk through the flames, still in tact.

We're really lucky.  I spent about 25 minutes getting smoke out of the house with open windows and fans, while the girls got gas and dinner.  On Sunday when we got home from church it's was stinky again, but open windows took care of that. 
Other than that, Saturday was wonderful.  :o)

Wordless Wednesday

This is one of the three boys that Abby is allowed to marry with no questions asked.  His parents and I have even come up with a budget for the wedding, should it happen.

More Wordless Wordnesday at http://www.wordlesswednesday.org/. 

I Cried a Little Yesterday

Maybe I'm just really on edge right now about the whole "financial meltdown" thing or the "I have a doctor appointment next week where I will be yelled at for not exercising."  Maybe I'm just overly emotional because I have not gotten enough sleep lately because Abby is breaking in two more molars.

Or maybe it is because I am really mad.  Genuinely outraged.

I spent many years in The South growing up.  I was friends with everyone.  Actually, the same is true of just about my whole life. I never would have won "most popular" but I knew and was friendly with just about every single person in my school.  I knew everyone just well enough to stay under the radar.  I fit in with the cool kids and could move lunch tables to hang out with the outcasts.  I'm a people pleaser, and have no qualms about that.

I love the South, in general.  But yesterday I remembered why I will not live there again.

I was listening to my favorite afternoon radio show and they were talking about the Presidential race.  Always interesting to hear a different perspective than you get on the mainstream.  (Which is not a knock on the "liberal" media, I happen to think that most of the coverage is balanced.)  A woman called in from North Carolina and told a story about a co-worker that had me so angry that I was fighting back tears when I saw my daughter, hoping beyond hope that she will not have to hear such words in her lifetime.

The story goes...

Co-worker goes to a womans house to provide service, which is believe is of the social-service variety.  While the two women are talking, man-of-the-house comes in.  All involved are white.  He says to social worker "there is no way that you're voting for that n***** Obama.  There is a reason thta it's called the White House."  He then proceeded to get his loaded shotgun and point it in her face while telling her just how bad things would be if a black person were elected to such an office.  Having feared for her life, she called the police.  When they investigated he said it was "just a joke" and nothing was done to him.

I guess that I like to live where I live because, while there is racism, there is tolerance and acceptance.  I work with 100+ churches that are diverse in every sense - conservative and liberal; black, white and Asiain; loud and quiet about their way of doing church; young and old.  But everyone gets along. 

It is my humble prayer that Abby never have to hear a story like this.  I hope that she never has to hear such racial slurs directed to people of any race.  I pray that she never thinks differently of her friends because of their socio-economic status, gender, race.  I hope that she learn to respect people as individuals.  I pray that Anny and I continue to model that behavior for her, and I think that we're on the right path. 

More directly related to this Presidential Race: I pray that we vote based on the issues that are important to us as individuals and as a nation.  I refuse to base my important vote on race, age, gender or political party.  I implore you to do the same.  Vote on all of the issues that are on the top of your list. 

The Importance of a Single Doctor

No, I most certainly do not mean that your doctor must live in the chastity of singleness or fidelity of marraige to practice medicine.  (Sorry, that's a Presbyterian... joke.)

A new blog-friend that I've recently found is experiencing a very frustrating existence.  He lives in England and was diagnosed with FSGS, the disease I have, but is dealing with three different doctors in a tag-team sort of situation.  From what I understand, he does not know when he walks into the office which of the "Consultants" he will be seeing.  (*I have just realized that this is because he is in England he is part of the National Healthcare system.  This is still important, so I'm still posting it!)

I want you all to know that this is very very bad.  (And I've told him so, and he's working to resolve it.  He was way before I said anything about it!)  If you don't see the same person from visit to visit you will receive different information, treatment, and, to be honest a different experience.  I saw a doctor once that told me I would be on dialysis in five years, have a transplant in ten, and probably another transplant after that.  This was "no matter what treatment we go with."  It was his last day at the practice, and I was thankful for that, because even with that grim prognosis, I believe that it would have been better to have stability in treatment than to bounce around too much.

This is not to say that you should never change doctors.  When I moved an hour away from my doctor, I remained with him for an additional year.  It was worth driving back and forth once every three months rather than making a switch.  At that point he and I had different ideas about how my treatments should continue.  He was very out of touch with new technology and refused to listen to me when I made suggestions.  After giving him my time and my health, I decided that it was best for me to move on.  He retired shortly after that, and I think that's good for the rest of his patients, too. 

When you have a difference of mindset from your doctor, things will not work.  If you are a holistic person and the doctors only answer and option is medicine, you should find someone new.  If you think that only drugs will work and your doctor says that you need to do yoga and see a chiropractor it will not work because you have to buy into their plan, and they need to know that you're going to do that.  Your health is not a commodity - doctors are should not be people-pleasers.  They need to work with patients as the individuals that they are. 

If your doctor is a part of a shared practice, it is okay (in my opinion) on occasion to be checked up by a partner, because doctors usually group themselves together with other doctors that share similar methodologies.  That being said - when I was with the out-of-date Nephrologist, his partner contradicted his request on my chemo treatment.  That created a lot of confusion for me, and made my choice to leave that practice easier.

The bottom line is that your doctor works for you - it's your health.  If you decide that you don't want to take medicines that are bringing you severs side effects, that you're decision.  You need to respect your doctors, but your doctors also need to respect you.  I am not one that believes that respect comes automatically with your position - so I believe that consistency of care is essential.

(Side note - I'm mad that the Firefox dictionary, among others, does not recognize "nephrologist" as a word!)

So Much Stuff, So Little Time

I have four half-written posts that are not ready to be finished today.  Instead, I'll skim over a few topics and try to start some trouble....

1 - Tonight's scheduled debate should go on as scheduled.  JM and BO were in town yesteraday, as they should have been, but there is no need for them to stick around and cloud the process that already has too many hands in the pot.  I think that McCain is too nervous about having his previous comments coming back to hit him at this particular time.  (Think: "I don't really understand budgets" from earlier this year.)  Obama is right to have said that the president needs to know how to handle more than one thing at once, and if McCain can not take the time to answer questions to the American people then I really do not want him in charge come January.

2 - Abby's sleep routine was beautiful this week, until last night.  I suppose that one night out of six is good for such a major change.  We have made a conscious decision not to jump-and-bolt in the middle of the night when she wakes up and cries.  The first night was hard - she woke up and screamed on three occasions.  The second night it was twice.  The third and fourth were two screaming fits.  Then we got two nights of peaceful slumber for all three of us.  Now she's back to cutting teeth, but I'm hopeful that we will have better nights ahead now that we have set up good habits.

3 - The National Book Festival is tomorrow on the National Mall. We were planning to go in the morning, but they're calling for rain.  I think we're going in the afternoon so that we can see what it's like.  They have a large section for children, teens and family books and exhibits.  (If you're going, let me know and maybe we can meet up.  If you weren't planning to go, but want to hang out, we would love company!)

4 - The draft posts are: Family Routines; Building Communities; Good Healthcare and a Single Doctor.  They're all pretty in depth and I want to be sure that I flesh them out.  Maybe I'll do that while watching TV this evening....

5 - I'm re-organizing my Itunes at home.  I went through all of our CD's and converted the songs that we wanted to mp3's so that we don't have as much to store in the house.  That was a fun project and I got to listen to a lot of music that I hadn't heard in a LONG time.  Hello Vertical Horizon!  Now that I've put an additional 600+ songs onto our computer, I've been spending time between the girls leaving for school and my leaving for work sorting out playlists.  It's fun, but takes a long time since I'm looking through 4906 songs!

6 - How are you?  What are you up to?  If I was to read ONE blog to expand my reading today, where would you suggest I read?

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Wordless Wednesday!

My Weekend ROCKED!

My Facebook message says "Glad for an awesome weekend, sad it was too short."  My sister commented to ask why, and I realized that in all of the hubub, I haven't updated my blog since Wednesday!

On Friday afternoon I got motivated at the office to clean out our storage unit in the basement.  This "room" is very cluttered, and not with the right stuff.  There are boxes of old books that have since been reprinted, old financial records that can't be tossed until January of next year, and old blueprints for churches.  Okay, old blueprints, most of which are for churches, but some are for closed churches, camps or other properties that we no longer own.  Fun.  I brought one of the four boxes up and began sorting.  This will be a several-weeks process, and I'm okay with that. 

Because I got so much done here, I headed home and chipped away at some more of my attic cleaning project.  We bought our house from the family, and still have not gotten to cleaning everything out of the attic.  There is some pretty cool stuff up there, but also some trash and things that have been out of date for years.  (i.e. a crib that, by todays standards, would implode immediately and burst into flames!)  I got enough done to be happy and leave the rest for a cooler day, hopefully in a few weeks. Anyway.

On Saturday we did our normal morning routine:
Farmer's Market
Eat our Farmer's Market pastries
Wash diapers
Grocery Shop

We did a detour on the way to the grocery store to support our friend Charlene's fundraising efforts for her crazy three day journey in a couple of weeks.  They were having a bake sale and a yard sale.  We spent a few dollars on each of those, in addition to a check for just walking.  Worth every penny.

On Saturday afternoon Anny had a friend over to do some scrapbooking.  I don't really deal well with printed pictures.  I view the internet as my scrapbook.  With that in mind, I grabbed Abby and we took off for the Patuxent Wildlife Refuge.  We had a nice hike, just the two of us.  The weather would not have allowed me to take her shopping or anything like that, and I'm glad that we didn't.  I stopped along the way several times and let her out of the stroller to play.  I got a couple of nice pictures, and one amazing one.  You'll have to wait until Wednesday for that one, sorry. 

Saturday night we had dinner with my brother and his wife.  They are so great with Abby, but struggled with the concept of an early dinner.  I think they understand, and hope that if they don't that they will soon.  :o)

Sunday night we went to dinner with friends.  This is where the awesomeness stopped.  Abby was just way too overspent to enjoy a quiet dinner, so Anny and I ate in shifts.  That's never fun. By the time we got home, and not very late I must say, Abby skpped her bath and went straight to sleep.  It's adorable and annoying, both at the same time.

What did you do this weekend?

Wordless Wednesday

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