Gee, I think I'm busier now than I was when I was going to Ottawa three times a week for dialysis!
It seems constant with nurses coming in and out of my home and it seems that there is a delivery guy at my door every single day with yet another box. I'm beginning to feel like a Walmart warehouse with all the boxes filled with the crap needed for my medical stuff...ugh. It didn't help that I discovered I had a hole in the bottom of my foot I didn't know about for who knows how long which got infected so I also had I.V. antibiotics for 4 days, which caused a whole new batch of boxes to be delivered. Crazy!
That is really all my life has been about for the last little while and I fear I have nothing new to write at this time, but wanted to check in. Will write again soon.
I finally received my pd catheter in my belly so that once it heals, I will be able to do my own dialysis at home..hooray!
I am so sick, already, of having to get up at 5:30 a.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and making the 1 and 1/2 hour trek to Ottawa...ugh. On the other hand, I don't want to seem too ungrateful that I can go to dialysis to stay alive. But it will be so much better when I can do it at home.
Now I have 2 big tubes sticking out of me..strange.
Anyway, otherwise, I'm doing pretty good, I think.
It was my birthday on Friday, it's been like a three day long celebration this year. On Friday I went to dialysis, (car problems on Thursday), and then NIA hubby, Holly and I went to this terrific buffet that I love where I got my meal free because it was it was my birthday. Fun!
Just before I left for dialysis, my front door burst
open and in came my beautiful grandchildren, full of happy birthdays and presents and flowers. It was wonderful and totally made my day. I must say, my grandchildren are about the most loving kids I've ever met. It was so nice.
Yesterday, my NIA hubby and I went to dinner by ourselves, kind of a date night, and then we came home and watched some dvds together. My favorite place to be...home with hubby. But I was very tired and went to bed about 11p.m.
Now today, we have my birthday bar-b-que, which has become a bit of a tradition for any family birthday. That means we all get together and have a good time and it will be even nicer with the addition of Holly's boyfriend, Matilda. Well, that's what we call him...lol.
By the way, it is also Holly and Matilda's 2 year anniversary. My goodness, time does fly. It may be 2 years, but I knew the first week that Matilda was 'the one' for Holly.
Once my pd catheter heals, I will need to go to Ottawa and spend a week there to learn how to use it. I hope it will be soon.
Take care!
So, I've been having dialysis for 3 weeks and I must say...it sucks. One of the things dialysis accomplishes besides removing toxins is to also remove excess fluid that can become a problem if it gets in your lungs...which it has in my case. The problem is that for some reason when they get a bit aggressive in trying to remove the liquid, my body doesn't react well. My arteries collapse, I can't breath and I begin to throw up. Yeah, I'm so elegant. All the other people there are quietly reading or sleeping and I'm retching loudly and passing out. Poor Holly, I actually had a seizure in front of her once. Sigh....This past Saturday was the first time it actually went smooth with no problems. I'm always such a pain in the ass.
Spring has tried to 'sprung' but we have had a cold spell in the last few days. Hurry up spring.
So let's talk duck-billed platypus. It's time, don't you think? We can't avoid it forever. Anyway, I have always been fascinated by this mysterious creature. I just happened to catch a show on T.V. today where they were trying to catch one to get some of it's venom. Really? Who knew? So they finally catch one of them with a net and I was stunned to find out they are really small. I had always imagined them to be about the size of a beaver or bigger but no, they are about the size of a large squirrel but much wider and heavier. I also did not know that the males have spurs on the backs of their legs which have venom. Amazing. So, now I know something new about an animal I have been fascinated with all my life. They are second only to my beloved sloth which I dearly love.
My diabetic legs have finally given up on me and NIA hubby bought me a cane. Stairs have become my nemesis and I look like a total idiot getting up them. The cane doesn't seem to help much there as I would have to have the upper body strength of the Hulk to pull myself up, but it does help in walking around. Hopefully I won't fall as much. Keep in mind, I have the girth of a 90 foot redwood!
But I have a plan..I will hollow out the cane and put some gin in it for emergencies. Works for me..
We are having a turkey dinner tonight. Not because it's Thanksgiving but because we were threatened by pilgrims, turkeys were on sale a while back. But for some reason it just doesn't feel right to have a turkey dinner randomly throughout the year. But that will not stop me from enjoying every mouth full
What a week! I began to get a tooth infection last Wednesday and on Thursday I got in touch with my dentist. The problem is, I am allergic to any of the freezing they offer so the next time I get any work done, I will have to be put to sleep. In waiting for that, my tooth became infected. I was put on antibiotics but they weren't working very well. The infection became so acute that the dentist said I should go to the hospital. It just so happened that on Thursday morning, my kidney Dr. called with the results of my blood test. Time for me to get to the hospital as my creatnine numbers were very high. I was actually scheduled on Friday to have the surgery to have the tube put in my stomach to do dialysis at home. But it was all too late and ended up in the hospital and they put some kind of tube in my neck/chest and am doing dialysis 3 times per week. Ugh....it sucks. I now have to wait for the infection in my tooth to be completely gone before I can get the tube inserted to be able to do it at home. Oh well, it's not the Holocaust...and some people have it worse, so I won't complain...well much.
Other than that, I think things are going pretty good. Holly cleaned off our deck on Sunday when I came home from the hospital and it was lovely sitting out there in the sun. It just felt so good on my bones, if you know what I mean. Gorgeous.
Holly gave me the best Mother's Day gift ever. It is a hundred dollar gift card to a place called Kiva. You lend money to people in third world countries to help them start little businesses. I love it so much. I have lent $25 dollars to 4 very hardworking women who run small fish/fruit stands in their villages. This not only helps these women and their families, they have found it also helps their communities. This type of micro financing is such a good idea and whoever thought of it is so brilliant. They do pay back each loan with a small interest and you are then free to reinvest with them or someone else. Thanks Holly...you're the best. Check it out at www.kiva.org.
She and Ashley both know how to shop for me. For Christmas, Holly bought me a donation to the sloth program in the Amazon. The sloth has been my favorite animal since I was a teenager. They sent me a little sloth stuffed animal that I cherish as it is not easy to ever find anything 'sloth' in general. As a matter of fact, I took my sloth to the hospital with me and sat it on my t.v. So cute.
Ashley gave me a subscription to my long time favourite magazine and I can't tell you how great that is when I am in the hospital. Love you guys!
I never wrote here that the 'Love Nest' is up for sale. Since we've moved so far from it now, we are selling it and plan to buy one closer to home. I can't wait. I really miss it. But it looks like we have some interest this year in it. I will keep my fingers crossed.
Nothing much else new, just trying to dance naked in the tulips with my sloth adjust to life on dialysis.
Take care,
I love animals. All animals except bugs and bats. I draw the line at things that have such good 'sonar' that they fly right into you. And trust me, they do. I know, bugs are not animals, but, whatever. Anyway, the one animal I've never been extremely crazy about is cats. It's not that I didn't like them, I was just never a cat person. When the girls were growing up, we usually had a cat of some sort, mostly because Ashley loves cats and would constantly bring one home. I didn't usually pay much attention to them as it was the girls job to take care of it. The point of my story is coming. So, when we moved here 3 years ago, and we live beside Ashley. Ashley had a cat that I actually fell in love with. Whiskers was an indoor/outdoor cat. A great big girl who happened to be pregnant at the time. Once we moved in, she began to come to our house instead of Ashley's. I liked her, so I couldn't turn her away, and she never went to Ashley's house again! We all just accepted it and I would actually look for her at night and worry if she didn't come home. I began to really love this cat. When it came time for her to have her babies, we made a bed for her in the bottom shelf in the kitchen, which she loved. She ended up having 5 healthy and diversely coloured babies. I really didn't pay that much attention to the babies, but she was a good mother. Eventually, Ashley said she was finding a home for them. And she did. But, somehow, we ended up with Noel, a beautiful little black and white kitten. One day, I realized that Whiskers had been gone from home too long. I just knew in my gut that something was wrong. We looked for her several times that day. Hubby came in from outside and told me that she was under our car and wouldn't come out. I ran outside and laid on the ground to have a look. Just one look told me she was hurt, as she was panting and wouldn't move. My heart broke. The only way to get her out from under the car was to pull her out by the tail. I did so, as quickly, but as gently as possible. She screamed in pain. I carefully scooped her up and we made a soft bed for her. Once we had her comfortable, I had a good look at her. There was no blood, but you could tell she was terribly broken inside. Internal injuries. For sure she was hit by a car. It was too late to find a vet, so I stayed awake with her most of the night. She seemed alright as long as she didn't move. Of course, we took her to the vet first thing the next morning and it was as I thought. We had to have her put down, and it broke my heart. I was surprised at how upset I was about it, because I have never bothered about a cat before.
Whiskers was gone, but at least we had one of her offspring. But can you have 2 cats as good as Whisker? I am flabbergasted to report that Noel is the best cat I've ever seen. He's as sweet as Whiskers, but he's an indoor cat only, so I don't have to worry. I honestly love him with my whole heart. And he's totally a mommy's cat. He loves me too. Amazing! I now love cats! All I can say is that, Whiskers and now Noel, have been wonderful ambassadors for cats.
By the way, here is a picture of Ashley's new cat. She's about as pretty a cat as I've ever seen, but my heart is with Noel.
I almost forgot to report the good news that my heart is completely fine. Yay!
Oh what fun it is around here! I was back in the hospital last week, but only for 2 days. Water in my lungs again because of a stupid cold, plus just an over abundance of water in my body. Stupid kidneys, stupid water...especially stupid kidneys! Ah well, life goes on. I do however have my bag packed to go back to the hospital as my creatnine levels (protein in my pee, I think) are outrageous and I just escaped dialysis by the skin of my teeth last week, however, creatnine steadily going up, so just waiting for the results of a blood test I took today.
Holly will soon be tested to see if she will be able to give me one of her kidneys. At first, I was dead set against it, but have been reassured 100 times that she is at a very low risk for diabetes, so, although I'm not totally convinced quite yet, It won't hurt to see if we're a match.
But we must remember, we are dealing with a 'Holly' here. Ever since this discussion has been on the table, she uses it to her advantage. 'Mom, your kidney feels like scrambled eggs, could you make them like only you can?' O.K. she may have me over a barrel now, but once it's been determined that we are a match, she had better get out the frying pan, because I've been on youtube and have a pretty good idea how to remove a kidney. I may do it myself. Surprise Holly! All I need is...um..vice-grips, an anvil and a bazooka. Oh no, sorry...that's knitting.
Anyhoo, I am really sorry my posts are so health oriented as really, I don't have anything else going on right now that doesn't include clowns, pasteurized milk and rubber sheets my kidneys.
I absolutely love that strikethrough feature we have on blogger and my New Year's resolution (Tory-come-lately!) is to use it at least once during each post.
I will try to post on a regular basis, but if I'm away, I am probably in the hospital getting my kidneys stapled to my bottom lip or something, and I will post in 7 years the minute I get home.
Take care!
I love to crochet and I have been doing quite a bit of it the last year or so, you know, to keep me busy and out of the pool halls. Anyway, I am not really crazy about knitting although I know how as I find it kind of hard. But there is a neck warmer that I have been dying to knit for myself for years, but wanted a specific wool for it and just never got around to buying it for myself. Well, I got some perfect wool recently for the project and so I am going for it...ugh. So, there I sat yesterday, sweating and wearing out my arms because I always cast the first row on way too tight. NIA hubby was watching t.v. when I suddenly cried out that I needed vice grips, an anvil, and a bazooka. He didn't bother to get me the items I asked for, for some unknown reason, but I did manage to finally get through the dreaded first row. So far so good, but I really don't remember my mother-in-law going through this when she knitted.
This morning I had to be up early for some tests on my heart. It was a stress test, but because I am unable to do the treadmill, they stress your heart chemically. When I went in they gave me an I.V. and then put the medicine in to stress my heart. Suddenly I felt terrible, and had a lot of pressure on my chest. I was also pretty sure I was going to be sick. They assured me this was normal, and for the next 5 or 10 minutes I felt like I was going to die. It was awful. They then gave me another shot and miraculously, it all suddenly went away and I felt fine. Geez, glad that's done as it really sucked. Then I had to go and have something to eat and went for more pictures but it was easy. Tomorrow morning I must go for some follow up pictures and then I should get the results on Friday. I'll keep you posted on that.
Holly showed me something very interesting today and I think it would be worthwhile for people to read about this amazing lady who did so much and never really received the acknowledgement she truly deserved. So, if you have the time, please go to http://www.irenasendler.org/ and learn about an exceptional lady.
Take care,
I am one of those old fogies that regularly uses the Internet but have no idea of how it actually works. Since I have two young adult children who are used to all this tech stuff, I periodically ask them if they know how it works and where is all this info actually stored. It sounds like they are trying to tell me that it is basically stored in the air! What? So, of course, me being a Tory...my mind goes there. (Where no Tory has gone before). Anyway, some afternoons when I'm in repose in my living room there is a wonderful shaft of sunlight that comes through my window. As I watch, there is often a piece of dust or pet hair that floats through the light. Or is it?? Could it actually be that e-mail that I've been waiting for from E-bay regarding my emergency spanx order? Did I just sneeze because my nose was jammed with spam, just as my in-box is?? Now I hear my girls talking about how they are filling the 'clouds' with this stuff. When it rains will we all be sifting through the puddles looking for e-mails we didn't receive? (like my love letter from Brad Pitt that must have gotten lost in someones nose.) I really still don't quite get the concept and it really boggles my mind that someone does. However, I'm glad I don't have to understand it to use it, because I do love it.
I am about to reveal a secret about myself that only my family knows...I love watching MMA. What a great job to be able to punch people in the face and get paid for it to express yourself in such a physical way. What do you mean I have anger issues?
Just in case I have a lapse in writing on here, let me assure you, I really have a good excuse for the next little while. My health proves to be more challenging by the second. Next month, I go and have surgery to have a tube installed in my belly to accommodate dialysis as my kidney's are nearly done. NIA hubby is going to see if he is a match for a doner and if it will be safe for him to donate. If not I will be placed on a waiting list for a doner. The kidney problems are a result of a lifetime of diabetes which I never really took seriously in my younger days. I sure am paying for it now. I have retinopathy which could make me blind, however there is a treatment, which I am taking now, (needles in the eyeballs....ewwww) that seem to be working and will keep blindness away for a good while. However, I have a bunch of cataracts that are going to be removed by surgery this month. And now, something new and exciting that I learned last week from my Endocrinologist....heart problem. Angina, to be specific, so last Wednesday I spent the day going to med appointments all day. The first thing in the morning I had a heart ultrasound, then I rushed to a mammogram at the local hospital and then Holly had to drive me about an hour away to a big hospital in Ottawa so a surgeon could check out the site of my operation for the dialysis tube. It was such a long day for me, because A) I have fybro myalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome and B) the angina causes extreme fatigue.
And besides all that, I have such extreme nerve damage in my feet and legs, from the diabetes, I am unable to walk very well. As of late, i use a wheelchair every chance I can or I just don't go.
Now, do not feel sorry for me. I know it sound like a lot, but I'm doing fine. My life is not the same as it used to be, but I'm still enjoying it. I am a homebody anyway, so I have several hobbies that keep me busy and happy. And my family makes my life so easy, they really do. I am so blessed to have them. Anyway, as you can see, I will be busy for awhile because once they give me my dialysis tube, I must spend a week in Ottawa for training on how to do home dialysis. I stay at a hotel at night but spend the best part of the day learning to do my own dialysis. And of course, my Dr. said that if they find more than one artery blocked, I will have to go for bypass surgery a.s.a.p. I am really trying to be careful to not have a heart attack and damage my heart before they fix it. And I was kind of hoping that bypass was day surgery and I could go home after, but she informed me that I would be in I.C.U. for 5 days!!! Are they crazy?? I was seriously thinking me and the surgeon...my bathtub...I'll hand him the instruments...no? That is the worst part of the whole thing...I hate the hospital with a passion. I feel so uncomfortable not sleeping at my own house. I don't even go and sleep at family's houses. I remember a few months ago, I had built up so much water in my body, when I got a cold I found one afternoon that I couldn't breath. I thought I was just congested from the cold, but the next afternoon, I really couldn't breath (which makes it so hard to smoke...lol) and NIA hubby called an ambulance. Very embarrassing...Anyway, sure enough, I had water in my lungs. They kept me at the local hospital for a few days, but I had a bunch of stuff wrong with me and needed a blood transfusion. Finally, they sent me by ambulance to the hospital in Ottawa. After they got me settled and I was alone, I actually started to cry. I just wanted to go home. What a baby. Being sick constantly doesn't really bother me, I take it in stride, but I would love to have to never have to go to the hospital again. That is why, unless I'm sure I'm dying, I never go to the E.R. for anything as they always keep me for some reason or another. Ugh!
Anyway, onward and upward as they say. But in spite of all this, I am really looking forward to summer this year. I am going to spend most of it sitting on a dock on the St. Laurence River with my fishing pole. It is the most relaxing way to spend time and it's not strenuous. All I need is my tackle box and a lovely hat. That's what I call a perfect day!
Take Care,
