Pat's Adventures in Dialysis

Pat's Adventures in Dialysis, the "I Can't Stress Enough How Much Support my Family and Friends Have Given Me Through This and I Want Them to Know How Grateful I Am" edition. Just so you know, Brian moved up his retirement to help out with me. When I came home from the hospital, I was still quite weak and needed to get to dialysis 3x a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and my time was at 2:15PM. Not convenient for anyone. :( Anyway that is yet another story for another day. iPod shuffled to "It Was A Good Day", Ice Cube. Lol. Took me a while to figure out what song he sampled. Do you know?

During the time my kidneys were failing (and I was unaware), I lost weight. In addition, the arthritis in the knees and back were in full force, prompting me to get steroid shots. Of course in retrospect, the kidney failure was causing the problems. :(

So anyway, I was a public safety information technology manager for the City of Detroit. I worked with the technology for the Detroit Police Department, the Detroit Fire Department, Detroit EMS , and dabbled with Homeland Security.(Lots of really cool technology). I had a lot of meetings. A lot. At some point the chairs in the conference rooms seemed to get lower. I had a few meetings where I had to ask Commanders and Deputy Chiefs (DC) to help me up out of the chair. Eh, I really had no shame. I had arthritis. The gentlemen of DPD were always happy assist me. :) Well one day about a year ago, I had a meeting and I needed help up. DC and Commander helped me up. The literally lifted me up off my feet. Lol. Well my slacks tried to fall off (now that kinda embarrassed me). At that point Commander says, "Ms Fields, you've lost weight". Lol. No kidding. My project manager and business analyst chuckled. I said my goodbyes and walked out holding my pants and wondered how I hadn't realized just now big my clothes had gotten on me. That Saturday, my family went to Parisian to get some new clothes. I had dropped 3 sizes.

Now I realized my appetite had diminished. I would get hungry, but if I waited it out, the hunger would go away. "Hey, I've mastered weight loss". Yah right. "Luck be a Lady", Frank Sinatra. His version is so much better than Marlon Brando's movie version. Rofl. Who decided Marlon Brando should sing? Lol. Also, this version played at the Fremont Experience in Downtown Vegas. The horns kick. Oh yes, the EMS chief and assistant chiefs also heaved me out of chairs on occasion. They all know I love 'em all.

I also want to stress that since November, I've needed the services of EMS three times. Each time EMS has responded quickly. The initial call was when the fluid accumulated in my lungs and I really was dying(!). The guys got to the house. Came to the bedroom, gave me oxygen, took my vitals, wrapped me in a blanket and put me on a chair stretcher thing. Hoisted me into the truck and rushed me to Sinai-Grace. The 2nd time was at the dialysis center. I passed out while leaving the center. My blood pressure had dropped and they couldn't bring it back up (this was a function of dialysis which I'll discuss later). Again, EMS arrived in quite a timely matter and delivered me to Sinai-Grace. "Flashlight", Parliament. The epitome of funk. Baseline. You just have to play the air bass. The 3rd time was yet another blood pressure drop that occurred about 45 minutes after dialysis(!) while we were in a restaurant. How fortuitous was it that a Detroit Fire Department captain was there? Now I didn't just fall writhing on the flor, I just laid down on the bench, I needed to get my head down. The DPD captain noticed and came to check on me, and called EMS. EMS got there in a timely manner again. The good news Is my blood pressure normalized by the time they got there, so no transport for me. I have sent my thanks to EMS Chief 1 and EMS Chief 2 ( yes that's what I called them and they knew it - lol ). Heh. I need to let the dispatchers know I appreciate them them also. I know what it's like in there.

That's enough for today. Signing off with "I Can't Help It", Michael Jackson. That is just a wonderful song, written by Stevie Wonder. Close your eyes and smile. :)