The "Happy Halloween From Las Vegas, 2014!", edition.

iPad shuffled to Stevie Wonder, "You Haven't Done Nuthin'". Happy Halloween!!  I forgot to watch Charlie Brown last night. My apologies to Elliot. I've got on my (2nd) annual synthetic, itchy, uncomfortable Halloween costume (wig). Last year I was the only person wearing anything at my dialysis treatment center, that resembled a costume..my rainbow wig.  This year, 1 (one) staff member and I are gussied up. The tech has on makeup and a wig. At least we brought smiles to some people. Some people are perpetual frowners. Eh. What are you gonna do?  If I can get at least one person to smile it's worth it. Heck, I'm making myself happy!  :)

Marvin Gaye, "You Sure Like to Ball".  Out of the corner of my eye, I see Teletubbies on the TV.  Im not really trying to see it.  I'm glad Shawn was past them. Although we did have a little Barney. We had a lot of Sesame Street tapes and a lot of Thomas the Tank Engine tapes. Thomas tapes narrated by Ringo Starr. George Carlin came later. ;-).  I got distracted by the nurse. She listened to my lungs, heart and fistula. And felt my ankles. They also check our feet once a month. That's  primarily for the diabetics. But we all get checked.  There are a few people on my shift that are amputees.  Ok. Consider this the lost paragraph. 

Wild Cherry, "Play That Funky Musuc".  Vegas is celebrating Halloween all over. Heh. The TV station is featuring a haunted asylum and fear hotel near my dialysis center. It was put up in September with help wanted signs. I guess they got  their help!  Lol. I'm passing on that, but as a young adult we went to haunted houses. I took Shawn to a haunted maze and barn while visiting a cider mill. Word to the wise. Even if they tone down the fear, some 6-7 year old kids won't like haunted barns, houses, choose your facility.  Let's just say the staff had to turn on the lights and escort us out.  That's right up there with a few questionable things I did raising my child. *sigh*. I don't think I was too bad a parent. 

John Legend, "Heaven".  Nevada has early voting.  It lasts 2 weeks and tomorrow is the last day.  Oh..there's a ladybug nurse here!  Not only is there early voting, there are over 80 locations where you can vote. We went to the mall. The process is all automated. The clerk scanned my voter registration card and my information came up on her laptop. She asked my date of birth, then printed a little form with my information and asked me to verify the information.  Finally she inserted a key card in a machine, then handed it to me. Hmm. I'm looking at the tech with makeup and a wig. She's some kind of mad scientist or doctor.  Lol. How appropriate in this blood sucking place!!! 

Cameo, "I Just Want to Be". Armed with the key card I head into the voting area. A lady tells us to go to any open machine.  There were 2 ladies behind the bank of voting machines to help us. We insert the key card in the machine. It was a touch screen machine!!  How easy is that?  We came from the land of scantron voting. We just moved into 21st  century voting!!!  Heh. 13 page ballot, but that's because I guess nevada can never have too many judges. And I think I told you one of the propositions was to add another court. Anyway in and out, got our stickers. The downside was being in a mall. Somehow I made it to Macy's which was having a sale!  Bought some Christmas gifts. Don't hate. Lol. 

The Spinners,  "I'll Be Around". I think one of the guy techs is a fireman. Even if he's wearing his protective clothing over the costume. :-)  He's also the tech that just brought me a packet of emergency information.  It has my dialysis info, like flow, volume and drugs I get during treatment. It also had a red wristband. I've wanted a red wristband. It's for my left arm.  It's to indicate to emergency personnel to not stuck an IV in my left arm or use my left arm to take my blood pressure.  That could blow my fistula, my lifeline. My fistula keeps me alive.  I let Brian know if anything happens to me to watch the left arm.  I still think ill get a jewelry type bracelet. Like a Medic Alert bracelet. 

Signing out with  The Natural Four, "Can This Be Real?"  The high temps have been the 80s during the day. Running in the low 60s when I go to treatment. This weekend the high temps are only going to be in the 60s. Brrr. ;-)  Have a fun Halloween. And a great weekend. Time to start thinking about Thanksgiving dinner!!!   Photo of me in my "costume".  

The "I Didn't Get Much Sleep Last Night", edition.

iPad shuffled to The Tavares, "Heaven Must Be a Missing an Angel".  I can't get my thoughts together this morning so this is a small entry.  I should have slept well. My workout went well. I've hit the 15 minute treadmill walk. I probably can push it to 20 minutes, but the trainer has me doing 15 minutes. I'll see where I am next week. On the bike I jumped from 43 mph to 63.  And increased the time to 13 minutes...closing in on the 15 minute mark.  I rode 2 miles!!  The weight machines and some of the exercises are still difficult. The chest and back reps are ok. Some are difficult even at 10 pounds. Others I can press 30 pounds. Hey you gotta start somewhere. :)   There is an exercise called planks. I was abysmal at that. Need a bit more upper body strength. Again, the trainer is adjusting my circuit. One day I'll hold my plank longer than 2 seconds!!!

 The Guess Who, "American Woman".  Our workout is just over an hour. And yes, my whining has decreased.  Lol.  I'm tired afterwards. After getting off the treadmill my legs feel like jello, but I feel good. Who knew?  Now if I can just get my iPod to communicate with the new computer. :-/

Whodini, "Five Minutes of Funk". Yes. I preferred  Whodini over Run DMC.  So my sleepless night. I ended up with digestive issues. TMI?  It's a by product of dialysis and this is about dialysis adventures, right?  In addition, my back muscles ached from the workout. I took Aleve, Tums and Immodium. I wanted it to take effect immediately. It took about an hour.  Ugh. Everything calmed down around 2AM. Of course I had to wake up at 4AM .  I'm sluggish. 

Signing off with Earth Wind and Fire, "Keep Your Head to the Sky". Did I tell you about the patient who's brought is sedated?  Once the sedation wears off she's yelling the rest of the time to be taken off the machine. :-(   The other patients are not happy. For the record, I'll be signing do not resuscitate. Have a great day. I'm going to take a nap. :-)  Photo of my fleece throw. Keeps me warm and during treatment. Even if I have to keep my access arm out so staff can check even if I'm asleep.  Eh. 

The "Lobsterfest", edition.

iPad shuffled to The Main Ingredient, "Spinning Around (I Must Be Falling In Love). Main Ingredient before Cuba Gooding. Dad's church had its annual Lobsterfest on Saturday.  He'd told us about it early in September. You could purchase whole lobsters. Steamed was $17.00 and not steamed was $15.00.  I told him I'd like to go. I hadn't had lobster in quite a while. Oh sure, I've eaten my fair share of lobster bisque and have had lobster mac and cheese and other dishes with lobster in it,  but a whole lobster?  It had been a while. And both Brian and Dad admitted theyd never had lobster. Well that was it. We were going to lobsterfest!!

Jill Scott and Jeff Bradshaw, "Slide".  Dad purchased tickets when he went to church the following Sunday. Oh yeah. If you bought tickets the day of, the price went up.  On Saturday, we started with our regular routine.  We get up nice and early and make our weekly trip to the casino. One hour. Time enough put a few points on the club card, check the electronic kiosk to see if you won a prize, win a couple of dollars, or just use up the allotment and call it a day. Lobsterfest started at 9 AM. Dad wanted to get there around 10 AM. That was fine. I saw an announcement in the newspaper for the event. I thought it might get crowded.  We arrived around 10:30. The parking lot was full, but people were coming and going, spaces opened up.  

Isley, Jasper, Isley, "Caravan of Love". Now I have to describe the layout of the church. The layout of the church is pretty common to a lot of community use buildings out here. The sanctuary is a standalone building. But there are four buildings surrounding an open courtyard. A fairly nice sized courtyard.  It forms a square. The other three buildings house classrooms, offices, a fellowship hall, restrooms and other spaces. So yes, you have to go outside to get to other rooms. As a matter of fact the church sanctuary has multiple doors leading to courtyard.  So when service is over, some people just get off the pew and go directly outside. I hope I've described it enough that you a reasonable mental picture.  

Rick James and Teena Marie, "Fire and Desire". We get to the entrance of the courtyard. We fill out raffle tickets. There's a small bottleneck. We enter the courtyard and the first thing we see is the bake sale to end all bake sales!!!  But that wasn't our destination. We're looking for the lobsters!!!  We start heading toward the rooms on the back. We have to pass the mexican food booth. Yumm. I want. But we're not here for that. :-(  We pass the guy playing the grand piano ( remember we're outside). Pass the fresh bread booth.  And there it is. We go inside. Present our tickets and get our lobsters. But wait! Dad wanted some clam chowder. He darts away to find it.  Lol. Dad may be 88 (and he's quick to add "and a half"), but he can move. Lol. He literally got out of our sight. We'll find him later. 

Sly and The Family Stone, "Sex Machine".  We bought a loaf of fresh sourdough to go with our lobster and clam chowder. We make it to where the chowder us being sold, passing craft booths, clothing booths, candles, jewelry. And probably tables I just didn't see. It was a little bazaar inside the courtyard!  We found Dad in the fellowship, because that's where kitchen was and the clam chowder. They were also selling turkey dinners with all the fixings and ham and gumbo and shrimp gumbo and all sorts of food. But we were on a seafood mission.  Dad had ordered his clam chowder. He turns around and announces proudly, "I ordered four quarts!!!"  Oh my.  Lol. We went home with a gallon of clam chowder. He realized how much he ordered when we're trying to carry it out. Lolololol. 

As we were leaving, Brian bought a key lime pie. What else do you get for desert after a seafood dinner?  :-D   And finally every single step of the way, the ladies were running up to dad for their hugs and kisses. Lol we could barely leave for all the hugs and kisses. Dad would introduce me and Bran and the ladies were like, "yeah nice to meet you" but we're more interested in kissing Dad. 

 Erykah Badu, "Tyrone" (live). We got home. I melted some butter. Brian put the lobsters on the plates. I found the nutcrackers mom used for her crab legs and it was on!!  Soo good!  And Brian now likes lobster. Dad ate a half a quart of chowder do fast I missed it. I tried to eat some chowder, but a whole lobster is filling. And rich. Anyway there you have it. Lobster and chowder for late breakfast or early lunch.  And full for the rest of the day.  And bonus!!  Brian took the lobster heads and shells and made lobster stock. I'm going to use it when I make seafood chowder. Not making it fir a while though. Lol. Freezer has 2 quarts of chowder and a couple of quarts of lobster stock.  And finally, Dad gave a quart to his friend who also lives in the building.  We're still chuckling over a gallon of chowder. Sigh. 

Signing out with Maze featuring Frankie Beverly, "I Wanna Thank You".  Good thing we wake up fairly early. We were able to catch the Lions yesterday....at 6:30 AM.      Lol. Have a great week. I have my holiday "costume". You have to wait until Friday. :). 

The "I See You Staring At My Arm", edition.

 iPad shuffled to The Main Ingreditnt, "Everybody Plays the Fool".  When I finish treatment, my arm is bandaged.  It's an impressive piece of work. The bandaging is the end of the treatment process. And I've found that at each clinic I've been treated, the bandaging is different. Let's start with when I first started dialysis. I had a chest catheter. The catheter was an appendage I carried around for the first 7 months of dialysis. It did not come off. Ever. It was highly susceptible to infection. There wasn't a bandage, per se.  The catheter was inserted with a piece of gauze between the catheter and my skin and a transparent adhesive was taped over where the catheter was inserted into my chest. About a 3" by 3" area.   That got cleaned and changed every treatment. For the record, my skin became sensitive to the entire works. During the changing process, the tech/nurse had to put a healing cream on the area in addition to sterilizing and changing.  I didn't mind wearing shirts that showed the catheter. It was a huge part of me. Like it kept me alive!  Nevertheless, I was glad to see it go. ;-)

Shirley Bassey, "Diamonds Are Forever".   Then came the fistula. A vascular surgeon opened up my left arm above the elbow and fiddled around with my veins and created some Frankenstein dodad so the dialysis needles  could be inserted into my arm to pull out blood, clean it and the return it to my body.  Cool. Needles in. But the needles need to come out. And we're removing 2 needles that are  moving a lot of blood. The blood isn't going to stop flowing once the needles are removed. Ok. I got "Killer Joe" from Q's Jook Joint. Volume cranked up. Love it!  I've gone off a tangent........  So the removal of the needles goes like this.  Me and tech are all sterilized up. They put on their gloves. I get a glove, which the tech puts on me. The tech removes a needle and immediately covers the hole with folded up gauze. As easy as it sounds, it's quite the operation. They take that gauze and cover the hole wher the needle was and apply pressure.  Then my gloved hand changes position with their gloved hand and then I apply the pressure.  Of course there can be missteps at this juncture. The gauze and pressure need to be directly on the hole where the needle was removed from. 

The Spinners, "It's a Shame". What happens if you miss that little hole?  Prepare for a blood bath. Literally. You'd be surprise how much and fast the blood comes out that little needle pricked hole. I've had puddles of blood on the floor beneath me. And as I've mentioned before, sometimes it spurts up like a little Yellowstone geyser. That's always fun. You have no idea how fast you can disassociate your arm from you when it starts bleeding like that. Hey. I don't want to get blood on my clothes!!  Lol.  Anyway. In Detroit the process was to pull out one needle at time. Here, it's both needles so I'm holding both holes with 2 fingers. My 2 fingers get a little tired applying pressure to the holes...about 6-10 minutes. You try it. Anyway.  Once the blood stops flowing, the tech places fresh gauze over the holes and places tape over it. The choices in Detroit were paper tape, silk tape, cloth tape or band aids. I liked band aids until my skin rebelled. Here it's paper or silk. Well my skin rebelled against the paper. Now I'm down to cloth.  Regarding the bandais. You have no idea how many grown folks still love band aids. Lol. And we could just stack 'em on our arms. Lol. 

Young MC, "Young MC".   The tech uses a sifgnicant amount of tape to hold the gauze. You know. We don't want a blood fountain or any surprises. Now my upper arm looks like it's bandaged up like someone  took a hole out of my arm. Yeah, I leave it on for at least 4 hours. Anyway, if I go out with the bandage people stare and comment. "What's that?", "Wow!!!", "Are you OK?" , "You've been to the doctor?"  Sometimes I'll say I've just finished dialysis. Some people know what that is and will tell me about their mother, father, sister, friend, etc. If I get with the doctor question, I just say yes. Lol. Much easier.  That being said, it is an opportunity to educate. But some days I don't feel like it.  And no, the stares, comments and questions don't bother me at all. :). And if I know you, I'll ask you to fell the throbbing and buzzing in my arm.  My lifeline. I get a little thrill watching to see if people recoil when they feel it.  lol. I feel it to make sure the fistula us working. If it's not buzzing, I'm in big trouble. 

Signing off with Ramsay Lewis, Earth Wind and Fire, "Sun Goddess". Did you know Maurice White had been in Ramsay Lewis's band. I think I knew and just forgot. Lol. That happens. :-)  There's a huge music festival  in downtown Vegas this weekend. It's call the Life Is Beautiful Festival.  Acts that caught my eye were Kanye, Outkast and Lionel Ritchie.  And no, we're not going anywhere near it. Lol. Besides. Dads church is having their lobster festival this weekend.  We've already reserved out lobster! Have a great weekend. And yeah, life really is beautiful. :)

The "I Jinxed Myself", edition.

iPad shuffled to Kanye West, "Can't Tell Me Nothing".  He's been around a while. I recall driving a car full of middle school girls to a basketball game one of them sticks Kanye's CD in the CD player.  I'm the one asking, "Who is this?"  And they're rolling their eyes at Coach Fields. Hey. I recognize the sample of "Through the Fire", even if Minnie Mouse was singing instead of Chaka Khan. Lol. This was 2004 maybe?  

The Delphonics, "Didn't I (Blow Your Mind This Time). So how did jinx myself?  Well.  On the previous blog I stated that my treatments had been pretty good. No drama. No crashing. (Crashing is the dramatic drop in blood pressure). Of course on Wednesday I crashed.  Hard. :-(  And it was so unexpected. I mean the crashes are always unexpected, but this time I was off the machine. The needles had been removed. All the BP benchmarks were taken and they were good. The BP is taken in the reclining position.  You know we are reclining during treatment...providing the BP isn't ridiculously high. Then the blood pressure is taken  in a sitting uptight position and finally taken when standing.  Now a small drop is expected during that process, but not dramatically.  You already know your blood pressure drops upon standing, right?  

Diddy featuring Keyshia Cole, "Last Night". Keyshia sounds a 1/2 note off, but I still like this. I can do without Diddy though.  I'd like to say my crashing occurs at the same point during the treatment process, but it doesn't. This episode occurred as I was packing up. The BP readings were great reclining, sitting and standing. After the standing reading, the needles are removed.  I then apply pressure to the accesses where the needles have been removed. Yeah, serious bleeding. Sometime the blood spurts up. Real impressive. Sometimes it flows copiously. Anyway. I apply pressure for about 6-10 minutes. The bleeding does stop. :-)  The tech then tapes up my arm. I look like the walking wounded. One day I'll give the answers to the questions when people ask about my heavily taped arm.   Once I bandaged it's time to collect my items, go weigh and report back so they can verify the amount they took off. Remember weigh before and after treatment. And remember 2.2lbs equal 1 kilogram. So I may get up to 6.6 lbs of fluid and toxins pulled off. One day I'll go into how the body reacts. 

David Essex, "Rock On".  Anyway, I'm packing and I feel it. I'm starting to feel light headed.  I try to fight through it. I can't. I sit down and tell my tech I'm crashing. I get the hot and cold feeling. That's the absolute tell for me. :-/  The tech has to put the BP cuff on. Sure enough. I had dropped to 65/43.  Sigh. I'm also getting nauseous. My left chest to lower abdomen hurt. As always I'm pretty sure I'm dying. I wish I could explain how it feels being just on the edge of losing consciousness.  Anyway, now I have a tech and nurse. A needle has to be reinserted to get some saline back in my body. A little "salt" to raise that pressure. It works. I come back to life. Needle removed again. Hold access again. Get taped by tech after 5 minutes. Pack up. Feel much better. Now I can go weigh, report it back and leave treatment area.  

Whitney Houston, "I'm Every Woman". Brian is waiting for me. I'm still out before 9:00AM. The entire episode lasted less than 15 minutes. My nurse and tech handled it, got me back to normal and got me out. Yes. I felt well enough after that nonsense to go to breakfast with Brian. <3. And yeah, I'm real grateful to my tech and nurse.  But this just happened out of nowhere. My body just said it was tired of the treatment. And I don't know what triggers it. It just does. I'm going for the I talked it up  this time. 

Signing off with  Rachelle Ferrell, "With Open Arms". Lol. I lost track of the days. I was trying to make today Friday. Have a great Wednesday!  I think. Lol. ;-D

The "What a Difference Three Time Zones Make. AKA 2000 Miles", edition

  iPad shuffled to The Doobie Brothers,  "Black Water".  From Eastern Standard Time, past Central Time, past Mountain Time to Pacific Time.  I've gone over that there are no smoky links out here. No Ekrich or Hilshire a Farms. Yet both companies have Lil Smokies and the large size sausages....but no links.  Don't they know Beef Smoky Links are the best breakfast sausage?  And decent little snacks?  And mayonnaise. Hellmans goes by the name of Bests out here. Same TV commercials, but the announcer says Bests. What's up with that?  Lol. Smith grocery stores are really Krogers.

I finally found cider...in a grocery store on the northwest side.  It was apple cider made from Gala apples. Brian asks if I want it. I say. Gala apples?  Michigan cider is made from a variety of apples. Pffft. And still no donuts. I'm over it. I got some juice called Simply Apple. It's a good enough reasonable facsimile. :-)  And then there's Sweetest Day.  No such animal out here. Hallmark has the Midwest duped. Lol. The way we found out this past Saturday was Sweetest Day was seeing it on Facebook. Lol.  Then again I think November 1 is Nevada Day.  It appears the city/state will close down. What happened to Michigan day?  

Ramsay Lewis, "Love Song".  And the election out here.  How many judges can a city or county have? Lol. I'm still not sure if they're just for Las Vegas. And there's a proposal to add anther judicial department.  Lol. And everyone has TV ads. And any and all empty lots are jam packed with candidate signs. Some signs are as large as  Cadillac Escaldes!   Sorry. Got caught up in Ramsay Lewis playing the piano. There's a reason he's a recording artist and I'm not.  Lol.  We're trying to get up to speed on the candidates.  Oh yeah.  There's a whole sepate election for the Lietenant Governor. Partisan of course. There's a treasurer and a comptroller. We got a sample ballot in the mail.  It was pretty large.  And on Sunday, the newspaper had a voters guide.  It was about as large as the Sunday paper alone.  lol.   

Funkadelic, "Standing On The Verge Of Getting It On".   Heh. That Funkadelic song took you back, didn't it. :-D  Oh yeah, there's still a daily print newspaper out here. None of that lets be cheap and make it electronic most of the week. I had to get used to reading a print version of a newspaper again all week instead of just Sunday, Friday and whatever day the Detroit Free Press decided to print. Yeah. I wasn't  interested in purchasing an electronic version of the paper. ( I appear to still be disappointed with losing my print newspaper....until I got the iPad, I was reading the morning news on my phone. >:-/     )

Stylistics, " Stop, Look Listen To Your Heart".   Oh and early voting started this past Saturday.  If you are a registered voter you can vote ANYWHERE that is an official voting location. This includes community centers, malls, grocery stores, UNLV campus and even a trailer behind the Mirage Hotel and Casino!!   No messing around with voters rights out here.  I digress.  And I enjoy looking at the photos of the autumn colors being posted on Facebook.  Yes, I think they're gorgeous and I miss seeing them, but no, I dont miss the weather. At all. I miss you, my friends, but we're just fine out here.  Still unseasonably warm. Temps hitting the high 80s.  Taking some getting used too. As I said before, I'm conditioned to start wearing long sleeves about now.  Instead we still have the air conditioning on. Eh. 

Finally not to much on the dialysis front and that's not a bad thing. I'm managing my fluids. My meds are being delivered to me at the clinic. The cost has deceased to being quite manageable. My blood pressure isn't dropping ridiculously low after treatment. Well not too often.  My phosphorus is going back down.  Yes, I probably was bad. I know better. But chocolate. ;-(   

Signing off with Outkast featuring Scar and Sleepy Brown,  "Morris Brown".  It was cloudy most of the day on Saturday.  It actually rained a bit in the morning.  It stopped around noon.  But later on around 5 I looked out the window a saw a very vibrant rainbow. We ran to the porch and took photos. Enjoy. Have a wonderful day. :-)

The "Fun With Technology.....Not", edition.

iPad shuffled to Sam and Dave,  "Hold On, I'm Coming".   I'm having tech issues all over the place.  You know, I retired so I wouldn't have to deal with it.  *sigh*.  Lol. Even right now. I get an error message that the device had trouble saving.  And I'm talking the auto save feature!  So do I start with tech issues (wifi) here at the clinic or do I start with my tech issues at home?  I'll start here. This is really a minor inconvenience. 

Earth, Wind and Fire, "Saturday Night".  On the very rare occasion, the wifi at the clinic hiccups. I have to sign on to the guest network.  The clinic changes the password every month. The iPad finds the network, the the iPad eventually brings up a Davita portal for me to sign on to the network.  The network is set up such that irequires constant action while on it. This means that while I type the blog, I need to save the document often...like right now.  Hold on...OK back. That's a minor inconvenience. Besides, being a tech person I know I need to save often. It's no fun to lose 1/2 hour worth of typing. Been there, done that...more times than I like to admit.  Anyway, this morning, I guess the router wasn't ready to start. I went to cellular for a moment, but who wants to use the data plan  when you have wifi available?  Well, all is well now.  I've hit the wifi, typing this here blog and saving often.  

Norman Connors, "You Are My Starship".  Now my tech issues at home encompass all of my electronics except for the phone. For now. Lol. We'll start with my monitor for my desktop.  We'd set up a workstation in the apartment.  New furniture.  It looks nice. The computer equipment was shipped inside of the car....which was shipped. The equipment sat on the floor in boxes until we purchased the furniture. Which arrived while we were in Denver. Lol. Brian assembled everything when we returned, furniture and both computers. Go Brian!!  

Little Beaver, "Party Down, Pt 1". I'm gonna have to find part 2. Lol.  Well the workstations are set up and my monitor punks out. Of course Brian's system is working fine. In his defense my monitor was pretty old. Heck the computer system itself is over 5-6 years old. I have an older version of Windows.  But hey.  It works. Well not the monitor. We go to Best Buy to get me a new monitor. Yeah, Best Buy is about a 1/2 mile from where we live. Bad news for tech junkies. Lol. Plug up my new giant monitor. It's beautiful and it works!!   Wifi and everything. I'm good to go. Until Brian gets the cable upgraded. :(

Earth Wind and Fire,  "Sing a Song".  With the cable upgrade, we get a new modem.  I successfully replace our old Netgear router and it appears all is well. Dad can connect, the tablets are fine, Brian's computer attaches just fine. But my computer?  It can't find the network.  We end up getting a network antenna thing. Brian hooks it up. Success!  Finally I'm on the Internet.  Yay!!  Then about a month ago my monitor all of a sudden wants an HDMI cable?  What?  Why?  We eventually tried the switch our monitors. Lol. For some reason that works. Brian gets my new monitor and I get his monitor. This works.  For one week. 

Jackson 5, "I'll Be There". Yesterday in the midst of a major download, the computer locked up, then shut down. I didn't deal with it. I had errands to run. Anyway later on I restarted the computer. Worked about 15 minutes before it locked up again. Restarted again. Worked about 5 minutes, the computer not only locked up, the monitor gave me an abstract painting on the screen!!  Brian looks over and deadpans, "Looks like you need a new computer". Lol. Ya think?   Looks like we have an outing this weekend. 

Peabo Bryson, "Feel The Fire". Yes.  There's more but I'm stopping now.  On the dialysis front. I got nothin'. That's pretty good. I'm still trying to track down the social worker. Ain't that a bitch?  I need to find out the status of when I start trying for home hemo. I know for sure she'll appear next week. We have quarterly evaluations. But how the hell can she report Jack shit when I haven't seen her in 3 months????  /rant off. 

Signing off with  Sir Mix A Lot, " Baby Got Back".  Chair dance. And hell yeah, I want to sing at the top of my lungs. Lollololololol. Have a great weekend. :-)  

Photo of our workstations. 

The "Mornings Are Cool But...", edition.

Ipad shuffled to Earth Wind and Fire, "All About Love".  The mornings are cool. We're stepping outside around 4:30 AM. ( isn't that outrageous?  I never got up that early ever in life!). This morning it was 68 degrees. Monday it was 62 degrees. On Monday I took my jacket. I didn't put it on, but I had it. Like a security blanket.  Lol. This morning, 68 degrees didn't merit a jacket. When I left treatment on Monday, around 8:45 AM, it was still chilly...in the shade. Once I stepped into the sun, it felt good. Not hot, not just warm, but good. The temp was in the 70s.  It eventually hot into the 80s later. 

The Doors, "Light My Fire". The weather guys say the fall is unseasonably warm. We're still averaging mid to upper 80s. By mid October I've been conditioned to start wearing sweaters. Yet I'm still wearing summer clothes. My mind won't let me wear shorts any more, but my summer shirts are still in rotation. And the capris still make an appearance on occasion.  However, on dialysis days, I wear jeans and/or leggings.  Leggings!!  The best apparel for dialysis. So. Comfortable. :-)  Brian and I were remembering that we were out here about this time last year and it was warmer than we expected. We brought jackets and light sweaters, but it was too much.  So when I moved here in July imagine my surprise when I opened a drawer and it was filled with my T-shirts id purchased during that visit. Lol. 

Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock. "It Takes Two".  This song always makes me move. Lol. We were commenting that if they had royalties on sampling when this was recorded, James Brown would have hit an additional jackpot. The song is ALL James Brown. Lol. This includes Lyn Collins and Bobby Byrd. So it's been 3 months. I think I can introduce you some of my of my fellow warriors. Even though I have a module of 6 people, the set up Is different. Plus one seat is empty and 3 people speak Spanish. The lady sitting directly across me isn't Hispanic. I could call her McDonald breakfast sandwich because she has one every morning during treatment, but I don't want to call her that. She's much nicer than that. I think I'll call her knowledge lady. She's been here a while.   The Hispanic guy also across from me diagonally has tattoos on his head. We became friends when I gave him a cough drop. One day when I had a low blood pressure issue, he helped me at the scale. He gets a thumbs up!  :-)  I'll call him tattoo guy (how original). 

Blackstreet and Dr. Dre, "No Diggity".  The others are waiting the the waiting room when I arrive. We are the first of the first. We are the patients that start the day for the staff. We are to be at the clinic by 4:45 AM. This so we can be on the machines by 5:00 AM.  So let me introduce you to my shift waiting room crew. I'll start with the first person to introduce himself. Lol. And the leader of the pack. I'll call him tall guy with a cane.  There's combover guy and tall skinny guy who holds the door to treatment area  for us. There's flip flop guy and talky guy with the rolling walker. We've got old guy in a hat, lady who bangs on the door if it's not opened at 4:45.  Lol. And finally the smiling Hispanic lady.  Everyone else who comes in are the second group to get put on the machines. They get a mention by me one day. I'll also go into more detail about my waiting room crew soon. They are very nice.  Lol who'd imagine a group of people getting ready to get on dialysis machines smiling, joking and laughing.  Well here we are. :)

So while I'm trying to take my own photo (I take horrible selfies.  Fake grin and stuff). And there's the haircut, a few days old and unbrushed.  I listened to Estelle, "American Boy", and  Gladys Knight and the Pips, "Best Thing That a Ever Happened to Me".   So yeah. I took a photo of me in the chair. Again. I think the smile works today. 

Signing off with Cameo, "I Just Want to Be".  Bouncing in the chair here!!  I'll create my own party at dialysis. Lol. Ready to start waving my arms in the air. Like I just don't care.  And would probably rip a needle out. :-/   Lol. I'll tone it down. It's so hard to not sing along at the top of my lungs.  And yeah, the staff walk by and laugh!  Lol. Have a great day. Drink some cider and eat a donut for me. That stuff doesn't exist out here. /cry.  

The "I'm Not in the Mood, But I'm Ok", edition.

iPad shuffled to Marlena Shaw, "Go Away Little Boy".  I need more Marlena Shaw and Nancy Wilson. We don't hear voices like this anymore. Of course that's something a curmudgeon would say. I am not a curmudgeon. :-(  :-)   5:13 AM Monday morning. Welcome to my world. Very little traffic that early.  Just at the whim of the traffic lights.  And they are smart lights.  This early in the morning there isn't a wait at the lights.  One car, light turns green. 

Our weekend was quite uneventful. We usually make a list of things to do.  One thing was to register for a painting class. It's acrylic instead of watercolor. The watercolor class will be available from the UNLV College of Lifelong Learning starting in January.  I prefer watercolor, but no harm in learning acrylic. I just find it messier. Perhaps I'll learn how to make it less messier. :) 

And that's it for today. I don't feel like writing today. Yes, I feel fine.  I peeped in the rabbit hole yesterday, but I came back.  I was kinda bummed that I didn't feel well yesterday, especially since was not a treatment day, but it happens.  I just I wasted what is supposed to be a good day.  It started out ok. We went to a champaign brunch buffett. Dad likes going so we alternate who picks and pays. See, back in the day, mom and dad had a crew and they'd meet up for brunch. Easily 20-30 of them and many many more family on holidays. But that was years ago. Now there are 3 of the crew left. So our new tradition is the 3 of us. :-)  Of the other 2 of their crew, one is in our building. She and dad call each other each morning to check on each other.  The 3rd is in an independent living center. I'll be fixing Thanksgiving dinner for all us. It'll be my pleasure.  :)  More on that another day. 

Signing off with Roy Ayers, "You Send Me".  ( I needed a jacket this morning! ). Have a wonderful day and fake care of yourself. :)

Photo of my cousins!  Love them a lot!  <3  Yes this random.  Lol. 

The "Friday Salmagundi", edition.

iPad shuffled to "Heavens Girl", Aaron Hall, Charlie Wilson, Naomi Campbell, Quincy Jones, R. Kelly and Ron Isley.  How's that for a line up?  This is from the Q's Jook Joint CD.  Like my big word, salmagundi?  Those of us who watched the auctions Channel 56 (Detroit PBS - WTVS) remember the word. I always wanted to buy something at the auction. Except the bids always exceeded my $25 budget. Lol. One year I had the honor of volunteering at the auction. I was at the building on 2nd and would get the items to the successful bidders when they showed up for pickup. Yes, I had to collect or verify payment. And yes that back room was huge and chock full of stuff. And yes, I had a great time. :-)

The Spice Girls,  "Wannabe". Yes Spice Girls. What's it to you?  Lol.  My desktop monitor is acting a fool. It was doing fine then it decided it wanted an HDMI cable. What?  Why?  It worked just fine now it's changing its mind.  Now we are in trouble shooting mode. Bah. Before this, my computer couldn't connect to our WiFi. Now every other device in the apartment could connect. Brian's desktop, dads desktop, the plethora of tablets, dads netbook and the smartphones. But my desktop?  No. WTF?  We had to get a network booster for my desktop. Brian got it  working. Yay. Now 3 weeks later, the monitor misbehaves. Pfffft. 

I'd been getting bit by something.  I'd have intense itching and bumps/hives where I itched.  The itching and redness would last almost a week. First on the top of my right foot, then my left ankle, the 3 bites on my left calf. And now one on my left ankle. Whatever bit me left something that when I scratched a while, I'd bleed. And the bite spots hurt to the the touch.  Well the other day after we finished swimming, I headed to the herb garden to get some basil. Near the garden were some ladies. They knew we were Mr Perry's kids. Lol. The condo apparently has no secrets.  Anyway. One lady told me beware of the fire ants. -_-  Fire ants. Fire ants were biting me.  And yeah. I got bit getting the basil. 

 Snoop Dogg, The Dogg Pound and The Dramatics, "Doggy Dogg World".  Yeah. You'd see the videos. And when you download the song you realize how much the song was censored. Lol. I need to check just how explicit the lyrics are before I download the songs. Most don't really offend me. Luke and The Too Live Crew do offend. Greatly. Enough so that when their songs play on Sirius Bavkspin, I change the channel.   Anyway. Brian wanted to find another barber.  He found a couple. Jotted down the addresses so we could check them out. The first one we visited was just east of downtown. One day I'll go into the gentrification of the downtown area.  Anyway. The barbershop was apparently one of the few businesses that were allowed to stay.  

The Whispers, "Don't Be Late For Love". Geez. Lol. I got distracted by the song. Sorry.  We parked the car and dodged the construction. A guy was going in.  He held the door for me and started to engage in conversation.  "Can I help you?"  I don't remember our answer.  I just know I was ushered to the lead chair by Mike and Brian was led to another chair by another guy, Sugarfoot (snicker). Roflmao. We went to check out this barbershop and ended up with haircuts.  Great haircuts. And no, I'd never had a barber cut my hair, but he nailed it. Brian got a really nice fade and the guy trimmed his beard with a straight edge razor. I gotta tell you. I never knew a haircut and a shave could look so fine. I couldn't stop looking at Brian!  Lol. Needless to say, we found our barbers. :-)   Oh yeah, they do women's eyebrows. Also with the straight edge razor!  I was asked if I want my eyebrows done. I declined. :-/  Needless to say, we never checked the other barbershop on the list. 

Carole King, "It's Too Late". And finally, since we are considered "locals" by the Station Casinos, we get offers in the mail. Every month we get buffet and restaurant coupons  and free play and other stuff. Well for October we received an additional mailer with a code to "crack the safe". So of course we went to check it out. Lol. We had to get 5 points on our club cards (account) to crack the safe. That meant playing a machine to get those 5 points. We did that and now was time to see what treasures the safe held. I got a coupon for a 6" Subway sandwich. And Brian received a free buffett. :-/  At least my coupon is good through the end of the month. His is good for Monday - Thursday of next week. My clue on the suckiness of the prizes were the number of coupons left at the kiosks. Lol. Hey. We're new to this. Lol

The Jacksons, "Blues Away". There really isn't any dialysis news. That's a good thing. My tech is now friends with my access (my super special fistula). The exercise and workouts are working. I'm losing weight so my dry weight will be adjusted.  I just need to see the results of my labs. My phosphourus has been running high and I'm not sure why. I've made adjustments. If it's still high my meds will be adjusted accordingly.  And I'm saving as I type way more often so I don't lose anything should the ipad decides to have a tantrum.  Also, if I don't do a transaction, the center wifi will disconnect. That's a pain in the ass. :-/

Signing of with Santana, "Black Magic Woman".  That sounds pretty good blasting through the headphones!  Anyway. Have a great weekend. I think we're going to visit a renaissance fair this weekend. I'm looking for a flagon of mead!  

Photo of the owners of the barbershop. The guy in the apron on the left is the one who gave me my great haircut. 

The "It's Been Two Months Since We Moved Part 3 (The End)", edition".

Young MC, "Bust a Move".  Start with the dialysis angle today. Today is blood day. Blood is taken once a month.  In between, in 2 weeks a smaller blood letting occurs. (Snicker).  Six vials of blood today.   And since I received a vial from the Detroit Medical Center (DMC), where I'm on the transplant list, they wanted some of me too. Yes. I brought an additional vial to dialysis to encourage the tech to take more of my blood!!  In defense of DMC, the package they sent included a vial, instructions and self addressed stamp package to return the vial. Whee. My blood is being transported cross country.  For the future, I'll give my nurse here in Vegas the contact information for my Detroit transplant coordinator.  And the vials will be sent to my Las Vegas nurse.  This is a once a month withdrawal. 

Stevie Wonder, "You Are The Sunshine of My Life".   So one weekend in April Ann Marie came by and started helping me pack china.  The packing moved quickly. We ended up with a lot of boxes.  And yes, it was going to the Salvation Army.  Ann Marie had a better idea.  How about if she took the boxes and used them for her churches rummage sale?  Fine with me!  Oh. And she found someone who needed furniture. Whoo hoo!!  Our only condition was they move it themselves.    Once we emptied the dining room furniture of the China and stuff the first phase of the furniture move was on!! 

Cream, "Sunshine of Your Love".  One weekend in early May a crew with a Uhaul truck pulled up. In a few hours the living room, dining room, family room, Shawn's bedroom and a desk from the basement were gone. Hey!  This move is gonna happen.  In the following weeks Ann Marie and her friend came and helped us pack and took stuff they liked. My grandmother's purses were a hot commodity as were the items in the curio cabinet. Just about the rest of the furniture left about a week before I left in late July. This included another full bedroom, all of the furniture from our bedroom.....except the bed, the really jumbo TV,  and the breakfast room furniture.  Of couse by this time the one way tickets had been purchased. 

We put up a card table and folding chairs in the breakfast room.  Lol. Yes it looked odd and tacky, but what are you gonna do?  We pretty much turned the master bedroom into our living space.   I needed a resting place for after dialysis. We had a day bed, a rocker recliner, a floor lamp and a flat screen TV with the stand. Plans for a final move of furniture were made for a day before Brian left. Remember, I left 2 weeks before he did. He spent his last night in Detroit at a hotel. 

The O'Jays, "Lovin' You".  Our bed was moved out and Ann Marie got everything that was left. Including the recliner and the TV. And it was my absolute pleasure to give those items to her. Her friend got the curio cabinet, the figurines and my mom's hope chest. We were delighted that these items were to people who use them and enjoy them. And that includes their church. They have enought stuff to have a lot of rummages sales!  

Ugh. The iPad did a restart and I lost the best writing I've ever done!!!  Not really. Lol. But I did lose a lot. That'll teach me to save more often. :-/  I mentioned how much I'll miss Ann Marie and her friend.  I also mentioned the tenacity of the real estate agent. In less than a month of having the house on the market we had a buyer and the signing of paperwork had begun. It started before I left Detroit.  I explained the motivator to complete the move by early August. The motivators were the trips to Denver and St Louis. The trips would have disrupted the moving process, so it had to be completed. 

Signing out with  Average White Band, "If I Ever Lose This Heaven". We are official resident of Las Vegas, Nevada. Car has Nevada license plates, we have Nevada drivers licenses,  we're register to vote in Nevada, have a bank account, changed address...yes bills found us. Got a breakfast restaurant where the staff and owner know us. Met other residents in the condo. The list goes on. We're happy. And today's high temp will be 87 degrees. ;-D  We're doing fine. Have a great Wednesday! 

Photos of the house after the buyer completed the FHA requirements. 

The "It's Been Two Months Since We Moved, Part 2", edition.

iPad shuffled to Quincy Jones,  "Cool Joe, Mean Joe (Killer Jioe)" with Queen Latifah, Tone Loc and....Nancy Wilson!  Yeah!!!  The volume goes way upon this. The instrumental is as tight as the singing.  Moving across country is more than a notion.   It's a project. We were moving from a 3600 square foot (includes the basement) house to a 1500 square foot shared space. First off we knew all furniture must go. We tried to unload furniture on Shawn when she moved to Illinois. Unfortunately it was cheaper to buy her furniture there than to ship it. Isn't that ridiculous?  We also had whatever clothes and knick knacks my parents left in the house. We had stuff from my grandparents.  And stuff from my great uncle who lived with us about 6-8 years. 

Faith Evans featuring P Diddy and Loon, "You Gets No Love". Getting rid of the clothes was easy.  That was several visits to the Salvation Army. Then we stagnated. This was in the late fall. After the holidays we tried to make an effort of throwing away stuff. There was just too much. Christmas trees, poker table, my old  motorcycle, several bicycles, 2 steamer chests, games, books, old computers, furniture, a piano and a partridge in a pear tree. Well I think there was one there. Lol. Brian was trying to clean the basement but it seemed to move slowly. And he'd spend days throwing stuff away. Well, after a little looking, we found The Junk Commander.  He cleaned the stuff out. He'd also deliver the donatable stuff to the appropriate entities and/or recycle stuff. And throw away what needed to be tossed. This started in March. After he cleaned that first room there was light at the end of tunnel. It looked like we'd actually be able to do this!  He eventually made 4 trips, one was for the garage. 

Stevie Womder, "As".  Well. The Junk Commander was great for the basement. We still had the furniture and the china. Everything in the china hutch. Everything in that buffet thing. And in the breakfast room there was an entire wall that was a built in china cabinet.  And it was full. I think we had  6 sets of China?  I had one, 2 from my grand mother. Mom had a massive Nikko Christmas collection that she built up over the years.  This is in addition to the set she got as gift from her first wedding. She also had set given to her by her godmother. And there was also the original holiday set.  That sounds like 7.  Oh yeah. Lots of stemware and flat ware. *sigh*. 

The Dramatics, "Fell For You".  Brian got some of that out and placed it on the dining room table for me to start wrapping it. Lol. I was prepared to spend the rest of my life wrapping fine china and stemware.  However, I had a surprise come my way.  One Saturday afternoon my doorbell rang.  I opened the door and saw the most pleasant, kindest, nicest person I've ever known. It was Ann Marie!!  Ok so you say that's nice. Who is she?  She worked for me about 10 years as one of my project managers.  She was the one who worked hand in hand with the Detroit Police Department. She was the one who could tell them ( when necessary ) they were idiots and they'd come to their senses and apologize to her!  Yes, she'd always have their best interests at heart, but sometimes  theyd lose sight of the big picture.  Long story short, she and her team completed the project with flying colors. Let's just say law enforcement entities now want to use/buy the application from the Detroit Police Department. She is just that good. And get this.  Getting mad is not in her repertoire. She oozes  serenity and intelligence. It always tickled me with the amount of respect she got.  I've digressed. A lot.  

Al Green, "Call Me".  Ann Marie showed up my doorstep. We've kept in touch since I retired. If you couldn't tell she is very spiritual. She stated praying and blessing me when I started getting sick. She visited me in the hospital and checked on me during my recovery. Did I mention I'd sponsor her  missionary trips to Uganda and Haiti?  I've digressed. That Saturday in April as I was started the daunting job of wrapping the china she appears. This was the first of many weekends we spent together.  I enjoy being with her. She is such a joy.   And yes, there is more to come. :-)

 Steely Dan, "Babylon Sisters".  Dialysis angle for the day.  My Wendell passed away, but the third spoke of wheel found me!  Addison!!!   We talked and talked over the weekend. He's in the southwest.  We'll get together soon. And check this out. His kidneys are failing also. That's a big WTF!  The 3 of us?  As creepy as it sounds each of us had different reasons but wow. We'd been childhood friends. Addison and Wendell were roommates at Eastern Michigan and I was down the road at University of Michigan. Just wow.  

Signing off with  George Clinton, "Atomic Dog". That bass gets ya moving!!  Ummm. It's still shorts wearing weather out here. I love ya'll back in Michigan, Ohio, and illinois, but I'm a happy camper out here. Love you!  Have a great day. Make some soup.  :-)

The "My Wendell Died Yesterday", edition.

"iPad shuffled to Aerosmith, "Crazy".  I usually sleep anywhere from 3-5 hours per night. I'm finally adjusting to Las Vegas time. I guess it took longer because I'm a little (just a little!) older now.  My pattern is coming in line with how I functioned in Detroit.  This means I can stay up through Jimmy Fallon's monologue. :)  Once I fall asleep past the monologue, I sleep until the alarm goes off...at 4:00 AM.  That's fine. I'm pretty rested. Most patients on dialysis sleep few hours and/or suffer from insomnia. 

 Alejandro Sanz with Shakira, " Te Lo Agradezco , Pero No".  I woke up around 4:00 AM Thursday morning. Got my iPad and checked Facebook. I had a few private messages. One was from my Wendell's brother. The brother was keeping me updated on Wendell's condition. I let him know we'd moved to Las Vegas and he'd pass on messages for me. Wendell hadn't been able to use Facebook  for months. The brother sent me the following message on June 29, 2014...

 " His team of doctors said the cumulative effect of his disease over many years, combined with the powerful drugs he has been taking, and infections he has been fighting,  etc, has affected his other internal organs to a point that he has been declining rapidly.  They will continue to treat him, but if something happens they want us to allow them to not try to resuscitate him. Due to the damage it would do to his frail state. They  were compassionate with us and helpful and asked us to focus on him and his state vs what are hearts feel. We are processing our feelings internally and making the decision. Sitting here with Mom as she goes through the process."

...The last time we visited him, he had feeding tubes and breathing tubes. He'd also loss so much weight. It was very difficult communicating with him and he was tired. So very tired. But he was pleased we came.  We just sat with him and talked.  Finally we left and I gave him a big ole kiss.  

The Dells, "Stay".  So at 4:00 AM Thursday morning, I get on Facebook and notice I have a message from the brother. He lets me know that we've lost my Wendell.  Just days shy of his birthday.   He'd been fighting the infection since October, 2013. A year.  And I mean fought.  And there were lots of us who loved him and helped him fight.  I'd planned a taco night, at his request, for him, his girlfriend, Brian and me in March. He'd gotten out of the hospital and it looked like he was recovering. Then I lost track of him again. Brother told me he had be readmitted. The infection came back with a vengeance. 

 DeBarge, "All This Love".  I've known my Wendell since we were about 13 years old. I have so many stories and memories. I also know his family embraced me.  His mom embraced me as her daughter, as she had 3 sons. :)  Wendell was the baby.  Mom is still doing just fine. She was delighted when I was bringing food for him. Lol. We all were. Trying to get him to eat. :)

I'm sending a plant to Mom. I'm happy that he's not suffering anymore. I know he fought as hard as he could. This, my friends, is sadly one of the outcomes of kidney failure.  I hope that if I get that sick that I won't be resuscitated. 

I love you, dear friend. I'm going to miss you. 

 

My Wendell, with water bottle at the NKFM Zoo Walk, 2013. 

The "It's Been Two Months Since We've Moved, Part 1", edition.

 iPad shuffled to Steve Wonder, "You Haven't Done Nothin'".  The tickets for the Stevie Wonder concert at The MGM went on sale on Monday. I checked out the prices and seats. I can get really close seats for about $200 per ticket. And the cheap seats are $55 per ticket. I'm still debating. But I know I can't wait too long.  I can get VIP seating for $500 per person.  Brian is all in for the cheap tickets. I dunno. 

Jimmy Ruffin, "What Becomes of The Brokenhearted".  Well. I left Detroit on July 25, 2014.  Brian followed on August 8, 2014. We can finally breathe and relax. We're home.  We look back and marvel at how we got here.  I'd been trying to get to Las Vegas for a while. Several of my friends knew we'd planned on moving to Las Vegas  before I got sick.  The kidney failure apparently just temporarily delayed the move. 

Will Downing, "I Try".  Let's review the last 3 years or so. December 2011, my mom fell and never walked again. In January 2012, Dad had hip replacement surgery. It seemed I spent most of January and February in Las Vegas to be with my parents.  My brother also came out to help.  I was also in the throes of kidney failure...unbeknownst to me. I hurt, wasn't eating, was perpetually tired and was using a cane.  I couldn't stay out there. I still had a family and a job back in Detroit. But a wonderful and understanding family...and job.  :)  

Maxwell, "Ascension (Don't Ever Wonder)".  Dad didn't cook and was subsisting on kielbasa, salad and baked potato.  :-/     I started sending him meals by Omaha Steaks.  Mom never got better.  After I retired in July 2012, Shawn and I went to Las Vegas to spend time with Mom and Dad. We cooked  and froze enough food to keep Dad fed for about 3 months. I was trying to make plans to go out there for Christmas.  However, my kidneys finally gave up. Sigh. Mom was getting even worse. I think the last time I talked to her was early December 2012.  We're both sick. Dad and Brian are worried. Mom died in January 2013. 

Stevie Wonder, "Do I Do".  I'm worried about Dad being alone.  But I still need to get to a place to function with ESRD (End Stafe Renal Disease).  "Ain't nobody got time for that" -Sweet Brown.  I also have Shawn graduating from college. She was beyond a huge help while I was trying to deal and function with kidney failure. Instead of a party, we took her and 2 friends to Disney World.  Somehow I started planning things in spite of the kidney failure. Oh and Shawn had been accepted with a fellowship into a doctorate program at University of Illinois.  Staying sick just wasn't an option!!  I had things to do. 

We made several trips to the campus to find an apartment, went to Disney World, made more trips to move her in.  So the plan was to start the move to Las Vegas  in September 2013. But a move seemed so daunting. So, so daunting. We slowly started throwing stuff out.  A few visits to The Salvation Army. Dad is asking about when we're coming out. We did visit for Christmas. Lol. We also made a couple more trips to visit my child. In March 2014, we hired the Junk Commander to clear out the basement...4 generations of stuff and just stuff,,,like my dads poker table. But finally in April 2014 a wonderful surprise rang my doorbell!!!

 

Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock,  "It Takes Two".  Dialysis has been pretty non-eventful lately.  And that's fine. I'm bummed out because I'm not seeing the support staff as often here as in Detroit. I'd like to see the social worker again. And I haven't seen the dietician in about 3 weeks. But I am at a for profit center versus the not for profit clinic in Detroit. There is a bottom line feeling here.  I have to interrupt this rant with some Whispers,  "Don't Be Late For Love". Heh. Gonna play this when I get home and dance with Brian. Yes, I'm crazy about him. I never expected I'd love someone so much and the love just grows. No one told me about that!  I've gone off on a tangent. Sorry.  In spite of the profit stuff, the staff are nice.  And my fellow dialysis warriors are pretty ok. I'm not unhappy. :-)

Signing off with Chicago, "Call on Me".  I'll finish up this story on Friday.  Let's just say  we've settled in  and Las Vegas really is now our home and we're happy. We miss our friends and I really am not happy being so far away from my child. And you just know I'll find a way to visit her.  And we're getting used to some of the difference between Nevada and Michigan. But...we are home. :-)