The "It's July Already", edition.

Good morning!  It's been a few weeks. Did you miss me?  Nothing special to write about. Adventures in dialysis has morphed into life goes on. Well. I'll start with the dialysis and ESRD stuff. I'd been slowly gaining weight.  And when I went for my monthly appointment my blood pressure was elevated.The  nephrologist told us there are three things that cause blood pressure to rise. Fluid, fluid, and fluid. *ahem*. I guess I need to watch my intake more carefully. Anyway. The remedy is take off additional fluid during treatment. The most I'd take off was 1.5 kilograms.  This translates to 3.3 pounds. Per session.  Remember this is just excess fluid since my kidneys don't work. Look, I knew I had a problem. I was peeing and I usually don't pee like I did unless I had a lot of fluid. Anyway, the nephrologist wanted me to take off 1.7 - 1.8 kilograms. 

I started removing the 1.7 and watched my fluid intake. And within a week, the weight started dropping, I'm peeing less and my blood pressure dropped. The kicker is when should I stop. Remember if my blood pressure gets too low, I pass out. And it gets to low when too much fluid is removed. I'll also start cramping when too much fluid is removed. That sucks too. 

I also started having a reaction to Purel, part of my asceptic technique. The skin on the back of my hands got real sensitive and the skin would tear for almost no apparent reason. My hands looked like I scraped them back and forth on the sidewalk. So now I wash my hands with Cetaphil, except just before treatment, I use the antibacterial soap. And the back of my hands look so much better. 

Great news!  I'm out of the doughnut hole, or my friend called it, the hell hole. Before I got out, my monthly cost of meds exceeded $2000.00. Thank you City of Detroit. {Picture me waving middle finger}. The good news is I race out of the doughnut hole. The cost is now reasonable because I've hit what Medicare call the catastrophic category. Yes, there is financial assistance for the drugs and no I don't qualify. Eh.  That's discussion for another day.  

The 4th of July is coming up and I'm hosting my seniors again.  Ribs, chicken, hot links, potato salad, relish tray, and a massive fruit salad/fruit bowl. Watermelon, cateloupe, pineapple, grapes, strawberries, peaches and cherries. I'll also have a pound cake and will have ice cream for Carl. :)

This has been the hottest June in the history of Las Vegas. Over 17 days of temps over 105. Ugh. Lucky us. But you know what?  I'm good. I'm ok with that.  We can go swimming in the morning, the lay in the shade with a nice breeze hitting you. I love it!  

Well. Brian's doing good. Dad's doing fine also. Dad is hooked on Shazam app. Lol. Who knew!  Brian started an oil painting class.  I passed.  Acrylic is about as far as I want to go. And I prefer watercolor anyway. That's about it. I may write later on this week. I suppose I can write about the indoor picnic.  Shawn wants pictures. (Or it didn't happen). Oh and she had me using Google hangouts. Now that's a win!

Have a wonderful day. Enjoy the day, smell the flowers and see the beauty in everything!  Love you and take care. :). 

That's us by the pool. My hair got a little lighter.