The "Happy Groggy Thursday", edition!

Whew. We went from lazy end of summer days to being busy. What happened here? Somehow this is "visit the doctors office " for everyone month. And that means visit all of our doctors and dentists. And that means all 3 of us. But enough of them this is about me!  All about me!!  All about me all the time!!  Mhwahahahaha!!!!  Ahem. 

This morning was my fistula maintenance procedure. You know, the angiogram and fistulagram. The makeshift artery thing in my left arm, so I can do dialysis, needed it's 6 month maintenance. The signs that it was time included the spike on my arterial pressure during treatment. That always sound scary to me. When the pressures in either the arterial or venous vein rise, I imagine my veins bursting. And the least of my worries would be blood exploding out of my arm. That would could mean massive blood loss. That being said, I have no idea what the consequences would be. And we're not trying to find out. And the other sign was one or two stray blood clots forming during treatment.  The good news is we caught it and took care of it before there were any more problems. In other words we didn't wait until the last minute and has to get the emergency procedure. 

I went to the procedure this morning.  Appointment was at 7:45 this morning and I was home by 9:30 by way of Starbucks. Lol. The procedure includes injecting dye into me to see where the narrowing of the vein where the blockage is (angioplasty). And if the vein needs to enlarged, then a balloon is inserted into the vein to expand the vein (fistulagram). I'm not put under, but I get what the doctor referred to as "happy meds". And that's administered after as numbing injection..to numb the arm. And benedryl, because I'm allergic to the dye (!).  I am fully awake during the procedure.  And loopy.  I can see everything that's going on a monitor on my right side. Whatever they're  doing to my left arm is hidden to me by a sterile surgical tent thing. And my left arm is extended.  My left hand is wrapped and put into a fist. Which was fine because. And even though the pain was minimal, the pressure was a bitch..well more like uncomfortable, but tolerable.   But the procedure lasted no more than 15 minutes. 

The surgery..procedure...team included the prep guy Jude, my nurse Danielle, another assisting nurse and the doctor. This procedure takes place at a vascular surgical center, so this pretty much what they do all day every day. I feel pretty confident. It helps that every time I go there I see the same people......every time. I'm home now. Took a nap and I think the drugs have pretty much worn off. The good news is no treatment tonight!  

Watercolor is going great. We're getting pretty good. Mixing colors is much easier now.  Deep water fitness is fun. The instructor is working our butts off.  And we comply. Lol. Our fitness trainer got married last weekend so we had the week off. Her partner reminded us that we could have come in and he could have worked with us instead of us skipping a week. Lol. If we think Gaylynn kicks our butts, Tony would have killed us. It's his gym, after all!   

Next week will be busy.  One of the organizations I belong to is ramping up for its big even next Sunday. And also next weekend is also the kidney users conference starting Friday. I get tired thinking about such a busy weekend.  But I'm excited about the conference. Meeting other home dialyzers! And I have to fit a manicure and pedicure in there somewhere! 

Finally it's time for me prepare to make reservations for my kid to come out here to visit us!  Gah!  That makes me so excited and happy!  Dinner tonight will be a chefs salad. Sounds nice and easy. Preview of future items are spaghetti carbonara and French onion soup. And mushroom soup. Oh!  And dads church will behaving their annual lobster fest next month and we've ordered our lobsters.  Yummm ! 

That's it for today. Michiganders stay dry!  And yes it's fall out here. Temps are moving into the 80s. Love it!  

Our deep water fitness work out pool. Max depth 13 feet. 

 

The therapeutic pool. Kiddie pool.. Too shallow to matter...yes I am a swimming snob.  Lol. But we had 3 people move from there to our area yesterday. Kudos to them! 

The "A Few Issues Resolved", edition.

Good Wednesday morning. I look forward to Wednesdays. Barring any issues, it's one of my 2 days a week off from dialysis. Yesterday I had my monthly appointment with my dialysis care team. I was finally able to deliver the results of my primary care physicians tests and cardiologists tests with my nephrologist. My heart is fine. Yay!  My blood pressure is s l o w l y normalizing. Yay!  My visits to both doctors had them telling me to cut down on how much I dialyze. Yeah right. This underscores that neither one of them have a clear understanding of kidney failure and dialysis. I let them ramble on. No need to argue with them. But geez. You'd think they'd have some idea on how more dialysis is better.  My nephrologist said let them ramble on. 

I was also experiencing a high level of CO2 in my blood. Some adjustments were made and it is now back to normal. And of course my fistula access has started clotting, but that's a maintenance function. I'm scheduled for the fistulagram and angioplasty next week. Relax. I get it every 6 months. And finally, the medication that regulated my parathyroid is now making me violently sick. I'll be having surgery within the next month or so to remove my parathyroid. I feel sort of like a failure because I need the removal,  but I can't tolerate the meds anymore and the numbers are rising. There's a relationship between the parathyroid and calcium so that needs to be stabilized. I'm ok with this. Whew. That's a lot. 

My workouts are working. Imagine that. I'm getting stronger and have more stamina. Not as much stamina as I'd like, but I'm getting there. I have a break from my trainer this week. She got married Saturday and is on her honeymoon this week!  Ain't love grand!!  And the temps were in the 70s this morning. Brrrrrr!  Lol. 

Yesterday I wanted buffalo wings. We bought fresh wings. Brian had to cut off the wings, drumette and tips. We made a marinade and let them marinade for a few hours. We put them on parchment paper, seasoned them, then baked them. Then we made the buffalo sauce. Midway through baking we glazed the wings with the buffalo sauce. We served the wings with a salad with a homemade vinaigrette, celery sticks and carrot sticks.  The wings were tasty and not dry. Mmmmm. Good. Look. No carbs!  The only thing we'd change is to change out the parchment paper when we glaze the chicken wings. And we will the next time. I repeat. The wings were tasty!  I must add these even though the hot sauce was in the marinade and the buffalo wing sauce, the wings were not fiery hot. 

Well that's it for today. I'll be putting up the shorts. And soon the open toe shoes.  But right now, it still feels good!  Enjoy your day!  

The "I Never Spanked My Kid", edition

Or an alternate title could be "I Never Hit My Kid". Good Friday morning!  Well it's almost true. Once when she was a toddler, I caught her fiddling around with a light socket. I smacked her on her diaper clad bottom. First of all the dog growled at me when I did that (!). And second, she looked at me as if I hurt her soul. I felt awful. That was the last time I struck her. From that point on when she misbehaved I had her do a time out. This worked for our family.  

So. I've had a lot of doctors appointments, but it's really just that time of the year. The cardilogist passed me with flying colors. Which is good, actually it's great but we still have the mystery of the low blood pressure. But!  The blood pressure is slowly getting back to "normal". As an aside, heart issues are prevalent with dialysis patients. I'm feeling rather aces about this. But you just know something has to be an issue. And there is. 

All of a sudden I can't tolerate the medication to regulate my parathyroid glands. Parathyroid glands control the amount of calcium in our blood and bones. Yeah, without my kidneys the parathyroid glands run amok. So I was taking medication, at an insane cost, to regulate it. But recently, when I take it, I get horrible digestive issues. That knock me out for the rest of the day. :-/  The other remedy for the regulation of the parathyroid is the removal of the glands. I was trying to not do that, but the side effects of the meds is making that option look real good now. I'll discuss it with my team on Tuesday.  

Beyond that I can't complain much. Swimming feels sooo good even when the instructor is working our asses off. If you have any aches or pains, the bouyancy of the water relieves the pressure. And the exercises work full range of motion, you do cardio, core workouts and workout on strength. Learn to swim!  Take a water fitness class!  And. Not that I'd recommend it, but I've seen people who don't know how to swim take the deep water fitness class. I think they're beyond brave. 

Well that's it for today. We're all doing ok. All 3 of us had Doctor appointments this week. Go figure. Lol. Have a great weekend!  

The "Summer is Over and Life Got Busy Real Fast!", edition.

Good Tuesday morning. What happened here?  All of a sudden my schedule filled up.  Saturday I had sorority meeting followed by watercolor class. Except I woke up Saturday morning feeling awful. Which meant I missed the Saturday morning casino excursion with Dad and Brian. I stayed home and slept in hopes I'd feel well enough to go to sorority meeting. It was the first meeting after the summer break. And I knew it was going to be long. Alas, my body said sleep more. So I slept more. I didn't recover until it was time to go to watercolor class. I did make it there. My 3 hour class. 

Sunday we ended up back at The M resort for brunch. Dad wanted to take Brian there for his birthday since Dad was out of town for Brian's birthday. I need to walk away from crab legs. :-(  Anyway. I had a meeting with another organization, The Society, at 2:00.  That gave me time to take a short nap. Well of course I overslept. I sent a text to let them know I was on my way. So here's the deal. It was the first time I drove in a while. Dad was concerned. Lol. Brian was fine with it. He figured I knew how I felt. And he was correct. It was actually nice to drive. The meeting was at a golf club and I'm glad I went. We have a large event next month and planning is underway. I couldn't make it last year because I was so sick. I plan on attending and doing whatever is expected of me this year. I'm looking forward to it! 

My friend from work called Saturday to let us know he was in town.  Lol. Of course I had to make time for him. So sometime on Monday. Oh yeah. Deep water fitness started up again. 8:00 AM, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We agreed to meet at Boulder Station at 11:00. He likes Boulder Station. We'd meet after deep water fitness. Of course, the deep water fitness leader had us do a "marathon" on Monday. :-[   What is a marathon?  It's non stop moving the length of width of the (Olympic width) size pool. We do certain moves....hurdles,,bicycle, big wheel,.....then do timed swimming. Working our way up to 5 minute intervals of swimming. And yes, I moved the entire time. Finished, took a nice long hot shower.  Afterwards we headed to Fedex to drop of my box of blood ( did the monthly blood draw Sunday night) then headed home. Just in time to pick up Dad and head to Boulder Staion to meet Mike. 

Mile was waiting for us. It's always good to see him. He mentioned that he's been coming to Vegas every year for the last 25 years. He would deliver stuff for mom. Lol. You know he's a sweetheart if he delivered Williams sausage across country for Mom!  Lol. We had a great time at lunch. And then I got tire. OMG, so tired. I made it through lunch. After we ate, we hugged and said our goodbyes. I got home and went to sleep. I was soooo tired. 

Today I have a visit to the cardiologist for more tests. Wednesday is more deep water fitness, Thursday is our day with the evil ( not really, she's  a sweetheart who pushes the hell out of both of us) personal trainer. Friday I have a blood test. And Saturday, back to watercolor. Whew!  There's also a Greek festival somewhere out here. Gyros anyone?  Lol. And yes, I've found a gyros out here better than Greektown..please don't hurt me. Gyros is sooo good. I've digressed.  

That's it for today. The dialysis angle is the doctors  appointments. Dialysis itself is going fine. There is a home dialysis users convention out here next month. I'm looking forward to going meeting "my people". Also attending will be caregivers, so Brian can commiserate, kidney disease experts and the Home hemodialysis machine manufacturers, NxStage, will also be here. As a matter of fact, NcStage is one of the sponsors. Should be interesting. More details later!  

It's "fall" in the desert which means that the high today is 96. Feels good!  Lol.  Have a great day!  

Dad, Mike and Brian. Brian was being a smart ass. I know I took a second photo but I guess it got lost or something. That'll teach me to not check. So. I have Brian's rabbit eats over Dad hiding Mikes face. Welcome to my world!  

The "The Prodigal Father Has Returned", edition.

Good Thursday morning!  Well, Dad has returned from Yellow Springs, Ohio. His flight came in late Tuesday evening. We all survived!  Lol. He flew Frontier...and swore he'd never fly it again. Anyway. His flight was to land at 11:05 PM. I checked flight status and found out that the plane left Columbus early and would land early...10:45. Yikes. We needed to get to getting. Las Vegas McCarran airport has 2 terminals. Well more than 2 , but 2 passenger terminals. We've learned which airlines are in which terminal. And the terminal determines how we get to the airport. One way is a maze of a crazy car obstacle course. We take the easier way. 

Anyway. We get to the airport with a few minutes to spare. Head to the luggage carousel area for Frontier. And people start to arrive...from Pittsburgh....then from Chicago. And I check the arrival status..why yes, the plane has arrived. Long story short, the plane waited over 30 minutes for a gate to open up. Yay Frontier. We gathered up Dad and headed home. The stories of the trip would have to wait for the next day. We had to get up and out for our 8:00 AM deep water fitness class. 

Finally got around to talking with Dad. He was sort of aware that photos of the events in Yellow Springs were being posted as soon as they happened, but he didn't know the scope!  Shawn sent me photos in messenger, and other family members posted on Facebook. In addition, Shawn and I would text periodically or even send me videos of events as they happened. Dad was floored!  

He had a great time. My brother and cousins treated him like a king. And he loved it. Oh. And did I mention that 2 ladies crashed the family reunion because they heard he was in town?  Lol. By the time he got back he was exhausted...but happy. And Brian and I had the audacity to miss him!  We're all back now being our little family. And Dad had our left over holiday meal yesterday...Mac and cheese, green beans and tritip. And ate seconds!  And Shawn?  She enjoyed herself meeting relatives she hadn't meet and reconnecting with those she hadn't seen in years. And hanging out with her grandfather and aunt and uncle. <3. 

Just to recap. Dad attended an all years reunion at his high school. Yes, he was not the only one from his graduation year!  How freaking impressive is that?  He attended the family reunion. And he was not the oldest attendee!  Aunt Dot is 95.  Also there was Aunt Jeanette, Uncle George, Arnold and Nina, Kingsley, Patsy (not me, but who I named after) and Genevive!  All the same generation. Color me impressed and delighted!  And finally on Sunday, Aunt Dot's group named the Victorettes, who entertained during WW II.... Entertained on Sunday..my 95 year old aunt played the piano while the ladies sang. According to Dad Aunt Dot played over 30 minutes non stop. Now think about that!  He had a ball.  And my brother and sister doted on him. He is so freaking spoiled!  And we wouldn't have it any other way. And oh yeah.  His first wife was there.  :-)  So there's this..my brother has his mom and dad there with him. How cool is that?  

On the dialysis front no new news. I'm going to the cardiologist today. Probably schedule some tests to try to determine the cause of the low blood pressure. I'm still getting out and about. I just get tired. But we adjust. Brian keeps an eye on me. And that's fine. He's a keeper. That's it for today!  Have a great day!  

The Victorettes. That's my (95 YO) Aunt Dot on the piano. <3

3 generations ..and Dad with his wine glass. 🙄

The "Labor Day and Birthday", edition.

Good Monday morning!  It's Labor Day, the day after Brian's birthday. And Dad is still in Yellow Springs, Ohio. I'll start with Labor Day. My mom was a teacher with th Detroit Public School (DPS) system and she was a member of the Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). I remember when DPS teachers went on strike and mom was out there on the picket line. Several times.  I was a member of several unions while working with the City and Brian was a member of the police officers Union and the Sargent and lieutenant Union. So. When Shawn told us she was involved with the Graduate Employee Organization, which is part of the AFT at her university we we not only not surprised, we were proud of her activism. But wait. There's more. 

Not only was she active in the GEO, she was actively involved. She told us the GEO was sending her to task force sessions around the country and indeed it seemed as if once a month she was in a different city. Lol. I couldn't keep up with her travel for the GEO and the travel for the archeology conferences. Eventually I figured it out. At one Task force meeting, she called me because she was angry at one of the participants talking down to her and being patronizing...referring to her as "little lady". She was the youngest participant. She eventually was able to address the behavior of the participant and moved on. 

Eventually the task force document was published and Shawn sent us the link. "AFT, Recaliming thr Promise of Racial Equity". Color us surprised!  Lol. She is the master of understatement. I read through the document and at the end was the list and photos of task force members. I realized she was working with AFT members and officers from around the country. I recognized the photo  Keith Johnson from Detroit. And I mentioned that to her. Oh my goodness. That was the person she was locking horns with. This was the man that was disrespecting my child. >;-(  And this was the man my child stood up to and demanded respect!  Go Shawn! So now she is co-president of the GEO at her university. And we were delighted when she was sent out to Las Vegas for a conference. We got a piece of her time. Lol. 

And now Brian's birthday. The M Resort Sunday Seafood brunch. OMG. I mentioned that we initially we going to Caesars and mentioned that to our barber. He suggested The M. It was just as nice, but cheaper. Brian and I debated it and decided Caesrs would be out of control as this is a holiday weekend. Off to The M we'd go. Did I mention The M gives a locals discount?  In addition to the players club discount. The M did not disappoint. It was the largest buffet we'd been to. Did I mention they had sushi?  The crab legs were split, so no tools needed. Did I mention they had wedge salads?  Look, there was so much food I'm sure I didn't see half of it. I never made it to the desert area. I made it as far as the Hawaiian wings. There was still more food down there,  I was just overwhelmed at that point and plate was getting heavy and I needed to get back to the table. 

Brian was in seafood heaven. He had peel and eat shrimp, crab legs, calamari and mussels. He found lobster bisque...my favorite!  And the bisque had pieces of lobster the size of my thumb! I tried the lobster Mac and cheese. Yum!  And then we came home. And feel asleep!  Then we talked with Shawn and Dad in Ohio. Brian received calls all day from people wishing him happy birthday!  He says he had a great day!  

Today the sorority is having a bowl a thon to raise money  for scholarships. I heard Don Cheadle will be there (!). We adjusted my dialysis schedule so we can do things this weekend. And it's all good. Last night I cried during treatment because...well because I'm on dialysis and life can get really sucky. Brian pulled me out of the rabbit hole as usual, but it's got to be stressful on him. I'm feeling rather useless and hopeless. Who wants to live like this?  And yet I keep pushing. Not sure why. Except I guess for Shawn Brian and Dad. Love them beyond reason!  

That's it for today. I'm ok. No treatment today so there's that!  Have a wonderful holiday. I know we will. Lol...the Brian birthday celebration will continue!! 

The "We Sent Dad Away!", edition.

Good Friday morning!  Yes. Yes we sent my dad away. Away to Yellow Springs, Ohio. It's family reunion time. :-)  He's got a full weekend. The family reunion, a high school reunion (!) and a reunion of my aunt's wartime club.  In addition to visiting a few friends. To say he was looking forward  to this trip is an understatement. He had me make his airline reservations. Yes. He researched airfares on his computer and told me he decided on Frontier to Columbus. See, Yellow Springs, Ohio is kinda small. Airport in Dayton, Columbus or Cincinnati. Columbus seems to be the preferred airport. Population of Yellow Springs is around 3500. Oh yeah. Dave Chapelle lives there. No.  I have no idea how he ended up there. Lol. Anyway, the Perrys were there first.  My family has been there a loooong time. I digress. 

We dropped him off at the airport last night. I told him to behave himself. Lol. And since he was flying no frills, nickel and dime you, Frontier Airlines, we packed him a care package...2 sandwiches, cashews and some peanut butter cheese crackers. My brother and sister in law picked him up this morning. Yellow Springs is about 60 miles from Columbus. When I talked to my brother this morning, my dad was hollering "I'm bring good!"  Heh. My brother gets to have him now. Lol lol. 

Shawn is going to drive to Ohio Saturday morning for the reunion. She'd initially planned to leave after her Friday morning class, but she has office hours Friday afternoon. Her first month as a TA...wouldn't look good to ditch work so early in the semester!  She's looking forward to seeing her grandfather and her aunt and uncle and cousins. I wanted to go, but the logistics of transporting and making arrangements for my dialysis machine and equipment overwhelmed me.  A trip less than 5 days isn't worth the trouble.  But a trip 5 days or more is expensive. We have to stay in a hotel. I'm not not willing to impose my dialysis set up on anyone's house. And the rates can exceed $100/day. And we need to rent a car. And of course the airfare. And just coming from Augusta, I wasn't prepared to plan a second trip. Of course right now, I wish I had. Ah well. Welcome to the world of a person on dialysis. No sponteniety here. Hell, everything has to be planned 6 weeks in advance. Yes. It's depressing. Welcome to my life. Again, I've digressed. 

Brian and I are here alone. And there are some days Dad may irk me, but his presence is missed. But. Brian's birthday is Sunday so we've made plans. We were going to go the buffet at Caesars, but our barber suggested The M as it was comparable but less expensive. The M is like the last resort before the desert head to California. I wondered if the money we save on the cost of the buffet will be made up in the cost of gas. Lol. And Brian wanted a tri tip from John Mull's meat for the holiday. So for Labor Day we'll have the tri tip, macaroni and cheese and fresh green beans. Also on Saturday afternoon our acrylic teacher is having an exhibit in Boulder City so we're going there. 

So yes we'll be busy. And yes we'll miss the fun at the family reunion But dad has figured out to use the camera on his phone. Shawn will take pictures. I'm counting on my niece to take pictures. And there will be lots of Perrys taking pictures. And I need to mention this. We have several elders 80 and up. There's Arnold, Aunt Jeanette, Uncle George, Aunt Dorothy and Dad. I'm not sure if Aunt Nina will come. And Aunt Marlene and Uncle Roger are in California, as are Uncle Buster and Aunt Priscilla.  But look at that!  They'll all be celebrated!!!  I'm delighted that Shawn will attend. I've always loved going to Yellow Springs and being with my cousins. I love being a Perry!  

That's it for today. The dialysis angle was the stress of traveling. It is what it is. Eh. Have fun this weekend!  I'll try to keep you updated.  And I'm looking forward to the antics of my dad. I'm not sure my brother knows what he got himself into!  Lol lol. 

My dad and my brother.