"It's Time", edition.

Good Monday morning!  I hadn't planned on writing today, but something happened yesterday and I wanted to share.  No, it's not earth shattering, but it's important to me.  And I couldn't condense it down to a Facebook entry. 

Yesterday was deep water aerobics. Our instructor, Vinnie,  calls it "Funday Monday". We get punished for a having a weekend. Lol. Our instructor is a hoot and he's young enough to be my grandson (!). And exuberant.  So much young energy!  He also must play music during the class, which is fine with me. I love music. There was a CD that was being used by him and the instructor of the class's before ours. I'm going to be a snob here for a moment. The class before ours is regular water aerobics. Bah. We work out in deep water. No bouncing off the bottom for us!  We even swim laps.  I digress. He brought in some new CDs starting last week. He brought the funk!  Ohio Players, Parliament/Funkadelic, James Brown and Morris Day and the Time, just to name a few!  What tickled us even more was he and a lot of the other lifeguard were singing and moving to the music. As much as lifeguards can, because they are, you know, guarding lives.  And you know most of these kids are young. And they are just delightful. 

So where was I going with this?  Vinnie, the instructor, wore us out because "Funday Monday". Lol. I get out of the pool really tired. Take a long warm shower, get dressed and stagger to the car.  And yes Brian staggered also, but not as much me. We needed some ingredients from the grocery store to make the Habenero wings.  Initially I wanted to just go home. I was that tired. But I got a second wind so we stopped a store on the way home. Incidentally, that store didn't have any habeneros. WTH?  lol. Anyway. I've got the cart and and start shopping. I see a lady I clearly recognize and she recognized me, but I couldn't remember from where. I didn't rack my brain too long because I moved on and out of sight of mind. A little while later it dawned on me where I knew her from. And then I saw her again. She was the lady that brought and picked up a guy who did dialysis with me at my old center. 

The gentleman was in the chair next to me. I always greeted both of them. I knew he spoke only Spanish, because every now and then a tech who spoke Spanish would have to explain or ask him something. I didn't realize the lady spoke only Spanish. Anyway. The gentleman was with the lady. And we greeted each other warmly. It really was nice to see him. I don't ever recall seeing any other of my dialysis warriors out and about. And that includes here in Las Vegas and when I was in Detroit!  Well guess what. We had a hell of a time communicating. :(  I got that he asked what happened and he actually asked if I'd had a transplant. Gestures go along way!!  I tried to explain that I was doing home hemo. And after all these years of know enough Spanish, I forget the words for home or house. Grrr.  I think he got it, but it was frustrating.  So it's time.  It's time i take a comprehensive Spanish class. 

It's not a huge deal if I don't know Spanish out here, but I do miss out on a lot. This is a bilingual town and I'm missing out on communicating with people. There were a significant number of dialysis patients who spoke Spanish in the center. The cleaning lady also spoke Spanish, but she also spoke English. As did Hector, another patient. So I'm in. I'm being met halfway, so I need to go halfway also. 

So now you know. It's time. 

On the dialysis front, no news.  Which is good. I need to do a blood draw this week. "It's The First of the Month".  You know you starting humming the tune.  Lol. The blood draw will happen tomorrow, I think. Yesterday was uneventful. I get antsy doing a  treatment after a crazy treatment day like Saturday, but I guess I will just have off days. 

The heat has returned..not 113 days, but 106 days. And yes, I can tell the difference!  That's it for today. Shawn made it home safely and getting ready for her next adventure!  Have a wonderful day!  

This would be me.  For now. And house is casa. Wow. I had a huge brain fart in the store. 

<ashamed>. 

"It Never Rains in Southern Nevada....Riiight", edition.

Good Sunday morning!  The sun is nice and bright, the skies are blue. And the rain has passed through. It rained all day yesterday. But you need to understand that rain here in the desert is not the same as rain in other parts of the country. Oh and it's 78 degrees here. During the rain yesterday it was 85. I got tell ya, after weeks of of the average temp of 103-105, 85 felt a bit.....chilly (!). Yeah.  I'm just as surprised as you. Lol. Brian suggested that if it got any cooler we might need a jacket!  (J/K).  So back to the rain.  It sprinkled, I guess. It was never enough rain for the intermittent wipers so be intermittent, but just enough sprinkles to be annoying. 

There were also flood warnings for all day. So you say, well if it's not that much rain, why are there flood warnings?  Las Vegas is in a valley surrounded by mountains. When it rains in the mountains, the water runs (races) down the mountainside straight to Las Vegas streets and storm drains. The flood gets impressive enough that there are public service announcements on TV warning rsidents to avoid flooded streets. The steers also become oil slicks. Which prompted us to ask why the guy driving the Lamborghini was cruising in the rain. Side note. On the past 2 days we've seen a Masserati, a Lamborghini and a Ferrari. Seen enough Rolls Royces that I yawn now.  Lol. Waiting to see the ever elusive Maybach. 

On Thursday, my sands was in town with her husband. Brian and I met them for dinner. We hadn't seen each other in about 20 years. That was a treat!!!  We all had a a great time catching up on everything!  And now about she and I were wearing the same thing?   Lol. We enjoy when people contact us when they visit Las Vegas. 

So on the dialysis front, because we had a week of visitors, I adjusted my dialysis schedule. During the week, I also had my monthly appointment with my dialysis care team. I needed a blood draw and the nurse asked if I was doing treatment that night..because..you know...Brian does the blood draw. I told her no, we had visitors in town. She was cool and has always been cool about us rearranging the schedule. We may change days, but we never skip. If I gotta do dialysis, this is the way to go. So anyway, the blood was taken during the visit. I met with the nurses, dietician, social worker and the nephrologist. I'm still good. Still need to up the protein. Again, I ask, how much more eggs, fish, shrimp, chicken, beef can I eat?  Lol. For the record, I'm just a bit under, but the team is really picky about being within the ranges for these stats. 

Finally. During treatment last night, my blood pressure dipped twice. Not once, but twice!!  Geez, I hate that feeling. HATE IT. Bless Brian, he doesn't panic. He just does what needs to be done and keeps an eye on me. When the pressure drops, he administers 100 units of saline at a time through the the IV. I had to have 200 units before I stabilized. About 30 minutes later, the alarm that signals that the requested amount of fluid has been removed sounded. I figured we were over the hump. At that point I had about 45 minutes left on the machine. The remaining time removes toxins from the blood.  You know. That stuff I can't get rid of because I don't pee. Well. My pressure dropped again!  WTF!!!! 100 more units of saline. And I asked to be taken off. First time ever that I've asked to be taken off. In center or home. Had about 15 minutes left. Once off, I stabilized. The part that I don't like is dialysis is meant to remove fluid and toxins. Except, fluid was returned to me to stabilize my blood pressure. Ah well. It wasn't that much, but I need so watch my fluid intake today. 

That being said, I feel fine today. A hit of saline is like a hit of a wonder drug. It literally brings me back to life. Brian handles the whole situation like you'd think he would. My unflappable husband!  Lol. I'm all panicky and he's cool and calm. But in my defense, the feeling of dropping blood pressure is a scary feeling. I feel like my life is slipping away. And I'm not ready to slip away yet. 

So there you have it. Today I'm going to cook some Olathe corn. It's supposed to be good. We'll see. I grew up on Michigan sweet corn, so my standard is impossibly high. And I going to make some Habenero wings tomorrow.  No, it's not going to be fire wings. After I prepare them I'll let you know how they turned out. Have a great day.  The rain is over here and we're heading back to 105 degrees. Yay?  

The "Visitors to Las Vegas" edition.

Good Thursday morning!  This is visitors week for us. Sunday we welcomed Brian's mom and sister. We hadn't seen them since last summer in New Orleans. The sister always treats mom to a trip of her choice for her birthday. Last year was New Orleans. This year mom wanted to go to Vegas. Due to "stuff", the trip was a little early, but they came to Las Vegas. Brian and I played host, of course. We picked them up at the airport and delivered them to the hotel. This year was The Orleans. 

We pulled up to the valet line and went inside to register. Well. The registration line was long.  And there were a lot of people waiting around.  A lot of kids. A lot of young men. With basketballs. Ah. A basketball tournament was in town. A huge tournament. So. Anyway. Rose wants to get an Orleans club card. You know. One of the cards the casinos give you to keep track of your gambling and reward you. Sort of. And of course that desk was on the other side of the casino. Did I mention The Orleans casino floor is huge?  I take Rose to get her card while the sister and Brian wait in line to get the hotel room. Long story short.  The line moved very quickly. Hooray for efficiency. It moved so fast that by the time Rose and I made it back, Brian and sister were headed to the area we'd just left!  Hah!  I just saved the document. I can learn from my mistakes!!

We head up the room. The Orleans is no different from  other hotel on Las Vegas, even if it's off the strip.  It's massive. It's like the room is 2 miles from the elevator!  Lol. Everyone gets settled in, we get a bite to eat and Rose then finds her favorite machine!  Brian and I said goodbye and we'd meet them the next day. 

Brian was delighted to spend time with his mom and sister. The next day, we did the Big bus tour then we all went out to dinner, including dad. We used our Boulder Station coupons for the buffet. So between the coupons and card discount, the cost of diner for 3 people was $16.00. And this included tax. We had a great time. It's always good to see them. Sister and her husband will be coming out again in October. 

Also this week, my sands is here in Vegas. What is a sands?  Someone who pledged the sorority with me. We'll be getting together this evening. I'm looking forward to seeing her!  Now. This is where home hemodialysis comes into play. I'm not bound to a MWF 5:30 AM schedule and being wasted after treatment. No. We've adjusted our schedule at home to socialize with friends and family. And I still get in the amount of dialysis I need. Yeah!  

Finally, sweet corn is on sale here!  I am going channel my mom and buy a lot of corn, cook it and freeze it. I want to serve corn to my seniors for Labor Day and I'm not clear the corn will be available then. The farming schedules about here are different from the Midwest. And I'm a corn addict anyway. Lol. Somehow I pasted something I copied a few days ago in the middle of this paragraph. It's gone. I'm trying to edit better.  Anyway the menu so far is chicken, corn, greens or green beans. Any other suggestions? 

Well that's it for today. If you visit Las Vegas, let us know and we'll make time to see you!  

The "A Year Ago Today", edition.

Good morning!  Well. It's been exactly a year since I left Detroit. On July 25. 2014 I went to dialysis in the morning and boarded a plane that afternoon to leave for Las Vegas. Haven't looked back, either. Don't get me wrong. There's a lot I miss about Detroit and Michigan, but I like it out here. A lot. Especially the winter!  I digress. The last year has been full of change. As a matter of fact, my life has been full of change since 2012. But that life, isn't it?  :-)

OMG. Remind me to save.  And save often. You'd think after being in IT for 25 years I'd never have to remind myself to save. I just lost 3 jumbo paragraphs. <rawr>. See.  I had typed an entire blog this past Wednesday. And lost it all. Because I didn't save. And what happens again today?  Well. I'm not going to type it all agai. I'll summarize. I listed all of the things we've accomplished since the move. We did a lot, when I look back on it.  Right now we're looking forward to Brian's mom and sister coming out. Shawn is in Detroit doing research, preparing for her thesis. 

On the dialysis front, I felt really punky yesterday. I wish I knew what causes the really bad days. I end up sleeping almost 24 hours and all I want to eat my ultimate comfort food, Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup. My other comfort food is Eckrich Smoky Links. But we already know that I can't find them out here. I can order them fromAmazon, but I'd have to order a case. And that's a lot of sausages. I'm still debating that. The skin on my hand is still pretty bad. I see the dermatologist on August 13. Well. At least I can still get the pedicures, but I sure miss my manicure. Eh. I felt bad enough that I skipped dialysis last night.  Feel much better today so we'll start treatment soon. 

That's it for today. Looks like sloppy joes for dinner.  Maybe a dip in the hot tub this evening!  Dad has learned how to send texts to the kid and he's giddy with accomplishment.  Lol. Have a great Saturday and do good things. :)

Photo that Brian has titled "Pimp Reflections". 

The back of my hand. Ugh. 

And. Recent photo of Shawn. 

The "Smelling the Prickly Pears", edition.

Good morning!  Life's been good. We're still painting. Brian has branched off into oils. I passed. I'm still happy with water colors and acrylics. He's pretty good. We can actually see our progress and are understanding concepts. Let me tell ya, there should be a class just learning how to mix colors!  We're also learning how to different brush strokes. And different brushes. And techniques. We've accumulated quite a portfolio. And no, I really am not going to attempt to out my nose anywhere near that formidible looking cactus!  Lol. 

We can also see improvement in water fitness. Our instructor has us swimming laps. The first time I swam the laps, I was breathing hard when I finished. It's much better now that he has increased the number of laps during the session. The class is titled aqua power hour. Lol. And we get a work out. 

Got the haircuts yesterday. When we first started going last year, there was construction going on in and around the barber shop. The barber shop is in an area called East Fremont. It's kinda like Roayl Oak and Ferndale. It swings towards young and hip.  The barber shop is around the corner from Container Park, a mall like area made up of containers you find on semi trucks. Lots of independent  vendors, artists and restaurants there. Kitty corner from the barbershop is a restaurant named Eat. You may have seen it and it's owner in an American Express commercial. Yes we've been there. At least it was before the commercial aired. And yes, the food was delicious!  

So where am I going with this?  The barbershop has weathered the gentrification of the east Fremont area and is now flanked by 2 new restaurants. I had my last hair cut in early May and neither restaurant was open.  Yesterday, I saw the barbershop was flanked by a Cajun restaurant and a vegetarian  restaurant. And the barbershop was as busy as ever. 7 chairs, 5 barbers taking care of Black men, Black women, White men, Asian men, kids, waxing eyebrows, and shaving the guys with the straightedge razor. It's a busy place.  And of course, Brian and I both looked good leaving the barbershop. After we left, headed to the car, then doubled back to the Cajun restaurant, Zydecos. Best poboy since I left New Orleans. Shrimp was falling out of the sandwich!  Brian had a sausage poboy. Sausage made on the premises. We'll be back to try the gumbo. Well save the vegetarian restaurant for Shawn and her friends. :-)

Nothing special on the dialysis front. I was taking medication for low hemoglobin. The med was administered though my needles just prior to hooking up the machine. Well, my hemoglobin has stabilized, so one less med for me!  Yay. I've stopped using Purel and the skin on the back of my hands is getting better. But it looks horrible while the scars heal. I guess I need to get some cocoa butter. I'll be seeing a dermatologist in July. Hooray for HMOs (not). 

Dad is doing good. He got a new car. This one has an automatic starter. He's still trying to figure it out. He's still Suave Dave. :)  The 5th of July dinner was great. My seniors are now officially spoiled. They expect their carry out packages. Lol. We get the containers and bags from the dollar store. We purchase the recyclable grocery bags. They're only $1.00. And my seniors are getting in the habit of bringing back their bags to refill after the new dinner. Lol. 

Finally I took a photo of one of the cactus on the grounds of the condo. It's prickly pear. And yes, I had to look it up. Please don't ask me about the different type of palm trees out here. I count at least 10. And some have figs?  Lol. Anyway, the prickly pear started sprouting ...flowers?...after the rain. It's monsoon season out here (snicker). And roads flood. And people drive in flooded roads. And get stranded. I don't understand. Lol. Anyway. The prickly pear is just so beautiful. Enjoy!  

Prickly pear.  

5th of July dinner

Herbert, Carl, Pauline and Suave Dave 

Container Park in the East Fremont area just east of downtown Las Vegas.  Yes it's quite walkable from the downtown casinos.  

The "Dialyzing on a Sunday Morning", edition.

Good morning!  I know. This is an odd time to write the blog.  This is just an example of the flexibility of home hemodialysis (HHD). Saturday is my regular day off but since we are hosting the indoor picnic today, we decided to do treatment on Saturday. Well. The prepping for dinner was Saturday. And now I'm going to step back a bit.  

My menu for today is ribs, chicken, hot links, buns, rolls and potato salad. I'll  have a relish tray with green olives, black olives, kalamata olives, little dill pickles, sweet gherkins, green onions and grape tomatoes. There is also a fruit bowl with watermelon, cantaloupe, pineapple, peaches, grapes and strawberries. And finally pound cake and strawberry ice cream for Carl. He's an ice cream fiend. :-D  

I ordered the meat, cooked,  from John Mull's Meat Road Kill Grill. We picked it up on Friday. Friday was the last day of a string of days where the temperature exceeded 105 (17 days). Anyway.  We pulled into an impossibly crowded parking lot.  There was a line at the grill...people purchasing their lunches. I thought cool. We're going inside to the butcher building and all the people are outside. No lines! Boy, was I wrong!!  The place was packed. People ordering ribs, people buying ribs, steaks, turkeys, chickens, etc.  and the folks like me, buying cooked, catered food. I paid and we were directed to drive our car behind the building.  Lo and behold there's another "grill master" cooking on one of the largest grills I'd ever seen. The chef was grilling in that 105 + degree weather and was so pleasant.  My food was truly fresh off the grill!  As we left people were still coming. And for the large number of people who were waiting, everyone was patient!  I can't say enough good things about the Road Kill Grill.  And driving home with the food was maddening. We wanted to pull over and start pigging out!   Lol. 

Yesterday we made the potato salad. That is an all day job. In addition I made a lot because my guests expect to take home goodie bags. I've spoiled them. <3.  The fruit bowl was a bit easier. We purchased the watermelon, pineapple and cantelope already cut.  All that was left was pulling grapes, halving the strawberries and peeling and slicing the peaches. All that's left for today is heating up the meat and fixing the relish tray.  Yeah!  

So where was I going?  We'd planned on treatment on Saturday, my regular day off. From past experience, my guests like to linger and we'd end up doing treatment at a later time and we'd be tired. Well, we were tired after prepping yesterday.  Lol. The solution?  Do treatment Sunday morning. I'll be done by noon, able to recover and finish setting up. Dinner is at 4. Home hemodialysis for the win!!  Flexibility, yay!!     

I mentioned the string of hot days. The average temp was around 110-112.   For 17 straight days. Ugh. Today the high will be  104 or something. And when the wind blows, it's like standing in front of a giant blow dryer. But when I think of ice and snow, I'm good!  

A bit of HHD info. The clinic supplies us with everything we need including a digital scale, digital thermometer and a battery operated blood pressure cuff. The scale so I know how much fluid weight I've gained and how much to take off. I weigh my self after treatment to see how much was actually removed. See, once treatment is finished, my blood is returned to me, in addition to saline.  This called a rinse back. I can get back up to .5 kilograms returned.  So if I need to remove 1.5 kg, .5 will be returned during rinse back. Sometimes the number will vary. My temperature is taken to check for infection. And you already know why my blood pressure is constantly monitored during treatment. I'll know I'm getting ready to pass out when it reaches 60/40!

That's it for today.  Eat lots of leftovers and enjoy your day!  

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.