Like Jadzia Dax in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine series I now have something residing in my gut. It's my new port for my Peritoneal Dialysis port.
It will take about a month for the wound to scar over and heal. Once that happens I can start nightly dialysis.
However, I may not have to start so soon. I talked to the oncologist about going back and adding Cyroxin to the chemo mix when I start back up next week. That might help the kidney function, now that most of the fluid is off. I want to try that for as long as it works.
He's still concerned about the Light Kappa Chain to Light Lambda Chain ratio, but he's talking to the docs at Mayo and seeing if my idea is worth trying. He's also got to talk to the Nephrologist, but I'm hopeful.
If all goes well, (and it should) I'll be out of here tomorrow. I'll rescue my dog from the neighbors and work on finding a name for my new best friend that's installed in my gut. Life is always interesting. And I am blessed and privileged to have such exceptional friends.
Friday, September 2, 2011
Thursday, September 1, 2011
The Next Step
Well tomorrow I'm scheduled for surgery. Nothing major, they just install the port that I will use for dialysis. I get put under and the port or line gets install under my peritoneum which will be used as the filter. It's something that I know has been coming, I just didn't expect to get here that soon.
Peritoneal Dialysis will allow me to still travel to Indy and other places. I can still hunt. Camping will just have to be somewhere where there's power for the machine I'll have to use each night. Fortunately that means that I can still Deer Hunt.
It will be just one more thing to add to my life. And it gives me time.
Which is all I ask for and all I need.
Peritoneal Dialysis will allow me to still travel to Indy and other places. I can still hunt. Camping will just have to be somewhere where there's power for the machine I'll have to use each night. Fortunately that means that I can still Deer Hunt.
It will be just one more thing to add to my life. And it gives me time.
Which is all I ask for and all I need.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
On the Way To Central DuPage Hospital
I called the nephrologist today. We're setting up an admission for the hospital for today, once they have room..
I'll be in for a couple of days while they administer heavy doses of diuretics to get the excess fluids out of me. So it looks like I'll miss the Dove Season Opener on Thursday, but should be out (and in better shape) for the Cub Scout Campout this Saturday/Sunday. I'm all packed and am bringing the laptop and Firefly DVD's. The dog is going to the neighbors to stay, while I'm in.
I had my Fall planned out through the end of November. I had a clear path. Now, it's all chaos.
It feels like the end of Serenity (the movie):
ZOE
Sir, we have a green light.
Inspection's pos and we're clear
for upthrust.
MAL
Think she'll hold together?
ZOE
She's tore up plenty. But she'll fly true.
MAL
Make sure everything's secure.
Could be bumpy.
ZOE
Always is.
And they weren't talking about the ship.
I'll be in for a couple of days while they administer heavy doses of diuretics to get the excess fluids out of me. So it looks like I'll miss the Dove Season Opener on Thursday, but should be out (and in better shape) for the Cub Scout Campout this Saturday/Sunday. I'm all packed and am bringing the laptop and Firefly DVD's. The dog is going to the neighbors to stay, while I'm in.
I had my Fall planned out through the end of November. I had a clear path. Now, it's all chaos.
It feels like the end of Serenity (the movie):
ZOE
Sir, we have a green light.
Inspection's pos and we're clear
for upthrust.
MAL
Think she'll hold together?
ZOE
She's tore up plenty. But she'll fly true.
MAL
Make sure everything's secure.
Could be bumpy.
ZOE
Always is.
And they weren't talking about the ship.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Damn.
Just got back from the Oncologist's.
No Chemo (Velcade) today.
He's conferring with the Nephrologist.
And I'm sitting here waiting for him to call.
The diuretics are not getting the water off. I'm up two pounds since I saw the Kidney doc last week. I should have been down 5 or more.
The Neprologist wants to put me in the hospital for a couple of days to get the water out using massive doses of diuretics where they can monitor me.
The Oncologist says that the water problem may be signalling that my light kappa chain to light lambda chain ratio may be going bad.
They drew blood today and the results of this blood work should be back by the end of this week.
If that's the case, that the ratio is bad, it means that the maintenance chemo is not working any more.
So it may be time for a stem cell transplant. He said probably within the next month.
I had hoped it would last longer. I thought I would be on maintenance for years.
I have my fall planned out. Several camping and hunting trips with my son, going to see my Army buds on my way to and from the APS SE meetup, spending practically all of November deer hunting with friends and the remainder of the month with my parents.
I wanted to make it through to at least December before Dialysis. Looks like that won't happen.
I was prepared for my kidneys to fail. Dialysis would be something that I would simply "add" to my life.
It would become another daily chore, something to hook-up to before I went to sleep each night, and something to "empty" in the morning.
Something that would buy me time.
I wanted to make longer before the stem cell.
I wanted years, not months. I wanted time.
Time to be with my son.
I need time.
Damn.
No Chemo (Velcade) today.
He's conferring with the Nephrologist.
And I'm sitting here waiting for him to call.
The diuretics are not getting the water off. I'm up two pounds since I saw the Kidney doc last week. I should have been down 5 or more.
The Neprologist wants to put me in the hospital for a couple of days to get the water out using massive doses of diuretics where they can monitor me.
The Oncologist says that the water problem may be signalling that my light kappa chain to light lambda chain ratio may be going bad.
They drew blood today and the results of this blood work should be back by the end of this week.
If that's the case, that the ratio is bad, it means that the maintenance chemo is not working any more.
So it may be time for a stem cell transplant. He said probably within the next month.
I had hoped it would last longer. I thought I would be on maintenance for years.
I have my fall planned out. Several camping and hunting trips with my son, going to see my Army buds on my way to and from the APS SE meetup, spending practically all of November deer hunting with friends and the remainder of the month with my parents.
I wanted to make it through to at least December before Dialysis. Looks like that won't happen.
I was prepared for my kidneys to fail. Dialysis would be something that I would simply "add" to my life.
It would become another daily chore, something to hook-up to before I went to sleep each night, and something to "empty" in the morning.
Something that would buy me time.
I wanted to make longer before the stem cell.
I wanted years, not months. I wanted time.
Time to be with my son.
I need time.
Damn.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Gun Show and a Blogmeet.
Got to attend the Indy 1500 Gun Fun Show today. I should have arrived earlier and brought large bags of cash.
For someone from Illinois, to go to show where you can touch it, simply by asking politely and not having to go through the "I'll show you mine" FOID card song and dance is one thing, but being able to (not your humble scribe, but others) to take your purchase home the same day, it simply incredible.
The other thing was the size. It was easily 3x the size of either the Kane County or DuPage County shows we have up here. And the selection!! If you could name it, I'm sure it was somewhere on a table there. I saw not one but TWO M2 Browning Heavy Barrel .50Caliber Machine Guns for sale (with "optional" tripods), well, one was actually marked SOLD by the time I passed it.
I did pickup a leather holster for the LCR for $20, some Large Pistol Primers, and tumbler (with FREE media!) Got a deal on the Tumbler and primers because I made a "package deal" offer near the end of the show., OH HEY, it's an hour earlier in Indiana and I promised Brigid I'd save her a seat at the Blogmeet!
So I head up too Broad Ripple and get to the Brew Pub, with checking the Blackberry, 5 minutes to 3:00pm. Good, I'll just go in and see if I can find our...Holy Crap, that's a lot of people!! So we start a second table going, by grouping a couple of tables end to end. Then more people show up, so before the waitress can even bus the dishes of the horrified family, that was forced to watch the blogmeet, we grabbed two of those tables and and add them to the second table we've started. Much to the waitresses chagrin. I got to sit with Don, Old Grouch, Brigid, Mrs D. Peter, Mad Saint Jack, Jeff, and Kerry.
Thanks to Jeff, I'm officially a recipient of Wheel Barrows of Cash from the NRA I'll post a picture. I'm truly honored. Even more humbling than going to a Blogmeet and being able to call these great folks my friends, were that we had two "lurkers" although I think groupies would be a better term (just kidding guys).
So I had a great time in Indy, got Mom a wireless mouse, hopefully that will make her more comfortable using the computer. I'm asking Kelly and Sydney to give her encouragement so that she gets on. I think if you guys spend some time with her, she'll get more comfortable with and that will get her to re-connect with all her relatives, (and give Dad a break).
Anyway, I'll be back in Indy the weekend of 1 Oct. I think there's a group of us going to the ISO to hear Mahler's #1. Should be another good time.
For someone from Illinois, to go to show where you can touch it, simply by asking politely and not having to go through the "I'll show you mine" FOID card song and dance is one thing, but being able to (not your humble scribe, but others) to take your purchase home the same day, it simply incredible.
The other thing was the size. It was easily 3x the size of either the Kane County or DuPage County shows we have up here. And the selection!! If you could name it, I'm sure it was somewhere on a table there. I saw not one but TWO M2 Browning Heavy Barrel .50Caliber Machine Guns for sale (with "optional" tripods), well, one was actually marked SOLD by the time I passed it.
I did pickup a leather holster for the LCR for $20, some Large Pistol Primers, and tumbler (with FREE media!) Got a deal on the Tumbler and primers because I made a "package deal" offer near the end of the show., OH HEY, it's an hour earlier in Indiana and I promised Brigid I'd save her a seat at the Blogmeet!
So I head up too Broad Ripple and get to the Brew Pub, with checking the Blackberry, 5 minutes to 3:00pm. Good, I'll just go in and see if I can find our...Holy Crap, that's a lot of people!! So we start a second table going, by grouping a couple of tables end to end. Then more people show up, so before the waitress can even bus the dishes of the horrified family, that was forced to watch the blogmeet, we grabbed two of those tables and and add them to the second table we've started. Much to the waitresses chagrin. I got to sit with Don, Old Grouch, Brigid, Mrs D. Peter, Mad Saint Jack, Jeff, and Kerry.
Thanks to Jeff, I'm officially a recipient of Wheel Barrows of Cash from the NRA I'll post a picture. I'm truly honored. Even more humbling than going to a Blogmeet and being able to call these great folks my friends, were that we had two "lurkers" although I think groupies would be a better term (just kidding guys).
So I had a great time in Indy, got Mom a wireless mouse, hopefully that will make her more comfortable using the computer. I'm asking Kelly and Sydney to give her encouragement so that she gets on. I think if you guys spend some time with her, she'll get more comfortable with and that will get her to re-connect with all her relatives, (and give Dad a break).
Anyway, I'll be back in Indy the weekend of 1 Oct. I think there's a group of us going to the ISO to hear Mahler's #1. Should be another good time.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
This business will get out of control, and we'll be lucky to live through it.
In the movie "The Hunt For Red October", there's a scene were an American and Soviet aircraft have bumped into one another and the damaged American Tomcat is attempting to land on the carrier. It doesn't make it, and crashes on the flight deck.
The Admiral (Fred Thompson) rushes up to the flight deck and says to Jack Ryan:
"This business will get out of control, it will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it."
It's crap like this that's going to be the next spark:
Now, I'm not exactly sure what I would have done in this situation, but I sure as hell, would have been cuffed and stuffed for going batshitfarking crazy.
Deny me my 1st Amendment Rights under color of law ?
Game On !!! Go Ahead, Tase Me Bro !!!!
If the Congressman condones or ordered this, he needs to resign NOW. The cop needs to be fired. If he can't respect the basic fundamental 1st Amendment Rights of the people, he needs to go and the rest of that department needs to be re-trained on the fundamental rights and protections that EVERY citizen has in this country.
Dialysis
Met with the kidney doc today. We again talked about dialysis. It's coming, sooner rather than later. He doesn't like the looks of my legs (not that they were all that great to begin with), but the amount of fluid is "shocking". I'm up to 279lbs. My stomach is distended and I look like I'm, well, "retaining fluids".
Crap. He's doubling up (or doubling down) on the diuretics and adding another one. I have until Monday to drop some of this water, or after chemo on Monday he's going to put in the hospital and give me industrial strength diuretics for a day or two and get this out of me.
And I'm planning on hunting the Dove season opener on Thursday. Yeah, I know priorities. So Mon-Wed in the Hospital then Thursday hunting. I can do that. I might even feel and do better.
Either way, dialysis is coming soon, I had hoped to make to the being of next year. Here's why. I can either do hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis. Both options suck, it's just trying to choose the least sucky one. I'm leaning toward peritoneal, which, while is sounds really gross to use my own peritoneal membrane to filter basically my pee, it does allow me the freedom to travel do certain things. However, it also limits what I can do. Hemodialysis ties me here, to a schedule of going and spending 3-5 hours at a treatment center every other day. There goes trips to Indy, Hunting, and anything else I want to do. With Peritoneal I can travel, as long as I can find an outlet to plug in my machine at night. And somewhere to dump all the waste fluid bags. From wikipedia:
Anyway, I'm heading to Indy this weekend to see my parents. I'll spend some time with Mom and greet her more comfortable with her new computer and FB, I thought she would take to it like a fish to water. Try, try again. There's the Indy 1500 Fun Show and a Blogmeet on Sunday. It's shaping up to be a good weekend before a week of suck.
Crap. He's doubling up (or doubling down) on the diuretics and adding another one. I have until Monday to drop some of this water, or after chemo on Monday he's going to put in the hospital and give me industrial strength diuretics for a day or two and get this out of me.
And I'm planning on hunting the Dove season opener on Thursday. Yeah, I know priorities. So Mon-Wed in the Hospital then Thursday hunting. I can do that. I might even feel and do better.
Either way, dialysis is coming soon, I had hoped to make to the being of next year. Here's why. I can either do hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis. Both options suck, it's just trying to choose the least sucky one. I'm leaning toward peritoneal, which, while is sounds really gross to use my own peritoneal membrane to filter basically my pee, it does allow me the freedom to travel do certain things. However, it also limits what I can do. Hemodialysis ties me here, to a schedule of going and spending 3-5 hours at a treatment center every other day. There goes trips to Indy, Hunting, and anything else I want to do. With Peritoneal I can travel, as long as I can find an outlet to plug in my machine at night. And somewhere to dump all the waste fluid bags. From wikipedia:
It does free patients from the routine of having to go to a dialysis clinic on a fixed schedule multiple times per week, and it can be done while travelling with a minimum of specialized equipment.Okay, not great, but do-able. It will mean that camping will be in the camper only, where there is power. So Cub Scout camping will be out. Or maybe I can do it before and immediately after. I might be able to do that.
Anyway, I'm heading to Indy this weekend to see my parents. I'll spend some time with Mom and greet her more comfortable with her new computer and FB, I thought she would take to it like a fish to water. Try, try again. There's the Indy 1500 Fun Show and a Blogmeet on Sunday. It's shaping up to be a good weekend before a week of suck.
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