Quite a day!

Happy Birthday to H!

(I had this entire post written, but got caught by the Bleu Screen of Death.)

This morning I got up late, had to race to work to read morning prayer. Today it was about torture. Then I drove back home to take the bp meds I'm not supposed to forget. On the way back to work, I picked up a breakfast burrito at the Hop In. Mmm, bacon...

In the faculty lounge, someone had left a box of huge, voluptuous, perfectly ripe peaches. Have you ever seen a bunch of huge, voluptuous, perfectly ripe peaches? It was more than slightly obscene. They should just call them sexfruit. I took two. They were really dusty, which was sexy. I had to wash them, which was sexy. Bastos peaches!

Later, went to my kidney appointment, got rock star parking next to a telephone pole with one of these ironic signs posted.

The kidney news is good: the condition that I have seems to be not very serious. The doc said I could either a) do nothing and see if my kidney function deteriorates, or b) start on a non-specific therapy that might help but might make me grow boobs. I chose a) do nothing and check back in three months. The doc said he had a patient that he diagnosed in the 1960s who still hasn't shown any sign of deterioration since then.

After the meeting I got back to work to find a fedex on my desk; the refi had gone through! Sweet! After work I went to the bank!

Also, my new contract was finally ready, so I signed it. My Mandarin class bumped me over a column on the pay scale, and actually, I'm only 12 credits until the next column.

Finally, came home to meet the guy who was supposed to deliver my home sleep study equipment. He was scheduled to come at 4pm, but he didn't show up until 7pm, right when I started cooking my dinner of course. (spaghetti with vodka sauce, chicken breast)

Anyway, he finally made it. So tonight I will attach some electronics to me as I sleep, and if I do end up having sleep apnea, they'll give me a cpap, and then maybe I'll sleep better and my blood pressure will go down since I won't need to make all that cortizol to wake me up to gasp for air.

So in summary, machines will help me live. Resistence is futile.

Sunday Morning: clean house, stomach ache

So it's the Labor Day Sunday, and I got up this morning before 8:00am with the stomach ache associated with pizza and a miniscule amount of soreness in my kidney holes.

Did I mention that after the ol' renal biopsy, I never peed blood? How do you not pee blood after they pull out chunks of your kidney? Maybe I didn't bleed? Or maybe my kidney filtered out all the blood! If that was the case, I would probably never have needed a renal biopsy.

I'm thinking about scouting the church on the Eastside that's looking for a Gospel choir director. I still have a couple hours to decide to blow it off.

I bought a new reading lamp for my night stand!

So some people have moved into the drug house. I thought I saw a big truck wrapped in promotional wrap, suggesting my new neighbors were music producers... or DJs! I walked my friend A through the alley last night, and of course took a snooping glance in the window... was that a big screen tv I saw? Snoop snoop!

I think I'm hoping that they're music producers. Maybe it's Jimmy Jam. I wouldn't mind a DJ either. Too bad the Vietnamese karaoke neighbors are gone. I miss them. My theory is that people with a lot of professional gear in their house will be good neighbors, because they're worried about their gear getting stolen. I also am kind of excited about hearing fresh beats (during decent hours, of course). I only want my neighborhood to be quiet at night.

Over the summer, during the day, I could hear a jazz rehearsal on the other side of the pea patch. I can hear the drums from my place, if I go out into the street, I can hear a saxophone and bass. And then there's the blues guitar-playin' going on in the Skinny Townhouses For Yuppies (STOFYs).

I think the worst musical neighbors would be the divas: MCs, lead guitarists, trumpet players... the ones that are always turning up their volumes because they can't hear themselves.

Saturday Night in a Clean House

My sister stayed the night last Thursday, which means the place appears clean. I could still stand to mop the kitchen floor, finish the laundry, re-arrange the rec room, vaccuum downstairs. However that kind of stuff smacks of "strain" which I'm supposed to avoid due to the kidney biopsy.

A and J came over, we had dinner at Tutta Bella, came back to my place and chatted while half watching an awful Olsen Twins movie "The Challenge." I like having a clean house and having respectable people over. I pretty much forgot about the missing chunks of my kidneys. Althought I did regret not having fun snacks or drinks to offer.

When they left, I came into the office to blog. I put on the tv and watched the very end of Star Wars Episode II: The Clone Wars. When it ended, I hadn't changed the channel, and now it seems I'm watching Kill Bill Part 2.

I just realized it's a three day weekend; I have two more days to enjoy this clean upstairs. And orders from the doctor not to strain, lift, or cough.

Three hole punched!

So my kidney biopsy was today. I got up at 5:30, took a shower, woke up my ride, H, and we were on our way. When I checked in, I waived all my rights, and then put on a hospital gown.

(It was actually quite different from the vivid dream I had just hours before, of 5 people wheeling me on a gurney to a locker where they stripped off my clothes and then handed me a garment bag with a hospital gown in it).

They put in an IV, took a blood sample, I peed in a cup, and then took my blood pressure, temp, pulse, and then offered me a sedative. They wheeled me in my bed down to radiology, where the procedure was performed with an ultrasound tech. And a kidney person, waiting patiently to recieve the chunks.

They put me on my belly and took a look around with the ultrasound. Then, the doctor explained to me the procedure. He told me to expect the click of a spring-loaded mechanism... I asked, like a ball point pen? He was extatic at the idea, took out a ball point pen, and started clicking it. Apparently he usually tells people it will sound like a stapler, but from now on, he's gonna say ball point pen. Except a little louder.

There was a numb lotion, and a couple injections of numb-er, and then he told me (behind my back) that this is what the sound actually sounds like. I heard several revolvers getting cocked behind my head.

There was some breathing and then there was some clicking; I don't remember the sensations or sounds of the actual procedure, I was to focused on not screaming in terror. The result was it was over in 10 minutes... maybe 15. Three chunks of kidney were given to the kidney lady. And I was wheeled back up to my room.

Once in my room, they told me liquid only for the next four hours. Solid food finally came at 2pm. I said "oh good, breakfast" and the nurse apologized. It was chicken quesadillas and rice.

H and I killed time sleeping, reading, playing on my PDA. Two hours later they brought me a tray of salsbury steak, potatoes, vegetron, carrot cake for dessert. I shared it with H, since neither of us were hungry. We picked out the lima beans and the green beans and lined them up on the plate.

H started to get stir crazy, she tried taking her own bp and telling me the plot of the movie "Secretary" so I sent her away. Waiting, waiting, waiting for Dr. C to show up and tell me I can go home. He never showed. A nurse said, oh, Dr. C's not in today, Dr. B looked at your test results, and you're fine.

We drove home and I ripped off the crusty bandage.

It will be a week or two for the lab techs to figure out what's going on with my kidneys.

Kidney Biopsy Eve

Here's all the things I'm going to blog about once I finish cleaning the house:

1. hiring a cleaning service
2. thoughts on the upcoming kidney biopsy
3. how I'm not voting for Maria Cantwell
4. how I'm not reelecting the anti-gay marriage judges
5. the picture on the cover of the voters' guide (an eagle on crutches)
6. the sexy people on the inside back cover of the voters' guide (a tasty blonde surfer dude with his arm around a tasty ambiguously ethnic, well educated looking babe).
7. why I'm getting so much "Plan B" traffic
8. my new african mask plant
9. will i ever get new floors?

Kidney Watch

So my blood test last week came back with high glucose, bun, and creatinine. Whoops. Not sure if it's due to the adjustment in meds, or if it's because I took the blood test right after lunch.

Lunch was beef teriyaki (no teriyaki sauce), veggie tempura, and rice.

So far one MD has called, and another has emailed, telling me to drink more water.

Can do!

Harbin Hen, Kidney Biopsy, SPU, Sonics

I was at work today working on some stuff for the 'student leadership retreat.' Somebody asked me if we were in charge of it, I smiled and said, "No, we are only responsible for the content." That got a laugh, but it's true.

I found myself saying repeatedly, I don't want my 中文 class to end. I have no desire for my own classes to start. On my way home just now, I started daydreaming about moving to China to teach, either teach English or another language, or to teach in an American school. I was thinking about where to go; I want to learn Mandarin, so north; I want to be in a medium sized city, maybe not Beijing.... my teacher is from Harbin, she recommended it, but it's famous for ice sculptures in the winter, which sounds cold.

That's when I saw a red hen, pecking at the sidewalk, at the corner of Rainier Avenue S and Massachussets, right there across from Toshio's Teriyaki. What kind of omen is an unexpected red hen? I think it means I should go to Harbin.
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My kidney biopsy is scheduled for Friday, September 1st. I will take the day off of work, show up at 6:30am, they'll grab three little plugs of my kidneys through a needle while I'm holding my breath, and then I'll get driven home around noon. Hopefully they'll look at my biopsy and find a no-big-deal reason that my kidneys spill protein.
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Monday I got a letter dated August 2 from SPU, saying that the credit card I had given them to pay for my Chinese class credits had been declined. What! And that I had until the 15th to takee care of it. The date on the charge? June 29th.

That means out of my July paycheck, I have paid for 16 university credits and a deposit on an orthodontic treatment program. It's a damn good thing I'm refi-ing the townhouse; if I wasn't able to skip this month's mortgage payment I'd be broker than a joker.

So why did I not get a letter until over a month later? Because my application had been sitting in a pile. For a month. Because they had such a high work load. Gross. And now I hate SPU.
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The new Sonics owner wants out of the Key. I loved the Supersonics, I watched the amazing teams of 78 and 96 and all the other years, I loved the Sonics. But now if they have to leave, LET 'EM GO. No more public money.

Priorities, people! Professional basketball, or viaduct and seawall? Professional basketball, or rapid transit? Help everybody, or help everbody give their money to some rich people?

Hmph.

The Left and the Right.

So I got a tickley ultrasound today, and found that I have two kidneys, the left and the right. Congratulate me! No stones. The ultrasound technician actually said I had "two nice big kidneys," 14 and 15 cm.

So did crazy, protein spilling kidneys up my blood pressure? Or did my blood pressure make my kidneys start spilling protein? Maybe a biopsy will tell.

Anyway, my blood pressure has responded to the drugs, and now it's normal for the first time in a while. There was a day where my pulse was 100 bpm after a nap as my heart adjusted to it's new lighter work load.

The kidney in the picture isn't mine, by the way. Google images brought it to me.

Not much today.

I'm not sure why, but I've started posting my goals on 43things.

H and I are eating so much mool naeng myun that we wonder if it's starting to affect our gastrointestinal systems in some way. She's become a junkie. Me, I can quit at any time.

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El m�dico me ha manado que yo conservara la orina de las veinticuatro horas para ver si est�n echando mis renas demasiado proteina. Bueno, lo que sea. Entonces si quieren saber porque hay una jarra misteriosa en el ba�o del s�tano hoy, ah� est�