Tag My Day

A day in the life

Michael 14 Comments

Has anybody else been blogging long enough to remember when the “my day” posts were popular? A blogger, typically with pictures, would take his or her (or its) readers through a pictorial tour of a particular day. Typical or atypical, both were fair game. Typically, both were quite boring.

Oh look, here’s my chai tea to start the day. I haven’t had coffee since I found out about the fair trade laws and how few roasters comply.

Oh look, here are my clothes laid out for the day. They look so small laid out in the bed. It must be due to the 487 pound weight loss I recently experienced.

Oh look, here is my designer cockapoo. I would have preferred a schnoodle but the breeder said I have to wait at least 7 months and even then he couldn’t guarantee a champagne schnoodle, so little “Doodle,” the champagne cockapoo, came home with me. Doesn’t he look a dear when he has to go wee wee.

And so on and so on throughout the day.

I never considered doing a “my day” post. First of all, any one of my days, typical or atypical, would bore the most ardent reader. For example, let’s take a look at my last week.

Sunday, I went to breakfast with my daughter. Typically we do a Sunday lunch, one of us hosting and cooking. Because I was scheduled to move Wednesday, most of my kitchen was packed, but because I was going to be unavailable for much of Monday and Tuesday, I needed her help packing the last of the “all but the most last of the last minute” items, so it made more sense to eat early and eat close to me, then we’d work together until everything was packed as planned. So for Sunday, my photos would be of my eating a local diner special, cheesesteak omelet (which was very good!), and then putting stuff in cardboard boxes. Yawn.

Monday, I worked. Snapshot of me at the computer reviewing charts for 10 hours. Double yawn.

Tuesday, I waited through 1&3/4 of the 2 hour arrival window to meet the internet service provider technician at the new location who did the install of the lines and modem, then wait through the two hours for him actually to do the install. After that, I rushed to the old apartment to disassemble and pack the computer pieces. Yawn and a half.

Wednesday, moving day! The only part of the whole day that I remember is the movers hoisting the living room sofa up onto the patio, one fight up from ground, to take it through the patio door because it wouldn’t fit through any other door.  That would have made a good video had I known where my phone was while it was happening.

Thursday, because I was scheduled to work Friday and Saturday, priority was given to unpacking, re-assembling, and connecting the computer, and second priority to making the kitchen cookable and the bedroom sleepable.  My sister came to help and we could have gotten some action shots of her emptying boxes or me unthreading 135 feet of various cables. I did take time that evening to go to my Toastmasters club meeting. With all that was going on, why would I take off for two hours of prime unpacking time. Because they’re fun meetings with good people and because I deserved it!

Friday and Saturday were work days. See Monday.

Sunday, we were back to our normal Daddy Daughter Lunch dates with lunch prepared in my new kitchen and more unpacking by the two of use, assisted(?) by her dog, after. Maybe we could have gotten a decent picture of me making chicken enchiladas but mostly another yawn day.

So now you see why I never did a “my day” type of post. And if you’re still here after hearing about “my week,” hehe, my plan worked!

Have a good week!

Life lessons from hockey? Yes, hockey holds many lessons on how we can be better people. From courtesy and respect to people and time management, the most recent Uplift! explores how hockey could be the best life coach ever!

Blog Art 2 2

My Day

Michael 6 Comments

I’ve never done a “day in my life” post and you should be thrilled. Unfortunately, all good things must end and your thrill just ended.

Today is not a just any old day in my life though. Today I went to the hospital. For the first 57 years of my life I never spent a night in a hospital unless I was working there. I never even had an outpatient procedure until I was 55. Wait. That’s not completely true. I was born in the fifties in the USA where childbirth was a minimum three day hospital stay. But after that, all my sleep was in my own bed or one of my choosing. Ok, that’s not 100% true either. There were some nights the U. S. Army insisted I spend away from my favorite pillow. But otherwise…

ADIL

Back to today. Don’t worry. It won’t be that traumatic an event. We’re just going for a simple procedure to open the fistula used for my dialysis. A fistula is a piece of artery and one of vein sewn together and pulled to just under the skin so the dialysis nurse can more easily jam a pair of needles roughly the size of a ball point pen into it. With all the puncturing and high velocity blood flow, the inside of the fistula scars and it slowly narrows, raising the pressure of the blood flow through it, decreasing the efficiency of the dialysis treatment. To correct this, because my fistula is in my upper arm, the surgeon will cut a small hole and enter the vein just below the fistula and thread a catheter through the vein into the fistula. This will be tracked by a scanner mounted over my arm transmitting images to a monitor above me. Once the physician finds the narrowed space he’ll pass a balloon into the catheter, up to the fistula and inflate it, pushing the occlusion against the vessel wall. (If that sounds like what you’ve heard as coronary angioplasty that’s because it’s the same procedure except on a fistula rather than a coronary artery.) While all this is happening I’ll be half asleep making incoherent conversation with the surgeon. It’s ok. He’s a friend.

MPH

Breakfast

I woke up a little after 6 showered (no, no pictures there), dressed comfortably, and got breakfast. This morning’s breakfast was two mycophenolate capsules and a sip of water since I will be anesthetized to the point of being half asleep. About 8:30 my sister came to take me to the hospital. She will be my accompaniment for the day since I will be anesthetized to the point of being half asleep. Because we’re Italian she brought food.

Traffic was light and we got to the hospital a few minutes after nine for my 9:30 report time. The nice lady in registration breezed me through and sent me off to the outpatient department with a stop at the lab for a quick blood draw. We arrived in the outpatient department at 9:45. By 10:05 I was changed into a hospital gown (still no pictures), had vitals recorded, an IV started in my left wrist, and left to wait for someone from the cath lab to come get me at 11:30. This was a boring 85 minutes and I read the paper. Did I mention it was boring?

 

Fistula_Before

Before

At 11:40 I got picked up for the procedure I already described, it went off without a hitch, and I went back to my room in the outpatient department where they said I looked great, go home.

Fistula_After

After

We went home, had lunch (a late lunch since it was then 2:30) my sister went home and because we’re Italian, I gave her food. Then I sat down and wrote this.

You know what? These things are really dull. Who came up with this idea anyway? In case you’re wondering, I am now just wonderful and when I go back to dialysis I’ll have the smoothest flowing blood of anyone there.

And you heard it here first!