The drudgery of dialysis

So absolutely nothing happened today while I was on dialysis.

It was another quiet, boring day. More paperwork to be filled out for short term disability, but otherwise, pretty quiet. The days just seem to drag on.

Dr. McCormick didn't have any news. He still suspects rejection as the cause of the previous fevers. The Social Worker came by to tell me all the paperwork I had given her had been submitted. I got paperwork e-mailed to me late Friday at the end of business to fill out for short term disability. I am happy that I was able to e-mail it to the Social Worker, and it was already finished when I got there today. That was fast.

I got a notice from the hospital that says they're greedy bastards, and that they're going to raise their parking rates. Instead of $25 a month, it goes up to $30 a month. (This is discounted since I am there 3 times per week.) I'm lucky that ODSP reimburses me this amount, but it's still a lot. I'm annoyed that I have to pay to park to receive life-saving dialysis. Seems unethical somehow.

Ah well, tomorrow is another day.

The house on the street where I lived

So I had one last look today at the house I grew up in.

I lived in that house in Greely for almost 20 years. It has a lot of memories. Tomorrow it closes, a new owner will take possession. My Mom had me hold onto an envelope with the keys and garage door openers. The final viewing for the new owners was on Saturday, and my Mom was afraid they might take the keys early.

The house was empty, and signs of love everywhere, such as the carpets that are well worn, or parts that need painting. A hall light was on upstairs, that I turned off.

I'm really going to miss the place. It may just be a house, but there are a lot of memories there.

Doctors, and nurses, and sleep. Oh my!

So I had another fever yesterday morning. I had a fever on Friday and Saturday morning as well, and mentioned it to the nurse when I went in for dialysis on Saturday. They opted not to do anything at that time to see if the fever goes away on its own.

It did, for two days.

So they took blood, a swab around my site, etc to check for infection, and sent me for a chest x-ray. Dr. McCormick thinks it could be acute rejection, so he's increased my prednisone. They also gave me an antibiotic just in case.

I didn't sleep very well last night, I was full of itchiness.

I woke up early for an appointment today with the urologist as part of my transplant workup. The appointment was at 9:15 am, and I got there at 9 am, but annoyingly didn't get called in until 10 am. Then there was some sort of administrative mixup and no one knew why I was there. So when I finally saw Dr Mahoney, at 10:45 am, he was shocked to learn that I've had 3 kidney transplants. Most people react with subtlety to this, but he was quite visibly and verbally shocked.

The appointment went on and he went through my (long) surgical history, and I have to go for a test to ensure there is no scarring in my ureter.

So now I'm tired. I'm taking today off and I'll go on to unit 3 in my course work tomorrow.

It really sucks that I need a fourth transplant.

Harry Potter and the insane fans

So everyone and their dog it seems lined up for the new Harry Potter book, which came out on midnight Friday (aka Saturday morning.) There were events held, etc.

I was at Shoppers Drug Mart the other day, and to my utter amazement, they had 2 copies of the book on their shelves, and as the cashier pointed out, they're $42 each. Who in their right mind would pay $42 for a book? If I wanted to buy it (and I don't,) I would wait for the soft cover so it wouldn't be so expensive. Yeesh. For $42 I can buy lots of nice things at the dollar store, or even Staples.

I'm not a "book fan" of Harry, instead I'm a movie fan. I know, the movie's aren't as good as the books. I do have to read the first book for my Children's Literature course I'm taking. Aside from that, I won't read the books. While I'm sure they're a great read, the movie alone enthralls you, I unfortunately don't have a lot of time to read anything that isn't school related.

$42 for Deathly Hallows. Seems illegal somehow.

You can't stop the beat

Evil pharmacies and doctors that think they are cool.

So I finally spoke today with the Ontario College of Pharmacists. I filed a complaint at the end of June, because the Zellers pharmacy I went to, refused to fill a medication for billing reasons. They didn't even give me the option to pay for the drug. The complaint will go to a panel of 5 people. 3 are pharmacists, and 2 are from the general public. The complaint will be heard in September or October. The college doesn't deal with billing issues, but they can handle the refusal to fill the prescription. We will see what comes of this.

Today the doctor increased my target weight on dialysis, due to the headaches I've been having after dialysis. Hopefully they headaches won't occur anymore.

Avoiding BlueFur.com hosting

I sent out an e-mail back on April, advising people to avoid using BlueFur.com for their web hosting. I'd extend that to say any of their services. I stand by that e-mail today.

While petertretter.com was never hosted with them, a few websites I run were. While the technical/mechanics worked and I didn't have a problem with any down time, I did have a problem with their very poor customer service.

The issue started over my annual billing. They had claimed they couldn't bill my credit card. So I called MasterCard to try to resolve the issue. MasterCard gave me an authorization #, proving that I had been billed. Still the BlueFur.com folks insisted that it hadn't gone through. What really broke the camel's back was their lack of willingness to give me a phone number so we could conference call, to try to resolve the situation. They didn't seem to want to resolve it at all.

So they were fired, and I took my websites to a new host.

The situation sinks of the problems that have plagued RegisterFly.

It's really too bad they were so unwilling to figure it all out. They even insulted me in the process. So I tell my friends now never to use them, and I stand by it.

The candle of sitting

Saturday's are usually pretty boring days, as far as dialysis is concerned. No doctors, social workers or dietitians on Saturday, despite my decree that if I have to be here on Saturday, so should they.

So I get to watch TV.

Okay, I watch TV every time I'm on dialysis. I really am a couch potato. I even eat cookies if I'm hungry. In my own defense, I can't move about while I'm on dialysis. They don't like you to stand up because my blood pressure could drop, and seeing as I'm physically hooked up to the dialysis machine, I can't walk anywhere, even if I wanted to. I do get restless legs, which hopefully won't last too often.

Yesterday I went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. IMHO, it was amazingly good. I do agree with the "reviews" that say there is no character development, but it nicely ties elements together from the previous four movies, and we again get to see Harry's Aunt, Uncle and that cousin Dudley. The opening is done pretty well with Harry saving Dudley's life using magic.

I recommend all Harry fans see this movie.

Believe in yourself.

Fostering a dialogue

A drug I'm on from my transplant called CellCept is cycotoxic, or so they tell me. It's a pill I take on a daily basis to prevent rejection, and I take the pill at home.

However, the procedures of The Ottawa Hospital dictate that the nurses must mask and grown to connect me to dialysis because of the drug. When I got my dialysis at the General, they didn't do this, but now at the Riverside suddenly they do. It's both confusing and offensive, and I've told them so.

Today I was informed that a dialogue has been started on this matter, thanks to me. They are working to get an exemption so my nurses don't have to mask and grown due to me taking this medication. It causes no real danger to the nurses as they have to wear a mask and gloves anyway as part of normal safety procedures. They just wouldn't have to wear the elaborate blue gown.

I hope this dialogue bears some fruit.

Believe in yourself.

It's been a while...

It's been a while since I've blogged.

Today I bought two of those new President's Choice cloth shopping bags. I wasn't entirely sure about them, but for $1 they hold a lot of groceries. I was able to easily carry my $50 worth of groceries into my apartment, where as with plastic bags I've had trouble in the past.

A few days ago I bought Picket Fences on DVD. I was just looking around Future Shop, and saw it on the shelf. I used to love this show. Back in 2003(?) when I was recovering from surgery at the Civic, I watched a marathon of this show. It definitely kept me distracted.

Health wise Judy (the Liaison nurse) called York Central again, and everything is going ahead full steam for my trip to visit my parents at the end of August. The clerk she dealt with last time is away on vacation, but they will find me a spot. She said the Barrie unit has the problem that they are really busy, they don't even have enough spots for their own people. If I am going to move, we'll start in Sept to get something close to or in Barrie, so I don't have this problem.

Dr. Lavoie said my bloodwork is good, but my hemoglobin is still down despite the fact that my aranesp was raised. So I'm going to be getting IV (via dialysis) iron for 5 weeks, and then once or twice a month after that.

Everything else has been going ok.