Category Archives: Miscellaneous

Happy Halloween!

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It seems Halloween has come awful early this year. It almost feels like I remember just celebrating Meesh‘s birthday in March. I guess time Really does fly as you get older. How sad is that?

Meanwhile, we’re enjoying our iPhone 4S’s, they seem to be working fine. They are such upgrades to our old iPhone 3GS’s that we cannot complain I think. I haven’t found any issues with the battery, but Meesh might be having some issues herself. We’ll see if we can get those fixed.

Did you dress up for Halloween this year? I admit, I did not. Meesh got a ghost headband thing, and she is wearing her Skeleton earrings. I love those. They glow in the dark too! Or they’re supposed to at least. What did you dress up as?

Do you ever feel like…

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Do you ever feel like if you go to sleep tonight, you might not wake up in the morning? That’s how I feel like every night when I go to bed. It reminds me of the story of the little girl or boy who was terrified of going to sleep because of the Lords prayer. “…if I die before I wake…” I Totally understand the fear. I think I’ve had this fear since I had a stroke. I often try to forget about it. But there are times when I just don’t want to go to bed in fear that I may not wake up. I would say those seem like the darkest of nights. Which leads me to thinking about what happens when I don’t wake up. I pray that I am destined for Heaven. But something deep down inside my soul says I’m not. I guess that’s Really my greatest fear. That I’m gonna spend eternity in the blackest of blackest nights. Never to see the rise of the sun ever again.

Do you ever feel like that? Because I do every night.

Review: Supernatural – Heart of the Dragon

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I’ve been a big Supernatural fan since about season 3. I remember when the show premiered, and I thought it was interesting enough. I never thought it would take off, only because shows like that never do. So I forgot about it. A couple of seasons later, sure enough, Supernatural is doing great and well. If you’re not sure what Supernatural is, here’s a short recap.

Supernatural is about two brothers who have grown up with the tragedy of losing their mother at a young age. Dean was a young kid and Sam was still a baby. It’s not enough that their mom had died when they were young, but their father finds out his wife was killed by a demon. Specifically, a yellow-eyed demon. Supernatural follows the “hunting” adventures of the Winchester brothers as they search for the demon who killed their mother and find their missing father.

The world of Supernatural is exactly the world that I would envision as a classic “urban fantasy” setting. This is a world where monsters exist. Vampires, werewolves, and zombies are only a small part of the world of Supernatural. The Winchesters, in their search for the yellow-eyed demon, end up becoming “hunters”; a small group of people who know what goes bump in the night, find them, and kill them.

That being said, the story of the Heart of the Dragon is about an ancient demon who trapped the soul of a Samurai and made it so his ancestors can call him up from the dead to do their bidding. Saying more about the story would probably reveal spoilers for those who haven’t read the book. Needless to say, after some mysterious deaths, the Winchester brothers are called to investigate. This book stays in the spirit of the TV show. The characters are exactly as they are in the TV show, and you won’t be disappointed. I Really liked the story. I’d recommend it for any fan of Supernatural.

As the author suggests, be sure to listen to some great tunes while reading the book. I personally recommend to at least listen to AC/DC and Blue Oyster Cult myself. There are plenty of songs to listen to, but nothing beats the classic Rock and Roll of the 70′s.

I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars.

CT Scan of the kidneys

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CT scanSo this past friday, I had a CT scan of my donated kidney. They suspect there might be a bit of stenosis (abnormal narrowing of a bodily canal or passageway) of the artery feeding the new kidney. It was explained to me that everyone has different size arteries, and it was quite possible that the new kidney had a smaller artery than my own or vice versa. This is why the ultrasound was done, and it did suggest that I could have some stenosis.

It’s also possible the kidney might have shifted. Because it’s not behind the peritoneal wall (the membrane that holds all the organs), it could move because of how I might move my body. Of course, this makes me nervous since I can actually feel my new kidney and I worry every time I bend over, lean, or whatever. If this is the case, the artery could kink or go into a position that restricts flow.

The only reason they haven’t been too aggressive is because my kidney functions (specifically my creatinine, which last week was 0.98 – very good) are in normal ranges. But now (3 months post-surgery) is the time to act, and to fix the problem, which is not Really a problem, before it becomes a Really big problem and it’s an emergency situation. I agree. I don’t want to have to worry about this later when it’s a severe problem.

So now, what are the things we can do? If there is indeed stenosis and it’s a narrowing of the artery, then they will most likely do an angiogram. This would either involve a widening of the artery or inserting a stent (A slender, hollow tube inserted into the body to relieve a blockage.). I suppose if the kidney itself is shifted or kinking the artery, they may have to move it, but I’m not exactly sure what they would do in this situation.

Either way, I’m just waiting to hear the results of the test to see what they will do next. All I know is the surgeons and doctors at University of Washington are top notch and I’m in good hands.

Kidney Transplant

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As most of you already know, I had a kidney transplant on July 29th, 2009. That’s just over a month ago. Since then, I simply cannot believe I had this procedure, since I don’t feel much different now than I did more than a year ago. It’s amazing how much of a difference having a kidney transplant makes.

I just want to send a great thanks for everyone who asked about me and wanted to know how I was doing. It Really helped to be thought of and Really gave me a lot of positive energy. Most of all I want to thank my sister for giving me the kidney. It still seems weird that I’ve got a part of her inside (literally) so it’s almost like we’re more than just brother/sister, it’s like we’re twins or something. LOL

So the other day I managed to get the bill for the surgery and hospital stay. It all came out to about 150,000 bucks. No, I’m not kidding. Luckily, I have great insurance and I probably won’t have to pay more than 600 bucks and the cost of the medication. Thank you Group Health!

But as of right now I’m doing good and I no longer have to do dialysis. Believe me that alone is quite worth it. Aside from that, the only other “side effect”, if you can call it that, is my neuropathy has gotten worse. Actually that’s not entirely true. Because prior to the transplant, the kidney disease would build up toxins in my body, it would actually become numb to a lot of pain. Now that I have a functioning kidney, those toxins are no longer building up and I’m no longer numb. So I actually feel the neuropathy now instead of numbing myself to it. Interesting!

Anyone else out there with transplants? I’d like to hear from you about how you deal with all the medications and anything else. Remember, transplant is a treatment, not a cure!

Everyone has their bad days

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I am a firm believer that we all have bad days. I mean everyone does. There are days when you feel frustrated, weak, hurting, whatever it might be and there’s nothing you can Really do about it. But there are those who do nothing but whine and complain about it. They complain constantly, and are never happy with anything. Sometimes I Really feel like I am that whiny person. Really. I know that there are days where I just don’t want to deal with the pain. Or the tiredness, or anything. It’s something I deal with everyday, and yesterday is no different than today, but sometimes you just have to whine about it.

Meesh insists that I’m never like that, but I feel like I am sometimes. And when it happens to someone else, I don’t think “oh my god I wish they’d shut up about it and accept it,” but instead I think, “OMG I hope I don’t sound that bad when I whine.” It’s true. I Totally sympathize with anyone that is sick. You just have to complain about it. Sometimes there’s no reason except for the fact that it makes you feel better. And you know, sometimes it Really Really feels good to whine about it.

Ikemen Boogie

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I always listen to music to cheer me up or to make me in a better mood. So I thought I’d share a song that always lifts me up and puts me in a good mood. It’s from a Japanese dorama called Hanazakari no Kimitachi e (Ikemen Paradise). It’s a dorama where Horikita Maki poses as a boy to go to an all boys school. Similar to She’s the Man with Amanda Bynes. The song is called Ikemen Boogie.

http://x.haroyoshi.com/ikemenboogie.mp3

Dialysis

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After a week of training, I’m now doing peritoneal dialysis (PD). It’s worthy to note PD is nothing like Hemo Dialysis, which is the one where you have needles and sticking. PD, however does require you to have a tube placed inside you, and this is a surgical procedure.

How it works: It’s basically pretty simple to understand. Basically, I put this liquid in me called the Dialysate, let it “dwell” inside me for a few hours and then drain it out. Yes, it looks just like urine. To quote a friend, it’s like I’m peeing out two holes in my body.

The process of filling and draining takes some time. Actually the filling/draining is not what takes the most time. The entire process of doing an exchange is what takes time. I have to take my vital signs (blood pressure, weight, temp, pulse, etc) before I even start, just to make sure I’m ok. My vitals determine what solution bag I use. There are typically 3 types of solutions, from low sugar content to highest sugar content. This is also geared towards each person as well. Not everyone is the same.

After my vitals, I now have to heat up the bag of dialysate. I don’t need to be putting something too cold inside me, that would cause cramps and well, I don’t need them. So believe it or not, microwaving the bag for about 5 minutes brings the bag up to about body temperature. As long as it’s a dry heat, it’s ok.

After I heat up the bag, it’s important to have all your stuff you need during the exchange. This is a clean procedure, so everything has to be clean, or I will get contaminated. When I get contaminated, it could lead to peritonitis, which is a bad, bad thing.

This entire process takes about 30 minutes for me. I have to do this 4 times a day. I’d like to say it’s very inconvenient, but as you know, the alternative to dialysis is “or death” and well, the or death option is not what I want.

Perhaps for reference purposes, I will bullet this process for those people looking for references. But for now, this is enough.