Category Archives: Miscellaneous

Happy anniversary

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Seven years ago today, Meesh and I took our vows and were joined in marriage. I can’t believe it’s already been seven years. It seems like just yesterday we were just getting married. At the same time it seems like we’ve been married forever. I can’t even imagine what life would be like if we weren’t together.

Happy anniversary Meesh!

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!