Renal labs came back tonight. Over all creatinine and BUN are down, however, they are still rising when I’m not doing dialysis, meaning that I can’t get off dialysis any time soon:

The Day they Wheels Came off the Plan I’ve carefully edited this post to reflect developments by the end of the day. So, in summary, I was supposed to have important labs done on Monday (to see if the chemo is working and to monitor my renal function). However, those orders got lost. It was…

Sunday mornings has always been a morning I like to “sleep-in,” which means sleeping until 7 AM or maybe 7:30 AM. But once awake, it is a morning when I like to make breakfast (for myself or Denise and me) and return to bed to eat it. When I had TV, I would watch a…

I don’t have much to update, but I know family is asking. The short version is that there is not much new. However, I will expound below. An important even tomorrow is that I should (the orders haven’t gone through yet) be getting my labs done to look at my kidney function AND to check…

Imagine that it was the year 300 B.C. and you were sitting on the steps of the Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens. You and a group of philosophers would be debating the topic of fate. This was a common topic of debate during those years and the years to follow. The dilemma that the…

As I’ve said before, getting my kidneys to work on their own is huge, and will make treating my cancer drop from being extremely difficult to just difficult. I had labs today. In summary, my toxins (creatinine and BUN) are still double the normal limit but have remained flat during two days of no dialysis.…

I am finding that one of the most difficult things about being suddenly and seriously ill is trying to figure out how I can care for the care-givers, meaning my family. Of course, when someone like me is seriously ill, the attention first points to me. But then, we must start to care for the…

A long time ago I had a friend who had been the director of the Salvation Army in a large Midwestern city. She had a theology degree and had received a lot of awards for her innovation in helping the homeless population as well as the single moms of her city. Then suddenly, she came…

I now have three books started, I’m talking about books that I’m writing. I have two books that I’m reading, Stones of Summer, and In the Beauty of the Lilies. Two of the books that I’m writing, Rock Harbor and Christiana Athena; The Girl with the Headaches, are both about done. I’m just editing them…

I remember, like it was yesterday, sitting around a table in a graduate course on medical ethics. We would have these scenarios presented, and then we would have to make an ethical decision on the best course, as an ethics panel. Many hospitals have such panels. For example, on your floor you have; a) 25…