Quiet New Year's Eve

We're having about the quietest New Year's Eve of all time. I started out on a short walk to downtown Littleton this afternoon with Mandy, but she couldn't take the cold after a few blocks, so I brought her back home, and dropped her off before continuing on. It was chilly, about 27F, and a brisk wind came up after a few minutes. I was glad to have my hat and gloves with me. I really enjoyed that squeaky crunching sound my boots made, as I made my way along the snow covered paths.

This evening, K and Mandy are sleeping in the reclining chair by the fire, watching the New Year's Eve coverage on TV. We watched the big fireworks show in downtown Denver at 9pm, which they'll repeat at midnight. I woke K up at 10, and we had a quarter cup of Martinelli's to celebrate with the folks at the Times Square celebration. She's only allowed to drink a measured amount of fluid each day, because the dialysis can only remove so much, and we definitely don't want a repeat of that terrible swelling she's been recovering from for the past two weeks.

Home for the Holidays

Well, we've made it most of the way through the holidays -- knock on wood! K has suffered through several dialysis sessions now. They really do take a big bite out of our lives, but they give back life itself, so I guess it's a fair trade. The swollen legs seem to be improving, but very slowly. It's one of those things where we have to take it a day at a time. Then on top of everything else, she got a huge blister on her heel before Christmas, and now that needs to be watched very carefully. We got her to the wound care people two days later, which seems like record time, after our previous experiences. They trimmed it up neatly and bandaged it, and we'll be checking it tomorrow for the first time since then.

It's snowed several times over the holidays, totaling perhaps two or three feet. We even had a nice thick coat of fresh white snow on Christmas day, a real treat! I've been shoveling the snow off the deck, so the dog has a safe place to be outside, and lay around and experience the neighborhood sights and smells and sounds, when the sun is out. While I was taking this picture, I noticed later that a local fox was sleeping down under the pine trees in our neighbor's yard to the West.

Mandy and I are getting used to driving K to and from the dialysis center, in various weather conditions. She's been snuggling into her little bed in the back seat, all bundled up with a small blanket and a sheepskin cover, and has stayed very warm, even when the outside temperature has dropped into the single digits. We've tested our new all wheel drive on several occasions, and it passed with flying colors. The heated seats do help take the chill away quickly. Mandy and I have ventured out for walks in several unfamiliar snow-covered parks, as we've been killing time running errands and exploring. I've discovered that regardless of how warm her little coats are, her feet don't survive for more than a little while, after venturing into the deeper snow. She'll stop and lift a foot, as if it had been stuck by a thorn, and I'll pick her up and warm her feet, before we proceed on. She's not very keen on those little dog booties, but they sure seem like the best solution to the problem. I sure wouldn't venture out into the snow barefooted myself, so I'm not sure why I thought she'd be able to tough it out.

Mandy seems to have hit critical mass on dog toys. For the past few months, she's been totally uninterested in playing with any of the little toys we've gotten her. Then this week, a friend gave her a couple more little stuffed toys, and suddenly she's completely into hoarding all of her toys, moving them around the house from one favorite spot to another, and taking them out and playing with them. It's such a delight for us, to see her perking up and getting a new level of enjoyment out of life.

Here's a little movie clip, of our little toy monger discovering that her new goose makes a honking sound when she bites it just right. It's kind of like a "baby's first step" thing for us. We hope you enjoy it!

K Started Dialysis

The snow forecast for this afternoon started to fall around 1:30 today. Big fluffy flakes. Mandy was not the least bit interested in going out to investigate, although she seems very happy to lay here in my arms and look out the window at it.

K's been to two dialysis treatments since she got home from the hospital last Saturday. I think it's safe to say she's feeling a little better, although she's still feeling very badly. She's going to the DaVita Lakewood Crossing Dialysis Center at Wadsworth and Mississippi, which is a bit of a drive. She's on the Tue-Thu-Sat schedule. She was scheduled for a treatment on Christmas Day, but they're moving that one up a day to Monday instead. They've also moved her from the 2:30-6:30 slot to the 12:30-4:30 slot, which is more convenient for them. So far, she's found rides over there with our neighbors, and I've been picking her up after work. She's trying to setup a regular ride with one of the shuttle services that are available. She's also on a waiting list to get into a closer location in Littleton, but she's struggling with that, since she's been told the Lakewood Crossing one is nicer than the Littleton one.

We launched three rockets (one Atlas and two Deltas) in the past couple weeks. The last Delta II of the year, MV331, launched yesterday afternoon, just before we got off work for the holidays. It's nice to end the year with a successful launch.

K Back Home

Ken and I took Mandy down to Lee Gulch for a walk in the snow, then Mandy and I raced downtown to pick up K in the early afternoon, and now she's beginning to settle back into life at home. She had stayed an extra day in the hospital, hopefully to get the benefit of an extra dialysis today. Unfortunately, this morning's dialysis was unsuccessful, for various reasons, mostly unanticipated clotting and swelling, so they sent her home without it.

She's supposed to begin her regular dialysis sessions next Tuesday afternoon, at a dialysis center about 13 miles from home, about a 30 minute drive. That's pretty far away, but that's all they could arrange on short notice. We're hoping she can get on a waiting list for a center closer to home, and perhaps arrange for a shuttle service to transport her, so we won't have to drive her all the time.

K at St Jo

K was admitted to St Joseph hospital on Tuesday evening. Just before I left her, two doctors came by to consult, and both said she should expect to feel better soon. She had two hours of dialysis on Wednesday, three hours on Thursday, and four hours this morning. She doesn't admit to feeling much better, but I think she sounds more alert and seems to have a better disposition.

Our neighbors Ken and Freddie have been wonderful, taking care of Mandy during the days, while I've been at work. It's been snowing off and on the past few days, and that combined with the Christmas music on the radio, and the Christmas lights on the City and County building and everywhere else, have made the commute to and from the hospital a little magical.

I guess you must've noticed in the picture above, I snuck Mandy in to see her last night and this afternoon, and I'm convinced both my girls were the better for it. It wasn't much of a sneak, really. The after-hours guard in the lobby asked if they knew a dog was coming up, and I told him we were planning on meeting in the Solarium, and he said I was good to go. The Solarium is a big visiting room on the 9th floor with lots of windows. It was very pleasant, sitting in there with the lights out, enjoying the wonderful view of the Denver skyline, and dozing on the couch with the girls.

K to Hospital

K's been troubled with various symptoms that have all been getting progressively worse. Swollen legs and pain, low oxygen level, generally miserable all over. Difficulty sleeping - she's a walking zombie during the day. She falls asleep the moment she sits down to do anything that requires her to stop moving. Difficulty concentrating, and forgetting to do important things like taking her meds.

She consulted with her Nephrology doctor this afternoon, and he advised her to be admitted to the hospital this afternoon, and to start hemodialysis tomorrow.

Our neighbors volunteered to take her to St Joseph hospital while I'm at work, but I'm struggling with the desire to take off work, and be directly involved with that myself. We haven't figured out how we'll deal with the dog, but I'm hoping we'll have enough time and friends available, that Mandy will be well taken care of. Some of our neighbors are leaving town for the holidays, so logistics will get more difficult, but hopefully she'll be home by then.

I wish I were a person whose capabilities always rose to the level of adversity, and I guess with most issues I am, but as always when something happens to K, I turn into an emotional wreck, and my world closes in, until I can barely even think, much less do the right thing. But I'll be trying, as I usually do.

No Xmas Trip

We just canceled our tentatively planned driving trip to see family in CA for the Christmas holiday. K's about ready to commit to dialysis. She's been feeling lousy for a long time, but was holding on, and hoping she could put it off until January. The past few weeks she's been feeling even worse. Her legs have swollen until she has very little range of motion. She's thinking she needs to start soon, in which case, they'll want her in the hospital for the first day, and here in town for the first 30 days. After that, she'll be spending 4 hours at a dialysis center every other day, for the foreseeable future, or until she can get a kidney transplant. That will make traveling problematic, since we would have to find a dialysis center at every town we stop in, and reserve a treatment for her every other day. The people she's asked say that it's difficult to find places during the holidays, because a lot of other dialysis patients are trying to do the same thing.

So... I guess we'll be pretty much on our own for the holidays this year. Our little dog Mandy is trying very hard to be a good companion for us, and is doing a wonderful job at it, so I have hopes that we'll have an OK time, just the three of us.