The tradition has always been that one year we have Thanksgiving with the Warren side of the family, the other year with whoever, usually the in-laws.
This was supposed to be the Warren family Thanksgiving, but for the first time in sixty eight years it didn't happen.
I sold my house in Skyway, and moved out in the country to Sequim. Sequim is a small town on the Olympic Peninsula. It has the lowest average rainfall of any town west of the Cascades, as it is in the "rain shadow" of the Olympic Mountains. That comes to about 16 inches of rain a year s opposed to about 54 in the Seattle area. We love it here, but it is about a four hour trip for people coming from Renton. No one expressed any desire to come all the way out here to eat turkey.
My little brother Bill sold his place in Issaquah and bought a condo along the Puyallup River , which is really not big enough to hold the whole clan, which would be about 25 people. The only other one with really enough room is my brother Larry, but it would not be fair to expect him and his lovely wife Velma to host every year. My sister Patty is holding Christmas eve at her house, so she couldn't be expected to host both Holidays.
So there was no family Thanksgiving for the whole clan. We had a quiet small gathering with Mrs A and I, our daughter Lisa, her dude Kieth, her son Kayden. It was a nice laid back day with lots of good food and visiting. But I missed all my siblings and my mom and the noise and confusion.
I guess this marks the end of one tradition, and who knows where things go from here Vinnie is in the Army and in Texas for the next year, Nathan shares custody of Elliot, so a four hour trip out here is rather difficult to work in.
I have much to be thankful for this year. I retired from Boeing after 35 years, a challenging and honorable career. Sold my home of many years and bought my 3 1/2 acres of woods with a nice manufactured home on it, and walked in debt free. Carol and I have a wonderful laid back life, where we have everything we need.
So Happy Thanksgiving everyone, hope this finds you in fine fettle.
Thursday, November 26, 2015
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Next steps
When I retired and moved out here, I had some specific plans about my health. Less than a year go I was put on insulin for my diabetes. The reason behind this was that my creatinine levels were pretty steadily moving up (Bad), and the standard medicine for diabetes is metformin, which is a little hard on the kidneys. So I ended up on insulin as a result of a diagnosis of bad kidneys.
Then I recently had a major problem with a kidney stone the size of a grape, which was completely blocking all drainage from my left kidney. It was blasted with ultrasound and I pissed it all out. When my blood tests were done after the procedure, my cratinine level were about half what they were before. This makes sense since I now had two functioning kidneys.
This leads me to believe that my original diagnosis of stage four kidney disease is a bad diagnosis. What was happening was the stone was blocking the kidney from draining.
If I am not in stage four of kidney disease, then I probably can go back to taking metformin and get off of insulin. I suggested that to the doctor on Friday, and he said that it was probably all true. We are going to wait until I see the urologist in December to make sure of my kidney status before making changes. This has lots of implications to my diet, and medication.
For instance, I was instructed to never take NSAIDS which includes most OTC pain relievers. I have been pretty much stuck taking Percocet for my arthritis because of this. Perhaps this means I can take something else for my chronic pain.
As a result of the kidney diagnosis, they did a bunch of tests on my urine, Those test results are ll in question now. What was rue oh the blood tests is probably true oh the urine tests, So I have retaken all the tests and I will learn the results on December 11th. So for now, I just know I am in much better shape than the doctors tried to convince me I was in.
Several time when all this stuff a year ago came down when the doc asked me how I was feeling, I told him I was doing great except for all the doctors telling me how sick I was. Little did I know how true that was.
So for now I have to be patient and see what develops. I know that the medication I am taking works, I just would prefer not to use an injectable.
So far the plan I made for coming out here is working well, just not by the path I had anticipated. By getting in better shape by working around here and controlling my diet to get off of insulin will probably happen, but better than I had anticipated.
Then I recently had a major problem with a kidney stone the size of a grape, which was completely blocking all drainage from my left kidney. It was blasted with ultrasound and I pissed it all out. When my blood tests were done after the procedure, my cratinine level were about half what they were before. This makes sense since I now had two functioning kidneys.
This leads me to believe that my original diagnosis of stage four kidney disease is a bad diagnosis. What was happening was the stone was blocking the kidney from draining.
If I am not in stage four of kidney disease, then I probably can go back to taking metformin and get off of insulin. I suggested that to the doctor on Friday, and he said that it was probably all true. We are going to wait until I see the urologist in December to make sure of my kidney status before making changes. This has lots of implications to my diet, and medication.
For instance, I was instructed to never take NSAIDS which includes most OTC pain relievers. I have been pretty much stuck taking Percocet for my arthritis because of this. Perhaps this means I can take something else for my chronic pain.
As a result of the kidney diagnosis, they did a bunch of tests on my urine, Those test results are ll in question now. What was rue oh the blood tests is probably true oh the urine tests, So I have retaken all the tests and I will learn the results on December 11th. So for now, I just know I am in much better shape than the doctors tried to convince me I was in.
Several time when all this stuff a year ago came down when the doc asked me how I was feeling, I told him I was doing great except for all the doctors telling me how sick I was. Little did I know how true that was.
So for now I have to be patient and see what develops. I know that the medication I am taking works, I just would prefer not to use an injectable.
So far the plan I made for coming out here is working well, just not by the path I had anticipated. By getting in better shape by working around here and controlling my diet to get off of insulin will probably happen, but better than I had anticipated.
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