Saturday, March 30, 2019

Three Beautiful Things 03/29/19: On Hold at Sacred Heart, Walking my Kidneys, Yellow Curry and the Ducks Win

1. I am on hold for three months on the kidney transplant list. I need to get vaccinated for shingles and with the vaccine in my bloodstream, were I to get called in for a transplant, it would mess up the blood work done right before the surgery to make sure everything between me and the donor is a match.  I will continue to accrue time on the wait list, but I am on hold as far as transplantation until the end of June. I got my first shot of Shingrix today, I'll have another in two months, and then after four weeks, I'll return to being active on the list.

This development doesn't concern me. My kidney numbers have been stable. I'm not in desperate need of a transplanted kidney. I also doubt that I would be offered a kidney in the next three months. Being vaccinated to prevent shingles is very important in my situation.

Speaking of transplants, I am getting close to finishing the book, When Death Becomes Life: Notes from a Transplant Surgeon and I've learned much more about the experiences of live donors and much more than I ever knew about liver transplants, a more complicated surgery than the kidney transplant. The book has also helped me appreciate how good my renal situation is at present.

2.  Back in Greenbelt, I started thinking of taking walks as walking my kidneys. I knew these walks were important as I tried to manage my weight, but I also became more and more convinced that my circulatory system and the health of my kidneys enjoyed these walks. So, today, I walked to Yoke's to get my shingles shot and then I walked to the Inland Lounge where Cas was getting his establishment ready for Friday night's business, stopped in for a cup of coffee and to shoot the breeze, and then I walked to the bank to make a deposit and returned home again. It was nearly an hour's worth of walking and I got in over 6000 steps and nearly three miles.

3.  Debbie and I stayed home today. We'd thought about going to Coeur d'Alene or Spokane, but Debbie wanted to spend the day relaxing with Maggie and Charly. Debbie asked me to make a curry.  I prepared broccoli, green beans, yellow potatoes, mushrooms, carrots, red and yellow pepper, and some ginger, combined these vegetables in a yellow curry sauce, poured the sauce over jasmine rice, and it made for a good dinner.

I gave varying amounts of attention to the men's basketball games, but gave my full attention to the Ducks' women as they defeated South Dakota State to advance to a regional finals game with the mighty Mississippi State Bulldogs on Sunday morning. When the Ducks are in rhythm, especially on offense, there's a snap to their game and they pour in points from everywhere, in the paint, from the elbow, from beyond the three point arc, and out of the corners. The Ducks seemed a bit out of sorts for stretches of tonight's game. They didn't shoot very well from distance and missed a lot of inside shots, some of them wide open.  Fortunately, they defended the Jackrabbits fiercely and South Dakota State never got their potent offense rolling. It was not a masterpiece, but what matters most in March is to survive and advance, and the Ducks did just that, 63-53.


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