1. This morning, first thing, I plowed through the snow and over the icy roads of Kellogg for my first visit with Dr. Scott Bieber, the nephrologist who replaced Dr. Kristie Jones as the one who comes to Kellogg once a month.
My hope was that Dr. Bieber would be similar to the three previous nephrologists I've seen regularly: intelligent, easy to talk with, relaxed, low key, positive, and straight forward.
He is.
I started seeing a nephrologist to monitor this kidney disease fifteen years ago in Eugene. Visits have gone from once a year to twice a year to once every three months.
From the start, I've been told that mine was a very slow progressing disease and in my consultation with Dr. Bieber today, he said the same thing.
My kidney function, which registered at 13% in November -- a low number caused, most likely, by dehydration -- came back up to 15%. Stable. Dr. Bieber, like Dr. Jones before him, said it's likely, unless I develop ancillary problems like diabetes or heart disease, that my kidneys will likely stay in this 10-15% range for the next few years.
I continue not to experience symptoms; Dr. Bieber reviewed those symptoms with me.
Dr. Bieber supported my decision to remain inactive on the transplant list -- he agrees that, right now, the need for a transplant isn't urgent.
All of this was good news and I was so happy and relieved when I returned home that,after taking care of a few things, I went back to bed and fell into a near comatose state of deep and grateful sleep.
2. Before I arrived home, I made a purchase I've been thinking long and hard about the last several days.
I wouldn't call it retail therapy, exactly, but I was happy when I walked out of Ace Hardware with a new snow shovel and bag of deicer.
I was even happier when I deiced our sidewalks, and was especially glad to melt the ice/snow chunks I couldn't shovel away that had stuck to the sidewalk after being thrown up there by a snow plow. (No complaints!)
3. As I thought it might be, tonight's Big East game between Seton Hall and Butler, both undefeated in conference play, was thrilling. In the end, Seton Hall's lock down defense prevailed in support of Myles Powell's 29 points. Powell's scored off of steals, with drives to the iron, by hitting a handful of three pointers, and from the free throw line -- twice he got fouled beyond the arc and converted all six charity tosses. It was not, however, a one man scoring effort. Three other Pirates, Quincy McKnight, Romaro Gill, and Jared Rhoden, also scored in double figures and Rhoden hit a three point dagger late in the game that doomed Butler to defeat. I love how players like McKnight, Gill, and Rhoden are emerging as excellent scorers, making Seton Hall an increasingly well-rounded team. I was also very impressed with the dogged and enthusiastic defensive effort off the bench of Shavar Reynolds. He's also emerging as a very valuable player for the Pirates.
It was a dizzying night in college basketball. Several favored teams went down in defeat. Kentucky lost to South Carolina. Auburn lost to Alabama. Butler lost to Seton Hall. Creighton lost to Georgetown. Wichita State lost to Temple.
It was a wild season already and tonight made things a little wilder.
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