Musical Chairs

This week has been a pretty good one. We were able to get back into a normal routine. I started working at school again, although I won't see my students until this coming week as they were in London. Nice to have the time to catch up on grading, prepping, and talking with some colleagues. Of course it all took longer than expected.

We picked up a couple new chairs at Staples this week, so now I am a bit more comfortable as I type this message. Another load to the second hand shop. Good to be clearing more things out!

Last night we enjoyed dinner with some friends for whom I just finished up a project. It was stretched out due to those kidney issues, so it is nice to have it finished. They were pleased with the final result! Should be making some good progress this week with Claire's liquor cabinet...

Fall Vacation

Once again, it wasn't much of a vacation! We got a lot done. The big projects were cleaning out the cellar and the garden shed. Still need to take another load away. Went to the kitchen store to check on my display, which they made a lot nicer, and to get a new frying pan. A German one this time. Seems to be a lot better than the French and Dutch versions we had before...

The girls have had a lot of fun this week. On Wednesday Naomi took them to Amsterdam to visit Ron and Edith. Today they will go to visit Naomi's Grandma. We even had a couple bonfires in the backyard. They have been getting lots of attention!

I pretty much finished up the bedside cabinets. They just need to be rubbed down with a bit of steel woll and installed next weekend. I started on Claire's liquor cabinet. My shelves look empty now after getting all the wood cut and glued!

New display, new frying pan.

Bonfire with roasted marshmallows! 

Back to Normal

I have been able to get back to feeling pretty normal this week. Had my last appointment with the surgeon and she said everything was fine. What a relief to be done with the hospital! Also nice that this coming week is Fall break, so we don't have to teach.

Managed to finish up a couple projects in the shop this week. So nice to have things cleaned out!

Yesterday we went on a bit of an adventure. What a treat to be able to do that with our new car! We took a road that goes across what used to be a huge bay. Back in the 30's the Dutch sealed it off with a massive dyke and drained some of it to create a new province. We also drove across that dyke. Amazing that it was basically built by hand. We made some stops in Enkhuizen and Sneek. It was a fun little trip!

Handles for some bedside cabinets - tricky to make.

A new kind of cutting board.

Amélie on top to the road dividing what is now an inland sea in two.

Enkhuizen.

The dyke that created the inland sea.

Recovering...Again

This recovery has been pretty similar to the last one, although I have already passed the point where I had plateaued before. That is a relief! I will be able to start working on my business again tomorrow. Sitting on the couch is definitely getting old.

Claire was able to come up to help out again for the past week. What a huge relief! We would have had a pretty rough time otherwise. She is on her way back to Switzerland now, excited to push that fast car of hers towards its top speed on this beautiful, sunny day. Too bad this is the only nice weather we have had this week!

It is fun to hear how much the English improves while Claire visits. The girls soak it up like a sponge. Definitely helps a lot when someone other than me is speaking it to them!

Claire made us so many nice meals this week that we took her out for dinner last night. We went to a Sardinian place in Epe. The girls were so well behaved, it was a pleasure. We even got to check out my display in the cooking store - it is looking much better than last time!

A few pictures Claire took while she was here.

Surprise Surgery

On Tuesday morning I had an appointment to see what kind of surgery would be done. Turns out, my kidney function did not improve the way we hoped after the drain was put in - from 17 to only 18%. The doctors didn't expect this to change as the kidney never developed properly (perhaps you can make out the difference between my left (good) and right (bad) ones in the picture). They did expect problems down the road if I chose to keep the right one, but I thought it would be better to remove the blockage.

After the appointment, I barely made it to school in time for my first day back. It went well. I made arrangements for the next 4-6 weeks because that is how long they said I would have to wait for the surgery. The school has been really good about arranging things for me. Everything was on track for the next month or so.

The next day, I got a call at the end of the afternoon asking if I could come in for the operation in the morning. I was a bit shocked. Hadn't even decided which operation to do - remove the blockage, or remove the kidney. The doctors seemed unanimous that it should be the kidney, so I took their advice, told the school I would unexpectedly be gone for another three weeks, and showed up early the next morning.

Everything went better than expected. The surgeon said there was almost no blood internally, and the infection was gone, so they didn't need a drain. They used robotics to keep the incisions small and halve the recovery time. I didn't even need the antibiotics, but they gave them anyway. Surprisingly, my overall kidney function did not take a hit after losing the right side. Turns out that if I would have waited, their next opening wasn't until December!

I stayed in the hospital until Sunday. It was rough on the girls, but thankfully, Claire was able to drive up Saturday night and she will be staying with us for about a week. What a big help!!

See the difference?

I got a whole room to myself for a couple days!

The best meal. Deliciously bland.

Plateau

I feel like I am about 70. I don't think that will get much better anytime soon. This week I will start working again, hopefully I am able to manage it. I also get the results back from the kidney scan on Tuesday - this will indicate what kind of surgery I need to have, even though I don't see the need for such an indication. Have to follow protocol...

I have had a chance to work on my novel a bit more this week. That has been nice. Got to work on the business a little bit too. Today was my last day of drugs though - now everything is used up. Hopefully that won't be a problem.

Found a cool piece of property near Marquette. Would be fun to invest, but they are asking too much for it. It is a foggy morning, so we put a fire in the fireplace. This afternoon it should be nicer. Maybe then we can head to the Bosrand or the Donkey Farm. We shall see...

Getting Younger

Just to recap, I have a blockage, probably a birth defect, in the tube that drains my kidney into the bladder. This kidney is doing 17% of the total job. They wanted to put a tube in to bypass the blockage and see if the kidney would take up a bit more of its fair share of the job - determining whether they should remove the blockage or remove the kidney. A simple, ten minute procedure it was meant to be.

On Friday, ten days ago, they tried, and failed, four times to place the tube. The blockage was too effective. I came home with the gift of peeing out blood and razor blades. I thought this was rather gruesome at the time, but it was nothing compared to what was to come. The next day I felt like my kidney was beginning to swell up. By the time it hurt so much that I couldn't stop the tears, the girls were in bed, and Naomi could take me to the hospital. 

They hoped that the blockage had just swollen up a bit from the poking and prodding, trapping some urine in the kidney, and that things would sort themselves out. They were wrong, once again. A rather massive infection had developed and they had no choice but to punch a tube through my side into the kidney, draining the fluid. No anesthetic. Unspeakable pain. 

A brackish mixture that looked like old coffee and sewage seeped out. A rather shocking amount. Since then it has clarified to strawberry lemonade and now, for the most part, things look as they should. The drainage tube will remain in place until they do another scan and schedule surgery. This will take at least a month. Health care is great here, unless you are in a hurry. 

I came home on Thursday, a bit earlier than expected. It is really good to be home. When I got here I felt like I was a 95 year old. Now I am down to, maybe, 80. Getting younger every day. Kind of depressing though because in the hospital my only job is to recover. Now that I am home there are a lot of things I want to do - I feel a lot of responsibility. 

Claire has been a huge help, especially for Naomi, but she is heading back to Switzerland today. Not sure how thing will work out once she is gone, but I am at least getting closer to being self-sufficient for the most part.