And the beat goes on...

Still breathing. Still on nocturnal dialysis. Things are not bad...but there haven't been any new improvements, either. Still doing nocturnal three nights a week. Still driving 1.5 hours to get there. Tech Gertie Gumdrop-Britches is still there, as well as Tech Yummy Yummy Mansome. We have a traveling nurse-- but that's nothing new.

Then there's the clinical manager... Dr. Chrome. To be honest, he bugs! Everything he knows about me, he learned in a staff meeting-- but seems to not have been paying close enough attention-- or completely misunderstood what he heard. Why is it that nephrologists have a hard time looking at the cold hard data before them, before making recommendations. And looking at the "big picture." Nephrologists must be some of the laziest (or dumbest, I can't make up my mind) doctors out there, because all they seem to do is spout off what they learned from a nephrology textbook. They always seem to assume that your weight is static and that you always 3+ kilos to take off-- regardless of what the scale and your droopy (or too tight) pants, say. And while it's best not to miss a dialysis treatment-- they act like you're going to drop dead immediately if you change your treatment to a day later so that you can have a life, once in a while. I really think I may have to look into just who chooses nephrology as a career. Judging some of the duds I have met in the past, I wonder if they became doctors before MCAT screening, or from foreign diploma mill.

Now I do have a research nephrologist who is the schizznit personified. She is so on top of things. Maybe because she's a researcher, she has the ability to look at the data and plan an appropriate course of action. She is able to think outside of the box-- but perhaps that because she was trained in Europe. I adore her, and she has my complete trust. If only other neprologists were as dedicated and smart.

On to other things...

In the past month, at least three people have mentioned to me the possibility of going to Asia to procure a transplant. That almost sounds promising I really think I could raise the money to do something like that, but the stinky part is that a lot of U.S. nephrologists will not do your follow up care if you go outside of the States to get a kidney. I could respect that decision-- if I thought these docs were doing everything they possibly can to make more kidneys available stateside. And I think I've asked it before-- but it bears asking again-- does your nephrologist have two working kidneys? Have they thought of donating one now-- if not to one of their patients (all kinds of sticky ethics, there), how about to someone unknown to them. Hmmm, if every nephrologist with a viable kidney donated one, how quickly could we shave down the numbers on the transplant list?

After my last (and only) transplant fiasco, I thought that I wouldn't be readily considering having another transplant. But perhaps the way to look at it is that I may just need to have a new transplant every year-- much like getting your car's annual tune-up. And who knows, maybe one of the transplant might "take" and I might be able to go more than a year with one. Hmmm, I may have to see about moving to another state though, with a shorter transplant list. Hmmm, another transplant....

And if not that...

Dr. Italiano! Where's my stem cell treatment?