Slice of Life

Friday Feb 12, JD writing:

When we woke up at 6a.m. the outside temperature at our Rumford RI backyard was 0º (F). I was going to take images of the forced hyacinths on the kitchen counter, but decided to wait until the late afternoon, for better light.

By the time we left for the Dialysis Center before noon the air was up to 30º. After she parked the M6 I trotted down the hill to catch a bus for my lab at Brown; Kate called me on the bus and said we forgot her reading glasses... [Kate had cataract surgery on both eyes (3 weeks apart) in the summer of 2015 and requested far vision as the default.] She needs 2.5Δ for reading/playing Solitaire on her iPad.

After getting off the bus and going to the Providence Athenaeum and my lab at Brown (intern at work) I doubled back by way of CVS to buy reading glasses, “off the rack.” When I exited CVS I ran into our Rhode Island Rose Society friends Angie and Mike, who offered to drive me the rest of the way to the Center.

As I gave Kate her next pair of reading glasses Angie and Mike got to see her in her chair, hooked up, 15 minutes from the end of her 2 hour 45 minute session. A and M learned all about the Dutch Fresenius dialysis machine, with its tubing of blood flowing in and out of the filter, through the peristaltic pump. And how Kate’s left arm fistula is the entry and exit for her blood detour. Mike marveled at Kate’s low blood pressure (90/60) and said “I could sell that on eBay!” Then some talk about A and M planning a trip to Amsterdam to see tulips (one million?) at the Keukenhof Gardens in April.

When the tech came to take Kate off the machine A, M and I left. I stayed in the waiting room and A & M took off. Kate weighed 54kg going out, from 56kg going in. She drove us home as usual, stick shift and all.

I got the snap of the hyacinths I wanted. Kate started going through her usual after-dialysis tremors and lassitude. Two days off until Monday! Her lawyer friend Tom, from Las Vegas, called, and they talked about the good ol’ days, before the real estate market in LV crashed in 2008. We took in a DVR’d episode of NBC’s Blacklist. Before bed, I read out 16º on the outside thermometer.