Night time dialysis soon...countdown

This Thursday and Friday I am to complete all day classes on night-time dialysis. This will allow my days to be free from exchanges.

I cannot believe that this is finally happening. For 10 weeks I have been doing 4 exchanges a day, sometimes to the tune of 8 hours per day. But lately, the time has come down and my attitude is better. Now I don't get angry when the fluid doesn't flow quickly, I just get more laxatives. And I cancel appointments. (Oh how I missed so many parties this past holiday). I still get very disappointed but I am trying to match Latte's adaptable nature and good will.

I've tried not to allow myself any excitement about this new night-time machine, because I know we are going to be up all night messing with the alarms, etc (apparently the machine alarms when there is a slow flow) But I know it is for a short time! Soon we will be sleeping through it all, just like i sleep through the insulin pump alarms now! ha Sleep is totally overrated. You can get by with less. A recent NYTimes article says that your mental attitude toward little sleep affects how you feel the next day. I have adopted new attitudes toward not sleeping. (ask me in a month how i feel)

I've really enjoyed the company of my friends the last few days. I've many impressions and a little delight at hearing stories. Dinner last night and lunch today was the greatest therapy in the world. It takes some extra planning to get it in right now, but it just seems like so much more of a reward than real therapy. (that probably sounds like sacrilege!)

In the same gatherings we've talked about the movie "Doubt" and is gossip a mortal sin or venial sin? Then we proceed to tell the story about the fantastic hilarious Nashville woman that, returning home from Las Vegas with her husband, she thinks she's unexpectedly pregnant. They get an ultra-sound and I'm sure she was completely stressed out. When the tech says, "There is a baby in there!" The mother said, "Are you sure it's not a bottle of vodka?" I do love that woman!

Then I heard about the covert meetings my artist friend is having with a Belle Meade woman. He's building a table for her. She meets to give him money in the Sperry's parking lot. She doesn't want her husband to know about the table and the money she's spending. "Well I told her that it was going behind her sofa in the den, he's bound to SEE it."

very few things delight me as much as a darn good story. The real thing is so much more fun than fiction.

I was thinking about how much I wanted to get drunk last night. This is a very rare feeling for me and most of my friends know that I don't drink. I realized sometime in my 20's that I had never had a whole beer. While I admit and am proud to say that I was dancing more and crazier than any other person at the frat house, I remained sober. There were aprox 3 times that I got very drunk and those were the only times that I drank while in college. I never even sipped the rest of the time. It was either a shot or three or nothing. And in my 30s I realized that I didn't like the wine slurping that everyone else was doing. I bought my first condo on the money saved at the bars. I used to walk into The Trace and Billy would wave at me and pass me an ice water. I became proud of keeping my wits and my balance, esp on the tables.

I was wondering why I felt like getting drunk and I'm sure it is just the physical escape when I'm tired. I resolve to keep my record though because it just doesn't seem worth the drag it causes on my diabetes.

Well, the UPS just delivered my new copy of "Light Bread" - ordered from Amazon, written by my amazing friend Cordell. I suggest you buy it, of course. I carried my dialysis bags to the door to sign for it. One was dragging on the floor, half full of yellow fluid. Niiiiice. He was kinda cute.