Sunday, March 21, 2010

Mr. Foley-A Farewell

Recently this blog has featured my continuing adventures with my arch-enemy Mr. Foley the ever- present catheter. He has been a constant and unwelcome guest since the day of my transplant, Feb 9. Efforts to relieve him of his duties have proven unsuccessful on three occasions. That is, up till now. In order for this to happen I had to prove I could function on my own to the satisfaction of the physicians. This did not happen so Mr. Foley (actually a carefully-created clone of the original) was returned to me. But a major breakthrough on Saturday allowed me sufficient time to achieve my goal. Oh Happy Day. I bid an unkind farewell to Mr. Foley.

I happily went to bed knowing that my new-found independence might be interrupted frequently during the night, and sure enough 1 hour after retiring I felt The Call. As I rolled off the bed all Hell broke loose when suddenly an alarm went off playing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" (I am not making this up) at maximum Wrigley Field volume. As I stood thunderstruck with my bedside relief container at the ready all of the nurses scrambled to full battle mode and soon I had a bright light on over me with about six wide-eyed ladies staring at my private areas expectantly waiting for what, I did not know.

Seems due to some unauthorized movements without sufficient supervision I was placed on this bed alarm to monitor my clandestine activities. Doing without the services of Mr. Foley I had to take matters into my own hands, so to speak. And somewhere out there in Medical Equipment Land some genius at a marketing meeting said "hey, why don't we program this puppy to play "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" when it alarms? They are gonna freakin' LOVE it"! And for further entertainment this whole scenario was repeated every hour on the hour until breakfast arrived. Evidently my bladder was so thrilled with my new kidney that after 3 years of inactivity it was having some fun just imitating a SFFD Fire Engine or something.

So it was hard to top that one on Sunday. Had a visit with the Infectious Disease doc who looked at the blood cultures as indicating a very minor infection which may have been introduced during the initial surgery. Nothing to trip about. Transplant docs informed they would keep me until at least Wed when I am scheduled for a biopsy.

So that is it up to the moment.

Bob/Irv
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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousMarch 22, 2010 at 6:41 PM

    You couldn't at least wait til the 7th inning stretch for crying out loud? Imagine what the other drugged patients were thinking. I would have been at Candlestick and loving every minute of it. Not that I don't love AT&T I do, I just will always have my ummmm love there... Did you like how I avoided "heart"? hahah I left that for you.. So glad everyone is doing so much better. What a couple of weeks for this family.. Now every single Froisland has some "bug" Kel is very under the weather and lots of covers shivering.. This week should be fun.. At least nothing dangerous except for the twins.. Damnnn

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RJ/Bob/Irv is a 61-year-old beloved husband, father, uncle, brother, motor racing fanatic, and Livermore resident who received a heart and kidney transplant in February of 2010. Bob's recent years have been defined by his health, which forced him into early retirement. Unfortunately, many of his days were spent in a dialysis center or at various medical appointments, primarily due to his living with diabetes for over 40 years. Numerous were panic visits to various Emergency Rooms all over California for treatment of chest pain. But now no more dialysis and no more late-night dashes to UCSF! The main focus of Bob's family, friends, and doctors has been a prompt transplant, so that he can get back to traveling with his Sweetie, driving fast cars, enjoying great music and laughing with his friends. This blog will function as a way to communicate with all interested parties and to keep everyone informed. And hopefully it can serve a great purpose also, in making people more aware of the importance of organ donation and how each life saved has a positive effect on dozens of related friends and relatives.