Thursday, July 07, 2011

And then it was summer

I swear, either time is moving faster, or I'm taking longer to blink. Every time I turn around, it's a new month. I didn't know it was possible for seasons to go so fast.

We are back in the United States, after spending 6 weeks abroad in Israel. I love saying, "abroad". It's almost as fun as telling the YMCA I spent the last 6 weeks "overseas". It makes things sound much more glamorous than they actually were. We were living in a small apartment in Jerusalem while my husband taught a seminar at Hebrew University. In so many ways, it was completely different than anything we have ever done. And in so many ways, it was just like life at home. Laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning, cooking, putting kids to bed---all of these things have to happen regardless of the language the locals are speaking. Still, it was a great experience, and one that I hope we can do again.

Now summer is in full swing, and half over. HOW did that happen? I have no idea. We are in the middle of swim team, garden harvest, mowing the lawn every other minute, and thunderstorms every other day. Before you know it, it will be August, then September, and then school will start again and I'll wonder how my children got to be so old.

I'm seeing my nephrologist on Monday, and again I find myself in the position of not having a 24 hour urine sample for the lab. I remembered at around 10am that I needed to have it done before my appt, which means that they would probably need it tomorrow for results to be in on Monday. No big deal, I hadn't peed since 8am, I could totally just start collecting my pee the rest of the day and call it good.

It's 4pm. I've got nothing. I was too busy taking my son to the doctor (he stepped on a rusty spike--OUCH--), getting his antibiotics, picking up drinks and pasta salad for the swim meet tonight, getting the kids lunch, doing laundry, playing with my daughter so she doesn't torture her brother, hunting down swim meet paraphernalia (I'm convinced that a single swim cap is the very hardest thing to locate on this planet, or at least it's always the hardest thing to locate in my house), catching up on some work I need to do to prepare for a church meeting I have tonight, and carbo-loading my oldest so he doesn't drown when he faints from lack of calories as he swims the 50 meter butterfly to think about my own urine. I wouldn't be so concerned, except my creatnine went up again the last time it was measured in Boston, so I'd like it to be measured accurately.

Sigh. I wish I didn't have to think about pee so much.

On another scatalogical note, my daughter got violently ill with vomiting and diarrhea on our trip abroad (see? It's just fun to say), and didn't get better when we came back. I finally took her in to the pediatrician, and of course by the time we got in to see the doctor, she acted perfectly fine. But the doctor was nice and checked her out, and suggested that if she continues to have diarrhea, that I should take a stool sample and bring in it to be tested for parasites, or the like. He gave me a sterile sample cup, and then said, "Now I have to dig up a hat for you". Not only did I know what kind of hat he was talking about (and let's just say it ain't the kind that goes on your head), I already have two.

Sometimes having a kidney disease does have its perks.

I'll keep you posted on my appt next week. And I'll tell you what she says about the fact that my belly button is now a permanent outie. Like I said, PKD has its perks.

1 comment:

Rob Monroe said...

Well welcome home! "Abroad" really is fun to say. :)