Bizarro Day at the Pool

Yesterday evening I went swimming with S, and I swear it was Bizarro Day at the rec center pool. The pool is usually moderately busy but we don't have too much trouble finding a lane we can share to do our laps. Generally the lanes are occupied by at least semi-serious swimmers who are doing laps and tend to keep themselves moving. Last night the pool seemed to be about as busy as usual (not too bad) but by some bizarre circumstance, the lanes were riddled with...."amateur" swimmers.

I'm not criticizing their abilities; hey, I still barely put my face in the water if I can help it (seriously...if I were meant to do that, wouldn't you think I'd have gills?). But I do tend to keep moving (kickboard or back stroke) if I'm occupying a lane. Last night there were three women STANDING in the shallow end of one of the lanes talking (okay, in the half hour we were in the pool, the women each swam about two complete laps, but promptly returned to their standing and talking). Two men (sporting life-preservers) were occupying the deep end of a DIFFERENT lane. There's only three lanes, and the third was occupied by a semi-serious swimmer (we had no gripes about him).

Finally we were able to claim a lane and we started our first lap with our kickboards (which we do to warm up a little before trying something more challenging -- okay, and yes, we are able to talk more while using the kickboards). Before we completed our first lap, Creepy Guy enters our lane and starts some semi-serious laps, giving us the evil eye everytime he passes us. At this point we decide not to surrender our kickboards as neither of us really is interested in having an inadvertent collision with this guy.

By now, Life Preserver Boy has ditched the perserver and decided to try some free style in the shallow half of his lane. I've never seen anyone SPLASH more than he did. So now we're dodging Creepy Guy in our lane and trying to avoid the pseudo Snake River Falls (Cedar Point reference for those not in the midwest) sprays coming from the other lane.

After a while and way more laps trying to steer clear of Creepy Guy, we move into the lane occupied by the women, figuring we can use the other 90% of their lane. About two (almost full) laps in, we find two more "splashers" have entered the lanes - one in our lane and one in Creepy Guy's lane right next to us.

That's pretty much when we called it quits for the night.

Explore Store

Check out the cool stuff my brother has been working on (in all his spare time).

http://www.cafepress.com/explore_store

Clean bill of health (finally)!

It dawns on me that I haven't made a general post about my health and post-op recovery in quite a while. So here goes...

I'm back to working full-time (as of this week) and I definitely feel up to it. The last few weeks have found me feeling better and better, having more energy, and starting to establish (and maintain this time) a regular exercise routine. I'm walking a mile on my treadmill three times a week (with a dab of jogging thrown in here and there) and swimming for 40 minutes once a week. Both activities are enjoyable for me and I feel good just getting back to them. I think my biggest obstacle right now is that I'm out of shape from four months of not being up for a regular exercise routine.

Over the last couple weeks I had several doctor appts (kidney specialist, cardiac echo, and my primary care doc). Just routine follow-ups that were scheduled three months ago; I've been having no difficulties. The word from all three docs is WONDERFUL! The kidney specialist (after reviewing all my current test results) kept asking why I was even there to see him since everything looked so good. Apparently my type of kidney failure generally recovers completely (assuming you make it through the event that caused the kidney failure in the first place).

So you can all hold onto your kidneys, as I won't be having to hit anyone up for a kidney any time soon. I already told my brother he's off the hook. Isn't it siblings that you generally hear about as being donors?

My primary care doc and I had a nice little chat during my visit - again, strictly a routine follow-up so nothing too heavy was discussed. She LOVES my new patchwork purse by the way! If I'd have been thinking I would have asked her to write me a note for Tony indicating that the purse(s) purchase was medically necessitated - "Please excuse Christine for buying two Coach purses. She's been ill following surgery and deserved to treat herself".

The echo was just this week and seemed to go very well. The tech was young (mid to late 20's I'd say) and chatty, but overall the best tech I've had for an echo. We talked about my surgery and complications (she was duly impressed). She was also impressed with the amount of work Dr K had done on my heart during the surgery. I told her that he had planned on doing what he could while he was in there (he ended up replacing the two valves (Ross Procedure), fixing my tricuspid valve and repairing my aorta). She looked at my chart and nodded saying "well, they definitely did 'while we're in here'!".

So everything has worked itself out for the better. My blood sugar results continue to indicate that I am not diabetic (not even close) and I've been told to put my glucometer in the closet. My iron is continuing to increase. Dr S is starting to wean me off one of my blood pressure medications. Any lingering concerns I had have pretty much been eliminated after these recent appts. It's good to have such encouraging news and a clean bill of health just four months after my surgery. :-)