NKF Webcast

I rushed home from dialysis today to watch a live NKF (National Kidney Foundation) webcast regarding kidney transplants. The program was supposed to be about what to expect during the first 100 days of a transplant. The webcast had three speakers: the NKF host, a transplant doctor, and a transplant patient. The patient received a deceased donor kidney about six month ago.

Like most kidney disease presentations, this was pretty basic. Or maybe I’ve read/heard all about it for the past four years. I don’t think I learned that much from attending except that the deceased wait list is not absolute. They do some line skipping if there is a particularly good match or some type of antigen criteria. Once again, I’m surprised at the lack of knowledge regarding kidney disease. Of course no one knows anything initially, but if you are diagnosed with this lifelong chronic condition, wouldn’t you do some research? It seems that new patients don’t even do the most basic Google search for more info.

There are two more webcasts in the series. Hopefully they are more informative for those already on dialysis and the transplant list.

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My dad was watching the webcast with me and asked me about having a packed bag ready in case I get a call. I think they meant if you’re near the top of the list in your area but not #1, you may get the next kidney depending on a few different criteria. There are over 2,000 people waiting for a kidney transplant at UCLA, and they’re one of a dozen transplant centers in Southern California that share the same list. I’m probably another 5-6 years from the top of the list. I don’t think I need to pack my bags yet.

Tooth Extraction, Day 4

I don’t know why this tooth extraction seems more painful than the previous ones. Maybe they’re all the same and things dull with time. Anyway, last night was pretty bad. I took a nap in the afternoon after dialysis and when I woke up for dinner, the socket was hurting pretty badly. It hurt so much that I couldn’t eat anything for dinner, even though it was pretty good take-out from Tasty Garden in Irvine.

After “dinner” which I didn’t eat, I took another Percocet pill to try and dull the pain. I’m down to only 3-4 pills now and they’re pretty much non-replaceable. It took a lot of effort post-surgery just to get these few pills. My mom has a stash of Norco, which is a combination of acetaminophen and hydrocodone. All these pain medications seems to be acetaminophen plus an opioid. I haven’t used her pills yet.

The pain is more manageable this morning. I haven’t taken anything yet, not even regular Tylenol. The sutures are still bothering me as I can feel them with my tongue and I’m afraid they’ll come loose each time I eat anything. I’ve been cutting up food into smaller pieces and using my left side of the mouth to chew. I think this will be the new normal for eating now.

Tooth Extraction, Day 2

So I feel much better today. The sharp pain is mostly gone. There is just a dull throbbing and slight irritation from the sutures. My jaw joint is sure on the right side of my mouth, probably from the force exerted to remove the tooth. Since I’m staying at my sister’s house, I brought my precious Percocet and some Tylenol, but I don’t think I’ll need it anymore.

That side of the mouth feels weird. Unfortunately, I have two molars removed from the bottom right in addition to the wisdom tooth so there’s not much bite left. I think I will have only one full pair of molars on the right to chew. Maybe I’ll need to get that implant after all.

Looking forward to next Thursday when the sutures come out.

Dogsitting

My sister’s family is on a trip to Phoenix for my niece’s soccer game. Instead of sending her two dogs to doggie daycare, I’m spending the night at her house with the dogs. Actually, my mom is here too and she’s doing all the work feeding the dogs. I just have to pet them.

The photo is the older of the two dogs. She was getting a ride in my car. They’ve since picked up another dog so there are two of them. They’re pretty well behaved so it’s not too much work taking care of them. My dad will come tomorrow to walk them in case they don’t poop in the back yard.

A lot of people suggested that I get a dog post-surgery. One, it will make me walk more since I have to walk the dog, and two, it’s companionship. I didn’t feel ready to raise a dog so I never looked into it. I just drive 5 minutes to my sister’s house to play with their dogs.

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There’s a Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives marathon on the Food Network. Most of the restaurant he visits look great but none of it can be considered healthy. I think I’ll just have to watch the shows and enjoy with my eyes instead of actually trying out the food. We don’t have cable TV at our house so I get to watch a lot more TV shows at my sister’s house.

Lucky Post #777

I’m not sure what to post here. Since it’s #777, it seems special but I feel like I haven’t had any luck or breaks during the past five years. Scratch that, maybe no luck going back 14 years to the divorce. Some Christians think divorce is a huge sin, while others say it’s just another event in your life. I did feel for a long time that having gone through a divorce was like a scarlet letter on your chest, and indicative of somehow losing God’s blessing.

First few years after divorce was full of depression and loneliness as my sister had moved to Portland and my parents moved to Canada. I was pretty much alone for a couple of years, just working and sleeping. Then I spent a few years traveling to China with my friend to help out his factory with planning and fundraising. It sounded fun but I still was lost and didn’t know what to do next. Then parents moved back to California and we bought a house together, and I switch jobs after 12 years at the same company. Soon after, I found the church I’m attending now then the kidney problems started. From declining kidney function, to signing up for transplant, to dialysis, to today. It seems to be one health calamity after another: kidney failure, dialysis, donor rejections, peritoneal dialysis failure, heart bypass surgery, atrial fibrillation, and now tons of dental work.

My greatest fear right now is that this string of bad luck or whatever you want to call it will continue. I need my sister to pass her health tests later this month, and I need to get past my heart stress test and colonoscopy. Any of those could derail the transplant train for good.

Tooth Extraction (update)

Holy crap, that was difficult. After getting clearance from my cardiologist, I went into the dentist at 4:00 pm. My last extraction (yeah, more than one) was pretty quick so I thought this would be the same. Ha! I was there until after 5:30 pm.

I think this is the third tooth in from the back on the bottom right. Both the dentist and endodontist looked at the tooth and decided it was beyone saving, i.e., root canal and crown. First he hit me with a lot of anesthesia but since there was tooth decay and infection, the anesthesia is not as effective. He had to inject me over and over for me to withstand the pain (I could always feel pain). The tooth did come out in one piece, which was good. He showed me and there was a huge hole at the back of the tooth. Pretty ugly.

Afterwards, he put in some bone crystals in the socket for a bone graft in case I want an implant at the tooth site later. This was new to me since the other molar extraction just left an empty socket. He then put a mesh to cover then several sutures to close off the hole. I need to go back next week to remove the sutures. I think I would have needed to do this before any transplant surgery since the tooth was infected. Not good if they’re giving me lots of immunosuppressants.

I took two Tylenol (I sound like a broken record) pills already since the post-extraction pain is building as the anesthesia wears off. I don’t have any more Codeine but found some leftover Percocet from the chest surgery. I’m reserving that in case the pain becomes unbearable again.

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At first I thought I wanted to keep the tooth, but I have too much junk already. It could be a reminder for better oral hygiene but if all these painful dentist appointments can’t motivate me, one tooth won’t matter. And it was ugly.

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OMG! The pain is like a 9 on the pain scale. So my entire lower jaw is in pain but I can also feel the stabbing pain from the empty socket coming through. Then the lower tooth next to the socket is hurting, probably because the dentist leaned on it with the extraction tool. The molar on top is hurting as well, similar to before. Finally some random front tooth is hurting. There are like five intense areas of pain in my mouth, and the Tylenol didn’t seem to do anything. I tried to take a nap to sleep off the pain, but there is no way I can fall asleep. The pain is 10x worse than when the tooth was in. Of course, that was from a badly infected tooth that had to come out, but this pain now is worse than anything I experienced during heart surgery recovery. The Percocet has acetaminophen in it so I don’t want to overdose having just taken the Tylenol, but I may not have a choice soon.

I also didn’t eat much after dialysis and before the tooth extraction. I really haven’t eaten anything substantial since Tuesday lunch due to all the dental appointments yesterday, the sudden toothache, and the extraction today. I just weighed myself and I’m now at 84.3 kg or 186 pounds. I used to think that to weigh 180 was impossible since I was at 240 but here we are.

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I can’t stand this anymore. I’m going to take one of the Percocet pills. Hopefully the expiration date doesn’t affect the potency. As long as I lay off the Tylenol for 12 hours, I should be fine.

The label says Oxycodone-Acetaminophen 5-325. I guess it’s 5 mg of Oxycodone and 325 mg of Acetaminophen. Label also says generic for Percocet. Warnings include “Caution: Opioid. Risk of overdose and addiction.”

It’s been 5 minutes and there’s no reduction in pain. <sad face>

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Update: 9/11/2020 8:18 am

Still alive. I only ended up taking two of the Percocet pills last night and no more regular Tylenol. I did get woken up at 3:30 am for a bit but managed to sleep until about 8:00 am. That painkiller works great as a sleep aid. Good thing they’re hard to get from the pharmacy.

The pain is subsided somewhat. It’s just a dull throb now so I’m going to try and stick with the OTC Tylenol. Can’t be all drugged up any trying to work today.

Fistula Update 9/10/2020

Did I mention before that I hate this fistula? I know everyone dislikes the chest catheter for being an infection risk but for the patient, it’s much easier. There are no needles to stick in you and zero pain.

The fistula started leaking as soon as it was connected. The tech did miss on the first try for the arterial needle but the venous connection started leaking. I could see a bubble of blood grow under the medical tape. It was slowing expanding and was going to leak blood all over unless the tech changed the tape. Next, the arterial needle started leaking but slowly so we left it until the end. When the tech finally pulled the tape off, there were large chunks of coagulated blood stuck to the needle site. Also, the arterial needle site was hurting the entire session. I tried to sleep but was worried about leaking blood everywhere.

It was a long four hours. At least my cardiologist’s office called me to okay the tooth extraction so the fun is not over yet for today.

Fantasy Football

The only other time I mentioned fantasy football in this blog is on this post. It was the first Monday after surgery and the only reason I knew it was Monday was because or Monday Night Football on TV.

We’ve had the same league at work for the past 10 years. Some people have come and gone, but the core group is still the same. I think I won the first year, but recently have been fighting to not be last. Usually I prepare a bit before the draft, at least comparing rankings between different magazines and lists. This year, I just found out about the draft this morning, and the draft was at 5:30 pm. I just ignored it and let the computer pick for me (auto-draft). Since we’re hosted on Yahoo!, it gives you a ranking after the draft. This year, I got a B ranking, which is pretty good considering I scored much lower during years I manually draft.

Since I auto-drafted, I have no idea who is on my team. I think the computer picked three tight-ends for me which is an excess. I now need to go back and do some quick add/drops before week 1… which appears to be tomorrow!

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Depending on how fast the transplant process moves, I may be waking up in the hospital again, wondering what day it is. However, the games will be very different with COVID-19. I don’t know if there will be actual fans in the stadiums, or will it be like NBA and MLB, with thousands of cut-out fans.

Longest Dental Day

And we’re not even done yet…

So I went today at 10:30 am to the crown guy. Since I was getting front upper teeth crowned, my dentist wanted the color to match the surrounding teeth. When the crown is in the back, they can be whatever color. However, if the front crowns are a blazing white, and the rest of your teeth are not, they look super fake. Anyway, the guy is like an artist. He uses an airbrush to add color, then he needs to bake the crowns to set the color. He also took forever to make sure the fit was good. I ended up being there for around three hours to get six crowns fitted and colored. Then it was off the the actual dentist. He placed all my crowns in by about 2:30 pm and wanted to do the tooth extraction. However, his office called my cardiologist for blood thinner clearance but they never called back. I placed a few phone calls too but my actual cardiologist was busy with patients and didn’t get to her message queue yet. I wanted for another hour in my car but the dentist ran out of free time. We rescheduled for tomorrow in case my cardiologist gets back to me tonight. She does use the portal message system and does answer emails late so maybe. I’ve taken two Tylenol pills already since the pain is fading in and out of the bad molar.

I left the house at 10:00 am and didn’t get back home until 4:30 pm. Six and a half hours and I didn’t even get to eat anything.

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Tooth is starting to hurt again. It’s coming as random sharp spike of pain. I’m afraid it’s a prelude of worst things to come. I’m hoping that I won’t be fighting a massive toothache tomorrow during dialysis. I also have to lead a work meeting at 11:00 am so I need to be able to talk.

Charitable Donations

Even since being diagnosed with End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), I’ve noticed the huge need in funding for research, dialysis, transplants, and medical care in general. It’s a bit on the selfish side, but I’ve been donating to the UCSF Kidney Project as they develop an artificial kidney. I also got a mailer from UCLA this week about donating to UCLA Health in general. I went to their website and found a kidney transplant specific charitable donation for their kidney exchange program. I guess the cost of matching live donor kidneys is not paid for by Medicare or other insurance. I think I’ve also made a donation to The National Kidney Foundation.

I know that whatever I give, it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the huge needs we have in America. It’s a shame that there’s so much waste in government when there is so much need.

CT Scanned

Well, that was the fastest medical appointment in a long time. My appointment for the CT scan was at 2:15 pm but the radiology lab asked me to check in at 1:45 pm. I arrive on-time and was checked-in within 10 minutes. It helps to have all my medical appointments in one hospital system; I don’t have to regurgitate all my medical data each time. Instead of making me wait until 2:15 pm, the tech came and got me right away. The actual procedure was only three quick scans in the machine. I was done and back in my car by 2:10 pm, before my actual appointment time. It’s definitely less busy in the clinic with COVID-19. The radiology lab was quite crowded the last few times I was there. Today, there were probably only five people in the large waiting area.

The results will be at the thoracic surgeon’s office after 24 hours. Again, I hope it’s nothing serious and won’t require more surgery.

Fistula Update 9/8/2020

Okay, today was a blood letting for sure. The arterial needle started bleeding about 30 minutes into the session. I was looking at my iPad so I didn’t notice until there was a nice pool of blood under my arm. The tech came by to clean up a bit and replace the tape holding the needle. Not after 20 minutes, it started bleeding again, soaking through all the tape and bandage. She changed me again and this time it held until the end of the session. At lease I’m not squeamish about blood; that would suck for a dialysis technician.

I think dialysis is barely working for me. I’m still at four hours each session which appears to be the longest of any patient at the center. The last set of labs had my URR at 68.1%. The value needs to be at least 65% and they increase my time when I don’t hit the goal. I think since I’m over, they should be able to reduce the time. We know that peritoneal dialysis doesn’t work for me at all. I guess the last thing to try is home hemodialysis but I (or my caretaker) would have to be able to stick the needles in my fistula consistently. I don’t know if they can put another chest catheter in the same spot since they inserted and removed two catheters there already. I guess the reality is that the fistula has to work since I am running out of options for dialysis.

Autopilot and the Zen of Driving

I’m not sure what the title means but I’ve been thinking about it while driving to work on Sunday. Currently I drive a late 2016 Tesla Model S. When I bought it, Tesla had just introduced the new facelift for the front end, and their own driving computer or HW 2.0. Previously, the driving computer was made by MoblileEye and called HW 1.0. The salesperson kept pushing that the promised self-driving feature was just around the corner. I chose not be believe him so I did not purchase the $3,000 FSD option but only the $5,000 Autopilot, which is just fancy cruise control and lane keeping. Four years and two hardware revisions later, Teslas still can’t really drive themselves as promised.

Anyway, the Autopilot feature does work, and depending on the software version, sometimes more well that others. I use it a lot while driving, both on the freeway and local. It was more designed for freeway use but the software works as long as the lanes are clearly marked. It does take away some of the intensity and need to focus sway while your are driving since the bulk of the work is handled by the computer. I usually set the cruise speed at x + 5 so usually 70 mph on the freeways. For Sunday, that was too slow as everyone seems to be driving at 90 mph. What Autopilot also allows me to do is observe more, and there are a lot of aggressive and/or terrible drivers on the road. Plus, the BMW drive meme is mostly true.

On Sunday, I noticed a lot of reckless drivers that would pass on the right, or swerve in and out of lanes, just to get an extra 3-5 mph. Since my car’s speed is controlled by the cruise control setting and the car in front of me, the urge to “play along” with bad drivers is minimized. I think the roads will be a lot safer once self-driving software is improved since the computer removes ego from driving. And since electric cars are super quiet (no internal combustion engine), it’s also a more relaxing experience.

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Yes, it’s a weird post at 1:38 am in the morning but the toothache is keeping me up. I just took another Tylenol pill (just one) even though it hasn’t been six hours since the last dose. I’m hoping the addition of a bit more acetaminophen will reduce the pain.

Heat Wave 9/7/2020

Temperatures are a bit lower today. Not sure if it just natural variability or ashes from wildfires are blocking some of the sun’s rays.

My friend called me earlier to tell me that he ran a 50 foot extension cord to his neighbor’s house, who still had power. He used the power to run two fridges and an aquarium pump. I told him to keep an eye on the cord to make sure it doesn’t overload and melt. He texted me just now saying the power is back on. I heard on the news that this wasn’t part of a rolling blackout but rather transmission equipment failure due to the high load. This same friend use to travel to China a lot to manage a company. The Chinese employees were amazed that we had rolling blackouts during periods of high demand while their power is pretty stable. Ha! Once they start converting from coal plants to solar panels, they will experience the early evening crunch where peak usage happens just as solar power production falls.

I think the temperatures will be lower this week compared to the weekend. That’s good since the annual California wildfire is starting.

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Is this the most retarded reason to start a wildfire, ever? The curse of social media strikes again. From the CNN article:

A gender reveal party is an Instagram-friendly event held during pregnancy in which the parents “reveal” the baby’s sex to friends and family. That reveal can sometimes take the form of an explosion in the color of blue for a boy or pink for a girl.

HEY, LOOK AT ME ! ! !

Toothache, Part II

Ouch…

The tooth started hurting as soon as I woke up this morning. After taking two regular Tylenol pills, the pain kind of subsided until I took a nap in the afternoon. As soon as I woke up, the pain returned. Worse, my mom called us to eat dinner. During dinner, I avoided using that side of my mouth but still felt shooting pain a few times. Otherwise, I can feel the tooth throb along with my heartbeat.

The pain got worse over dinner and after dinner. It became pretty unbearable but at least it was limited to the actual bad tooth on the bottom. I don’t know what was the deal with the top tooth yesterday. I just took another two Tylenol pills. Hopefully I can keep the pain at bay until I see the dentist Wednesday. I probably need to call his office tomorrow to let him know that the tooth is acting up prior to being extracted.

Also, I remember leaving the hospital back in November with a small spray can of numbing agent for teeth. I had cracked one of my left side molars eating hospital food (no joke) and they gave me the spray in case it started hurting before I could get to a dentist. Like an idiot, I actually went to the dentist the next day after being discharged. It’s all kind of foggy now but I remember barely able to walk with a walker, and sitting in the dentist’s clinic getting a temporary filling. Sigh…

Heat Wave 9/6/2020

Here’s the weather at home while I sat in the office freezing my ass off:

Yup, three digits. At 3:17 pm, it was around 109 degrees in Orange. My friend called me at work at 4:00 pm-ish to tell me that the power went out at his house. I know we’re supposed to conserve today but I didn’t hear about rolling blackouts. Looking at CALISO data, it seemed there was about 2,000 MW of buffer between peak demand and supply at the time. Anyway, my friend called again a few hours ago and the power was still out. Rolling blackouts are only supposed to last 30-60 minutes so maybe something else is wrong. With so much usage (the AC has been on 24/7 for days at my house), maybe a substation or transformer blew up. It’s almost 1:00 am and it’s still 80 degrees outside.

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Some poor guy posted on r/dialysis that he doesn’t have AC but needs to stay home to do peritoneal dialysis in the heat. Ugh. My dialysis center is usually too cold but they have warmed up blankets. That’s better than sitting in a pool of your own sweat for hours.

Medical Issues 9/6/2020

I just spent the last 15 minutes looking for this post. A friend texted me today asking about my upcoming tests so I thought it would be good for me to do another list. The last list was appended to a dental issues post so it was hard to find. Ironic that I’m having dental issues again today.

ESRD: UCLA has made a decision to accept my sister as donor and move forward with the transplant; she has to repeat some tests and so do I; hopefully this is the beginning of the end of this long process
Dialysis access: vascular surgeon performed a fistulagram and fistula seems to be working fine; it looks ugly and sometimes bleeds during the session but the nurses and techs seem happy; chest catheter removed earlier this week
Cardiac rehab: not sure what to do next; UCLA did not mention completing rehab as a condition to transplant; however, cardiologist mentioned she may refer me again if current chest pressure/shortness of breath problems are musculoskeletal
Atrial flutter: seems to be stable 99% of the time; I think the dialysis nurse caught one instance of irregular heartbeat post ablation but it normalized quickly; list price of procedure from St. Jude Hospital was ~$100k
Peripheral neuropathy: each time I update I feel it’s getting worse; there is some edema in my ankles and feet and I think the swelling is making the numbness worse; still trying out the calf/foot massager so don’t know if it helps
Back pain and pressure in chest: back pain just about gone but pressure seems to have increased lately; I’m also hearing sounds and feeling something rubbing(?) in the chest cavity so getting CT scan this Tuesday then seeing the thoracic surgeon that did my surgery
Minimal urine production: same; I think only “fix” is kidney transplant
Insomnia: chest pressure/sounds is making sleeping even harder; don’t think I’ve had a good night’s sleep in weeks/months; fatigued all the time and short naps are the only thing keeping me going
Dental issues: front upper teeth prepped for permanent crowns Wednesday but a few teeth started hurting earlier this afternoon
Endocrinologist: next appointment in three months
Lump in left leg: no change
Constipation: not a problem; now having diarrhea after drinking protein shakes; hopefully it’s just an issue with some improperly stored shakes (near window and sunlight)
Ophthalmologist: appointment last week; things are still fine but under watch; gave me referral to retina specialist again

I think I get overwhelmed when I look at the entire list from far away. When I get closer and focus on one item, it gets a bit better. Also, instead of just updating the existing items, I’m going to start removing items that are no longer issues or in maintenance mode. That will shorten the list so it doesn’t look as bad. Of course one could say I’m just making room for new stuff but let’s not go there.

There are still a lot of medical appointments and tests coming up:

CT scan: diagnostic for thoracic surgeon regarding chest issues
Lexiscan: heart stress test for UCLA transplant center; hopefully not affected by any musculoskeletal issues
Colonoscopy: UCLA is leaving it up to my primary physician; she will likely want me to get one
Retina specialist: ophthalmologist concerned with some minor bleeding on retina so want specialist to look; not urgent but I need to go after 4th year of referrals
Optometrist: need new glasses
Primary physician: heard she was taking long trips to Taiwan to take care of her mom; not sure if I need a referral or just see her when she’s in town
Dentist: I think we’re done with crowns; after he caps the upper teeth, he just needs to take care of some minor cavities on bottom front teeth; also extract lower right molar that’s in pain now

It is a big list, and most of it is my own negligence. As I mentioned before in the stretcher girl post, everything that ails me is manageable. ESRD is probably the worst one on the list but hopefully a transplant is coming. Even if it’s not, dialysis is also manageable. I hope I never have an unmanageable issue like the need for (almost) emergency bypass surgery.

Toothache

A couple of teeth started to hurt on the drive home from work earlier. I had stopped by Panini Kabob Grill in Santa Ana to pick up dinner for myself but ended up eating only a few grains of rice due to the pain. As I wrote before, I think my teeth problems advanced so fast was partially due to my toxic blood while on peritoneal dialysis. Some of it was just sheer fatigue where I would stay in bed all day, and the rest is just general laziness when it comes to dental hygiene. I did at some point, got dental clearance for a transplant but things went downhill pretty fast.

Anyway, I spent a lot of time at the endodontist and dentist early this year for some root canals. One of the tooth that is hurting had a root canal and was crowned. This is the last molar on the top right of my mouth. It’s not the wisdom tooth since all of those were removed. There seems to be another extracted tooth there as well so maybe the third tooth in? Likewise, the bottom molar in the same position is hurting. This one I expected. They did not do a root canal on the bottom tooth since the endodontist said he likely could not save it. It is marked for extraction but my dentist wanted to crown everything else first. Well, I guess I lost the race. The tooth started hurting before we could extract it. I took my last two precious Tylenol with Codeine #3 tablets earlier. I don’t feel it helping that much so maybe it would be hurting a lot more without the drugs. I have an appointment with the dentist on Wednesday to put in some crowns. I don’t know if he was going to do the extraction or send me out somewhere. Hopefully the top tooth is hurting because the nerve is connected somehow, and not that it needs more work.

Work 9/6/2020 (updated)

I came into work again today. Like the last time I was here, there’s almost no one in the building. This weekend is probably even more unlikely people will show up since tomorrow (Monday) is Labor Day. Not sure if anyone is traveling though. There was one person here in my department but he sits in the next row over. We talked for a bit since I haven’t seen him for about six months.

It’s super hot outside. Weather app on my iPhone says 99 degrees. It’s even hotter at home; City of Orange is at 108 degrees now. The air conditioner better not fail. I don’t think we’ve ran it 24/7 for this many days before. Inside the office however, it’s freezing cold. It’s been a problem since I started working here nine years ago. Our CEO likes it cold but also wants an open floor plan. I don’t know how much energy we waste by keeping 3000 people cold instead of just him (CEO).

I was actually just here to pick up some stuff from the office. Since less people are coming in physically to the office, it’s hard to find a coworker to drop stuff off for me. The environment is also more work-conducive; I tend to take a lot of naps when working from home. I actually have a lot of work to do in the next several weeks. If the live donor kidney transplant actually happens, I don’t know who is going to take over my project since we’re aiming for a Dec/Jan implementation date. The schedule doesn’t have me leaving for 2-3 months.

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Ugh, I walk outside to another building to pick up a package. It’s like walking into an oven. I was actually okay until I had to bend down to get my package from a lower locker (we have an automated locker system for packages). That seemed to put pressure on my chest cavity and then it was difficult to walk back to my cubicle. I also got chills when I walked back into the office because it’s so damn cold in here.

I can see the status of my car using an app on my phone. Usually if you park out in the open and it’s hot and sunny, you can turn on the air conditioning a few minutes before you go to the car, and it will be nice and cool. The car also limits the temperature to 103-104 degrees so it will kick in automatically when the interior temperature gets beyond that. The car is currently parked inside a parking structure, shaded from the sun. It should not be that hot inside the car unless the ambient temperature outside is that hot.

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Update: 9/7/2020 9:01 pm

Dang it. I was trying to get some work done today at home even thought it’s Labor Day and I’m not getting paid. This 3/4-time is a bit weird to manage. Between the toothache and multiple naps, I didn’t even sign on to the computer. Hopefully I can find some time tomorrow after the CT scan to finish the one task I need to do for a Thursday meeting.

Chronic Kidney Disease on 23andMe

There was something new on 23andMe today. A report regarding two gene variants that are related to an increased chance of chronic kidney disease. Good thing I don’t have either one. I would hate to develop kidney disease or kidney failure.

Can I show this to my dialysis center? Maybe they’ll let me go home.

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Sigh, I know genetics is mainly statistical. Just because you do or do not have the gene variant has no predictive value on whether an individual will develop chronic kidney disease. I actually don’t know why they bother to tell their customers when it only affects populations. What if someone sees this and cancels their kidney health screening appointment? Maybe if you have these gene variants, you should be more diligent about your kidney health?