There are somethings that is iconic American… and near the very top of that list… is the Cheeseburger. Tonight, Joanna didn’t want to make dinner. We talked about getting pizza, but there was too much resistance from the kids. So after some debate, we decided to skip the take out and make some burgers. About a week ago, I came up with a new idea for making them on the grill. The trick is to make them thin. Yeah, I …
Month: April 2021
Today, I went outside to take a couple of pictures for one of my classes. As I was walking back to the house, I saw this little flower. There was something about it that I found intriguing. Little did I know the realization that it was going to have. First. let me say that the green of our yard is made up of weeds. We have well water, live in the woods and have a lot of hard clay like …
I had a great office in the basement. But last year, we decided to move everyone around in the house and give the kids their own spaces. Notice I didn’t say bedrooms. Our house has three bedrooms in the main section and then a second master bedroom and micro bedroom in the in-law suite (Joanna’s mother lives with us). But with everyone home all 2020, we decided that the kids needed to be separated. Julie moved to the loft, which …
Today, I got the call. I am officially on the transplant list at VCU. Now the next hurdle is waiting for the phone call. So here is the way this works. Based on bloodwork, they calculate my MELD score (a scoring system for assessing the severity of liver disease). The higher the score the more severe the need for a new liver. So when does a new liver come? If someone went to a restaurant and putting their name on …
One of the craziest parts of liver failure is how much it can mess with my sleep schedule. Every day is a constant battle. I am either wired and can’t sleep… or I am exhausted and can never get enough sleep. Somedays, I am so tired I will sleep off and on throughout the day. This typically is coupled with a headache and the inability to focus on things. It is frustrating to be in this state becouse I constantly …
Today I was thinking about my car…. well…. it isn’t my car anymore. I sold it at the end of 2019. I miss it. It was the greatest car I ever owned. And now, it is someone else’s car. If it wasn’t raining or snowing the top was down. Didn’t matter how hot or cold it was, the top was down. I mean what is the point of owning a convertible if you are going to drive it with the …
Today begins the second week of the spring semester. Yes, once again, I am a college student. So how did I get to this point? Well, for many years, I have regretted never completing college. There were nights that I woke up in a panic that I had made a horrible mistake. And now in my mid 40s, how was I supposed to correct this? Turns out the story wasn’t over. In the spring of 2019, I was trying to …
There is a good change that by the time you read this, April has come and gone. That is ok. My first real exposure of organ transplants came when my niece Karly, who was five had to get a new liver. That was ten years ago. I signed up as an organ donor shortly there after. I never would have guessed that many years later how this would have all played out. If you are looking for a way to …
The new normal. This is a phrase that people keep using over the past year. I suppose it could mean different things to different people. But, one thing is definitely for sure. As a general rule, normal is anything but…. normal. With everything that has gone on in the past 14 months globally, my new normal started a little before that. For Thanksgiving 2019, we took the kids to Disney World. While there, I started feeling… abnormal. Without going into …