Robots and Gallstones.

The gallbladder is coming out. Thursday. It's the one organ in my abdomen that's in the right place and it's jumping ship.

I've known for a while that I have gallstones but they've finally gotten annoying enough that my gallbladder needs to come out.

So tomorrow I'm off to Chicago for my quarterly appointment and surgery on Thursday. Dr. Transplant is going to do the surgery robotically and all I can think of is Logan's Run, because that movie seriously warped my impressionable brain way way back in the 70's when I first saw it. Now every time I think of robotic surgery I think of this scene and the machine going all bazerkers and shit.



So anyway, yay robots!

Maybe I'll tell Dr. Transplant he can give my gallbladder to someone that needs it more then me.

It's all about giving this year.

btw. this month's donation goes to Leader Dogs For The Blind.

Holidays and Resolutions

Well, it's that time of year again and I've been thinking about holiday giving and New Year's resolutions.

Every year my siblings and I, along with our spouses do a gift exchange. I had a difficult time deciding what to buy this year because lets face it. Most of us, by the time we are the ages of myself and my siblings, don't really need anything. This year we already bought gifts but we've also decided to give a donation in someones name in addition to gift giving.

And my partner and I have decided to keep on giving this year as our New Year's resolution. Every month a different charity, each month giving in honor or someone we love.

We actually started the donation of the month club in October with Cellmates On the Run, and the whole Chicago Diabetes Project/Chicago marathon thing that I wouldn't stop blogging about. November, we donated to a local shelter for victims of domestic violence and this month Heifer International.

Diabetes and Organ donation aren't the only passions in my life and I'm an annoying blogger like that, so you know I'll be posting monthly links to each organization. If you have any suggestions please either email me or post comments.

Our only guidelines? Nothing political and donations need to either be 1. medical research related or 2. directly impact individuals in need.

Thanks for your suggestions and Happy Christwanzakah.

Encouragement goes a long way.

So today I was in line at the gas station all queued up to buy coffee. A woman was in front of me holding an apple. She kept eyeballing the candy bars nearby and then looking at the apple, over and over. I could almost see the thought process going on in her head.

Apple, or chocolate? Apple? Chocolate?

Finally, with visible resignation she reached towards the candy and I found myself whispering, "Don't do it!".

And she stopped.

I wasn't sure if she even heard me until after she paid for her apple and gas and walked past me on her way out the door,

and whispered, "Thank you".

Funny how (minus the coffee) I ate better today too.

Sometimes it's just good to know you're not in it alone.

Santa Speedo Run Chicago 2009

When: 11:00 am, December 12, 2009

Where: Shenanigan's Bar, 16 W. Division, Chicago

Details: Santa Speedo Run for The Chicago Diabetes Project

It's only a mile down Rush St and back up Michigan.

You know you want to!

Well, at least sponser a crazy person. Here.

Danke.

Did you know?

# More than 100,000 men, women and children currently need life-saving organ transplants.

# Every 11 minutes another name is added to the national organ transplant waiting list.

# An average of 18 people die each day from the lack of available organs for transplant.

# In 2008, there were 7,984 deceased organ donors and 6,218 living organ donors resulting in 27,961 organ transplants.

# In 2007, approximately 30,000 grafts were made available for transplant by eye banks within the United States.

# According to research, 98% of all adults have heard about organ donation and 86% have heard of tissue donation.

# 90% of Americans say they support donation, but only 30% know the essential steps to take to be a donor.

Find your state's organ donor registrey here.

Thank you from the bottom of my liver.

World Diabetes Day 2009

I made this as part of a project that I'm doing for work this month.

Vaccinations and Small County Livin'.

I live in a small county right next to a much more populated county, and by "right next to" I mean quite literally, across the street. The kids from the schools that are closed due to H1N1 in my county could throw stones at the kids from schools closed due to H1N1 in the county next door. Oh wait. the majority of them go to the same schools. but guess what? (I bet you've already guessed where I'm going) The peoples in the more densely populated county right across the street, working in the same offices. going to the same public places and the same schools, have access to H1N1 vaccinations, and the peoples in my county? Not so much.


Big county next door got H1N1 vaccinations almost two weeks ago. Podunk county? Three days. I called both counties offices. Big? available to the highest risk group, kids, people working with kids, pregnant peoples and people with compromised immune systems. Podunk county? They've got them but not for the chronically ill and immuno compromised unless you happen to be under 19.

So what's a paranoid girl to do?

Travel 10 hours round trip to Chicago to the clinical research center at UIC on Monday. They've got vaccinations for all of the patients in the study, and I oh so appreciate that they do, but Monday's going to be a long long day for one silly shot that IMO should be available right next door.

I was never paranoid about germs before immuno suppression.

Really.

I wasn't.