Howdy all,I’m back. I dropped my membership about a month ago since I could no longer spend time on it. At that point I was facing a very scary time in my life. As you know, my summer was a bust, between shingles and water retention I was in and out of the hospital. Then about a month and a half ago I was dangerously close to my kidneys completely shutting down. I was in the hospital again and lost 22 lbs of water weight in two days. I was also scheduled with a kidney specialist the follo

Man, do we need help! I watch the news broadcasts, read the news articles on the internet; I wonder where we are headed. What is happening to the human race? If we go on in the same manner, we are in deep doo doo. Ok, I can still keep a sense of humor, can’t I? Seriously though, where are we headed? I am one of the baby boomers. When I was growing up I learned to say, “please and thank you.” Mother taught my brother and me to use good manners including: be well behaved, be cou

Please forgive the people of Iowa, we are not all the same. Not all of us walk around with a can of chew in the back pocket, a harnessed gun on our hip and t-shirts that advocate imprisoning one candidate and how to get rid of the other. There are people on both sides that are forgetting common courtesy. Do the candidates realize what they are doing to our country? Their campaigns are dividing the entire country including families, relatives, spouses, brothers and sisters, towns, states and ent

I am alive and well and living in the land of Oz. If any of you are diehard fans of the Gatlin Brothers, from days gone by, you might recognize that line. It sums up my existence at this point in time. Now, if I could click the heels of my crocs together and return to the beginning of the summer and run through it again without any of the physical problems, I would be in heaven. Unfortunately, I can’t turn back time and so this summer is labeled “The Summer from Hell.” I know

I was admitted to the hospital again yesterday. The levels on my kidneys were dangerously high.I was retaining fluid once again, gained 11 lbs in three days, actually 2 1/2. So I contacted the doctor's office and I was told to go to Cedar Rapids to St. Luke's where the kidney doctor is located. So, one horrible night - lots of pain and peeing all night - without much sleep. My kidney levels are much lower today and they are monitoring them as they give me additional dosages of lasix to get rid