A little off balance

BOX SCORE
Element	Current	Std. Range	Trend
Hemoglobin	8.2	13-17	^
Platelets	132	140-375	^
ANC	3760	1800-8300	v

When Jill and I got married, I had some really old laundry appliances, and she had an older but still useful washer. We lived in "my" house for the first year, and then we sold that house and built "our" house. We sold my old laundry appliances with the house and purchased a new dryer that matched Jill's washer for the new house. After eight years in that house, we moved to Dallas, and having found no house that fit our needs on the market, we built another house. 

The old/new laundry "pair" moved to Dallas with us and we happily did our laundry, without complaint. Occasionally, the washer would get out of balance because of the load we put in it, but mostly it worked fine. 

Like all man-made things, after a while the washer gave up the ghost. I forget the problem, but we calculated that at that point the washer was about 25 years old. It just didn't seem worthwhile to sink several hundred dollars into repairing the venerable old machine, so we went to Sears to buy a new laundry pair. After much conversation with the saleslady, we decided on a "modern, high efficiency washer" and a gas dryer. Kenmore, you know; the old and reliable Sears brand. When they were delivered, we thought, "Now we have moved into the 21st century, laundry-wise." 

We never were quite sure what it was that qualified the washer as "high efficiency." It was modern in the sense that it didn't have an agitator, and you couldn't set it for a certain amount of water. It was "eco-friendly" and decided for itself how much water to use, which was apparently never enough. It seems the clothes often came out covered with white powder, which we assumed was laundry detergent, although we followed the directions about how much detergent to use. The fact that it had no agitator, we were told, would make our clothes last longer. Well, I ask you; who wants clothes covered with white powder to last longer? 

Lest I forget, the gas dryer never seemed to be adequately vented, and although it dried our white-powder laden clothes reasonably well, our little laundry room seemed to fill up with fumes that were enough to make breathing a bit difficult. We left both appliances with that house when we moved to our current home. 

So, nowadays, we have regressed back into the mid twentieth century. This house has no laundry room. The laundry is in the garage. And our current laundry appliances are neither modern nor high efficiency. The washer has an agitator (gasp) and allows us to choose our water level. The dryer is electric and does a good job drying our clothes, as long as we remember to clean the lint trap that is outside in the garden. 

Occasionally, the washer gets out of balance, if we load too many heavy things in it. Then it does a dance around the garage and has to be moved back to its home. But that's no big deal. We're pretty happy with our laundry facilities. Even if they are out of balance sometimes. Who among us isn't? 

Which brings me to the point of today's post. I mentioned in a previous post that, when I was released from the hospital after my last stay, which was in early February, I was given an antibiotic to protect me against a type of pneumonia that is often encountered following the particular type of chemotherapy I had been given. Well, that seemed to make sense, but my intestinal tract did not like that medication. I had a burning pain in my abdomen, and when it came time to relieve myself, the burning followed right along, if you catch my drift. Thank God, and Dr. Brow, I was given a reprieve from that medication. After a few days my intestines re-balanced themselves, and all was well. 

Now, I can't say for sure, but it seems to me that things were not as well balanced as I thought. A few days ago, I noticed that things were not moving through my system as well as they usually do, and I began having some significant pain associated with a sense of "fullness" in my lower abdomen. I have been out of balance now for nearly a week. I am beginning to understand why our washer feels the need to dance around the garage when it is out of balance. This is just plain no fun.

Yesterday, given that things had been going on for several days with no apparent help from a drugstore full of laxatives, Jill and I both began to fear that I had some kind of blockage in my intestine. And so, where does one go on a Sunday morning, when he knows he can't make it through a church service? Why, to the urgent care clinic, of course! 

The staff at urgent care were all quite sympathetic with my plight and quickly got me in to see Dr. Hagar (who, in case you were wondering, was not Horrible). After a quick examination he sent me off to have a blood draw and some x-rays of my abdomen. Once the tests were complete, we were promptly ushered back into the exam room. In a few minutes Dr. Hagar returned, saying, "Good news and good news and good news. Your hemoglobin has gone up, your platelets have gone up, and there is no intestinal blockage. You're just full of poop." 

Later, it occurred to me that I should have replied that people have been telling me that for years. Oh well, an opportunity missed. 

Dr. Hagar instructed me to make some slight changes in the use of my laxatives, to add more fiber to my diet, and he gave me a prescription to use "If things have not improved in the next couple of days." I'm pleased to report that, while I am still in some distress, I have noted some improvement already. 

And so, like our laundry appliances, I'm still a little off balance, but it's not the end of the world. Excuse me, I need to go and do a little dance in the garage now. 

“Oh that my vexation were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances!" (Job 6:2)