I forgot to mention yesterday that my sister lives in Paso Robles, CA, where all the earthquake damage occurred and, sadly, two people died when a building collapsed. Fortunately, she’s fine.

Today I spent the day waiting for a friend to get out of day surgery. She was scheduled for a 2 or 3PM, but she didn’t get in until much later. The recovery time kept getting pushed out, and she finally got out after 9PM. I was hanging out with her husband (my buddy Greg) and her daughter Bridget and we were running out of ways to kill time. I hope those two don’t drive her crazy, since she has to stay off her feet for a couple of days.

Oh, and check out the online comic Achewood if you have some time. It takes a bit to get into (you’ll have to read a lot of strips before you get what’s going on) and it’s certainly not for kids, but I’m really enjoying it. For a simpler funny geek comic, I’d suggest Hackles.

I suppose the worst part is not knowing. Since I never made it into med school, I don’t know if my problems are unique. This latest thing about my kidney function was really freaking me out until my buddy Greg told me he had the same diagnosis once. He didn’t drink water for a couple of days before a urine test, and they didn’t want to hire him because they thought his kidneys were failing. On a drug test, he tested positive for salt. He rehydrated himself and they haven’t found any problems since. That was about seven years ago or maybe more.

I’ve been waking up early and don’t feel tired during the day. I’m hoping this is a good thing. We’ll see.

I went running today, and it was at a pretty slow pace since I’ve been slacking for several weeks. I had to take it easy because my back still hurts and my knees started to hurt. I’m guessing my back hurts because I’ve been sitting in front of my computer screen for a couple weeks, avoiding the world.

But I’m not that tired, and I feel good. The worst part is that I probably am not that much slower than I was before. Andiamo.

I really haven’t been doing much. Seasonal depression and all the good news I’ve been getting lately are contributing to my lethargy. However, it does seem like I was dehydrated. I stopped running a few weeks ago because of the weather and because my doctor was stressing me out, and I haven’t been as thirsty. For that reason, I haven’t been drinking as much water. I wonder if 12 glasses a day is overdoing it. At least I’m going to the bathroom more regularly again.

And other than that I have nothing. My back is sore from the bone marrow biopsy. I’m still pretending that the doctor is wrong and I have something simple, like Lyme disease. I’m still a little freaked out about the whole thing. And life goes on. I know it’s not much of a life, but I’d like it to last as long as possible.

When I got home last night, I had a call on my answering machine from the hematologist’s office asking me to call back regarding my most recent blood test. The last dream I had this morning was about trying to call them back on my cell phone, having the lab tell me I needed a lumbar puncture, me complaining, the lab hanging up in the middle of my sentence, me trying to call back but getting an after hours message, and then a giant poodle peeing on my leg.

Well, I got up and called. My kidney function tests are off and I’m probably dehydrated. I’m supposed to drink a lot of water and then go for yet another blood test on Monday morning.

My friend Greg helped distract me today, for which I am grateful. As we were looking for a place to get breakfast, I got a call from the hematologist’s office, asking for another blood sample. They also needed it before 10AM. My guess is that my insurance requires the lab at Providence to do the processing and so the hematologist’s office can’t do it on site. I’m also guessing that the courier comes at 10AM and otherwise my blood can sit and go bad. This is all just a guess.

We hit the Overlook for breakfast, an old-time diner with a huge bar. They were playing loud 80’s music, and the bar looked full of customers even at breakfast-time. It was all a bit surreal.

I spent quite some time watching Return of the King because the movie was at least 3 hours long and there were two babies crying in the row behind me. I’d recommend the movie to anyone. Well, I’d suggest seeing the first two movies first and trying to avoid movies with babies in the audience, but you know what I mean.

I used my limited background in Bioinformatics to search the web and Medline, and I don’t like the outcomes (i.e. survival rates) I saw. I’ve read enough papers in chemistry and molecular genetics to know where to look for the bad news. I’m going to ignore them for now.

I’m still hoping that they’re mistaken even after three blood tests and I just have Lyme disease. Or syphilis. OK, not syphilis. How about Lyme disease?

Well, yesterday, I was pooped. I took a two-hour nap in the afternoon and still went to sleep at 9:30. I still don’t feel quite right. Perhaps it’s because of my high white blood cell count, perhaps not. You’d figure they could take my blood and culture whatever it is that’s growing in there that’s causing my white cell count to go up. But like I keep repeating, I’m not a doctor.

In any case, I’m pooped. I can counter that by drinking enough that I don’t remember I’m pooped, but that requires that I get out of the house. And i don’t feel like getting out of the house because I’m pooped. Heh.

Well, pooped people don’t make for interesting bloggers. I can tell you about setting up ssh keys and watching three back-to-back episodes of “Law and Order: SVU.” I’d really rather watch some stuff get blowed up. What good is “Spike TV” if they don’t constantly show Steven Seagal movies?

After calling four times and waiting two days, I finally got a call back from my doctor. I guess he wasn’t working today, and called me from home. It’s a good thing he called, too, since I got a bunch of forms from Northwest Cancer Specialists. Kind of a surprise. A couple of forms, a bunch of pamphlets, and a card with an appointment scheduled. I guess he scheduled an appointment for me with the hematologist once the results from the second blood test came back looking odder than the first. And I thought the laser level was a disappointment.

The good news: it’s probably not leukemia. The test didn’t indicate that.

The bad news: I may get a bone marrow biopsy. From what I hear, that could really hurt, and I can’t think how how it would help.

People keep asking, “What’s wrong?” How would I know? They didn’t let me into medical school.