Scattered Thoughts . . .

Today I awoke feeling so miserable and in so much pain that I needed to call my doctor to ask if I should make an appointment or just go directly to the emergency room.  You know when you are already thinking of an emergency room visit before you even call your doctor, the pain is bad! Since Monday morning, I have been awaking every morning with intense pain in the area of my kidneys.   This pain has been so bad at times that I can barely walk across a room. The odd thing is that the pain has mostly been when I awake in the morning and then wanes throughout the morning. This problem, however, seems to be a relatively common problem for those of us suffering from the more aggressive form of Systemic Mastocytosis.  The mast cells erroneously attack an internal organ, for instance the kidneys, and that causes irritated and inflamed nerve endings on and around my kidneys.  But, before we assume this the cause, we must rule out everything else. For Systemic Mastocyt...

The past few days have been quite miserable, to say the least!  In one of my blog posts from the other day, I mentioned that I was thinking my mast cells were attacking my kidneys.  I suppose that could be happening but this is, by far, the worst pain I have had in a very long time.  We came uncomfortably close to an emergency room visit yesterday morning.  Sheila stayed home from work until we decided to either drive me to the hospital or until my pain subsided enough to handle the day on my own. The pain is only problematic between 3-9am...  I still have the pain throughout the day but it is quite tolerable the rest of the day.  This pain is a burning, searing pain seemingly emanating from the lower part of my kidneys in my back and then radiating out to all of my lower abdomen down to my groin making the simple act of walking excruciatingly painful, if not impossible.  This pain rates an 8 on the 10 point pain scale. I've been flushing my body w...

In my post about an article featuring the Waterbury Train Station in Model Railroader magazine the other day, I mentioned that I had created a painting of this station shortly after it was renovated and restored. Since I had mentioned it here, I felt I should add an image of my painting as it can be seen hanging on our hallway wall. This is an 8"x10" Giclee print on heavyweight art paper, double matted, and framed to 11"x14".  This is a really nice size since it does not require a lot of wall space. I have always had an interest in trains and am a lifelong model railroader so my attention is often diverted toward old railroad tracks, old stations, and old trains.  I also have a background in civil engineering and architecture so distinctive architecture always captures my attention.  This landmark is no exception.  Someday I should just spend an entire day at this station shooting photos starting from before the arrival of the first Amtrak Vermonter in the mor...

I had an incredibly fun...  an amazingly beautiful... an uncharacteristically busy...  and a thoroughly entertaining weekend.  Sheila and I spent the entire weekend together and had a very busy schedule of fun activities.  As all patients struggling with Systemic Mastocytosis know all too well, getting to spend quality time together and sharing 'good health' is a blessing...  a rare blessing! We went out to a few restaurants in Waterbury on Friday and got to spend some time with some local friends in town.  Then on Saturday, after a nice breakfast at home, we headed up to Burlington on Lake Champlain to do some shopping for sailboat parts and supplies.  I was feeling relatively good and the weather was beautiful so we decided to make a day of it up in Burlington! We had planned to meet some friends, Frank and Christine, up in Burlington sometime after we finished our shopping.  Turns out we both pulled into the parking lot at the same time. ...