I an not feeling well today, I am very weak and lightheaded and when I spoke to hubby on the phone he reminded me that I need my shot tonight, so that's why I feel this way.

Beside filtering the blood, the kidneys also produce a hormone called Erythropoietin, which helps make red blood cells. Since my kidneys no longer function I need to recieve a man-made version of this hormone to prevent anemia, in a weekly injection.

The medication I take is called Epogen, you may have seen it advertised on TV as Procrit, it is given to people with anemia as well as people on chemotherapy.

For kidney patients this drug is covered by medicare which is a good thing because it costs around $1,000 a month.

My husband had to learn to give me the injection, I just can't imagine doing it myself, I guess I would get used to it, but that first time would be really scary.

I hope I am not babbling I really can't concentrate, I need a nap.

Youngest daughter, 1993 - this Santa is really her dad, she still screamed.

According to a local news story, On Dec.1 a house was broken into and thousands of dollars worth of Christmas gifts were stolen from under their tree.
The report featured a beautiful little 4 year old girl, who said, “My present are gone”

How sad, right? Wrong!

My problems with this are many:

Who can afford thousands of dollars of gifts these days? It was not a rich neighborhood. Who has all presents wrapped and under the tree by Dec.1?
Doesn’t Santa bring the gifts? When my kids were small the gifts were hidden in the closet or garage until Christmas Eve.
How did the thieves know which house to rob? Did they follow that family home from the mall, and then wait patiently while they wrapped all the gifts?
The same exact thing happened last year in the same neighborhood.

I think they made up the story so that people would donate gifts and money to them. They probably even hid their ugly kids and borrowed that beautiful one from some other family.

The holiday season brings out the worst in some people.

We just came in from the backyard where we watched the shuttle launch. Its a clear night, in the 50's, this was the first night launch in over 4 years.

The shuttle lit up the sky, its amazing how bright it is.

I went to the grocery store yesterday and at the checkout counter the cashier asked me if I’d like to buy a bag of food for the food pantry. I asked her how much it was and was told it cost $4.61. I didn’t want to add another 5 bucks to my bill so I said, “No I can’t right now”.

So then I felt guilty for not donating. I don’t think its right for them to trap you like that, it made me feel very uncomfortable. I have enough problems without having to be made to feel bad at the grocery store.

Let me tell you about the food pantry, I had a “friend”; I’ll call her Jen, who had a “friend” who worked at the food pantry. Well Jen and her husband were both healthy adults who had decent jobs, with health insurance, and 2 spoiled kids who pretty much got whatever they wanted. Jen used to get food and other items from the food pantry. Why? Because Jen was the type of person who wanted to get something for nothing.

When I was sick she was there for me, and she helped me pack up my stuff when I was moving. Since I thought I was dying, I gave a lot of stuff away, to her, including most of my furniture.

Once I moved I never saw or heard from her again, she has moved and changed her telephone number.

It’s a shame because I know there probably are people who really need food from the food pantry, but I refuse to give anything else to Jen.