Bob's Blog Saturday 5-9-09

[BobN]

Bob Here

When I went on dialysis, I quit drinking, and sometimes I just want to jump for joy.

Then I realized, that for me to jump for joy over anything, I have to be a little drunk.

As they say in the movies, “Houston, we have a problem.”

That’s the dichotomy we face as dialysis patients.

Drinking clearly isn’t good for us.  But there are times when it’s fun.

I remember when I first went on the big D, a doctor was having a little sit-down with me explaining all the things I wasn’t supposed to do.

He eventually got around to beer, and explained about it containing a lot of phosphorous, sodium, it was tough on the fluid restriction, yada, yada, yada.

I remember thinking, “why not beat the Christmas rush and start hating this guy now.”

So, ok we know it’s not good for us.  But aren’t there times when we all miss it?

Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t a rehab case.

But I did like having a frosty one on the occasional hot summer day, or while attending a sporting event.

There are some events where imbibing a little can add to the fun, don’t you think?

Just having a pop or two, loosening up the nerves, chilling down a little bit.

An associate in the office had a brochure for a Germanfest event that was going to be held in her hometown over the weekend.

I was looking through the brochure, and there were a bunch of events featured.  One was a “fun-run.”  She’s athletic, so I asked if she was taking part in that.

“No.”

The Bike Rally?

“No.”

Polka Contest?

“No.”

Carnival Rides?

“Uh uh.”

So, I asked, what exactly are you doing at this Germanfest?

“Drinking beer.”

Aha.

That used to be my kind of event.

None of the other things was very appealing to me either, but in my pre-dialysis life, if you were getting a bunch of people together with the primary intent of getting pickled, I was there.

Understand, most days, I don’t miss the drinking thing at all.  In fact, given a choice, I’d way rather have a Coca-Cola than a beer.

But it seems like there are certain occasions that lend themselves to it, and, just being honest here, at times I kind of miss it.

I decided early-on that I was going to completely abstain, rather than have a tip here and there.

Do you all agree?

Some of my goofball friends will go to no end in pointing out what I’m missing by adopting this point of view.  But then again, I tell them, I don’t get hangovers.

Drinking has been a part of some fun times in my life, but it’s also led to some crazy activities.

So, we might give up some of the fun, but we’re also a lot less likely to ever appear naked in public.

Of course, in the college years, we were always flirting with out-of-control status.

[Note to self:  hanging upside-down from a chandelier can cause structural damage to a student apartment.]

I think we all started out at a moderate pace as freshmen, taking the scholarly activities very seriously at first.

But then as we got to know each other, and got our studying requirements under control, basically all hell broke loose.

We finally realized that we had a certain sense of freedom that we didn’t have living with Mom and Dad.

We started to subscribe to the theory that you’re not really drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on.

Every weekend, it seemed, had a new form of horror. 

(Too numerous to go through here, but I can tell you that when a police officer tells you to get out of a tree, you really should do it.)

As an adult, of course, we were always walking that fine line between still being able to drive home and wanting to go to sleep in the nearest waste basket.

Sometimes, things started innocently enough. 

You might be having a little get-together in your back yard, and just intend on having a couple to keep things loosened up.

So then, you’re wondering the next day, how did I end up trying to prove that I could sing every song from Meat Loaf’s “Bat Out of Hell” from memory?

(Try doing that without imbibing, by the way.)

I think you can obviously still have good times without, but maybe different kinds of good times.

Calmer.

More tame.

How do you all handle it?  Completely abstain?  Have an occasional drink?

The reality is that dialysis kind of changes our priorities.

And, it’s kind of unfair, I mean, what group of people deserves to tie one on more than dialysis patients, with everything that we go through.

We have pretty stressful lives, after all.

Guess we have to find other forms of release for the tension.

Anyway, thanks for reading.

I hope everyone has a good week of treatments.

Stay active and take care.

[Zach]

Working several hours outside on a hot day, I will sweat more than 12 ounces of water, so there's nothing like an ice cold BUD afterwards. Plus a binder!



12 oz BUD:
Phosphorus, P   46 mg
Potassium, K   118 mg
Sodium, Na       11 mg
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/
 

[willowtreewren]

When my husband stopped drinking I did, too. I just thought it unfair for me to have a "good time" while he looked on. We used to keep Chateau Cardboard in our fridge for the glass of red wine with dinner. No more.

I have to confess that while we were at a party last weekend, there was a pitcher of pomegranate juice and vodka. Looked mighty tasty. Tried it. Discovered that I have turned into a REALLY cheap drunk. Can't tolerate even a little bit of booze without getting really giddy.

Thanks for the post, Bob. I enjoy your humor.
Aleta

[BobN]

Thanks Zach, Thanks Aleta,

We sould try having a few and then writing our blogs.

That would be interesting.

[kitkatz]

I would like to hear about the up in a tree with the police story. 

[G-Ma]

I want to hear the asleep in a wastebasket one.

Thanks Bob, I think we all wait for our weekly fix from you..........is that what a blogaholic is???

I am a very cheap drunk as well so I just get a swallow of whatever my son and daughter in law are drinking and that sends me right along.  Hmmm...sweat 12 oz and a can of beer.  That does sound good.

 

[BobN]

Thanks guys.

The details on those stories will probably show up at some point.

[okarol]

Tequila shots are less fluid! 

[silverhead]

Bob, you sure woke up a memory of mine. I quit drinking about 25 years ago,  and glad I did. Anyway for all those years on those occasions when I would think about it, I could close my eyes and imagine opening a really cold one and taking a long chug of it and so clearly taste the brew on it's way down, Man it was good. But I would pass on having one, That is until about 5 years ago, My Mother passed away and I drove almost 2400 miles in 3 days to get back to my old home, after I arrived and had a nice talk with Dad, he asked if I would have a cold one with him in Moms memory, I of course said yes, and he produced a bottle of my old favorite, upon opening it, I stared at it for a moment and took a nice long pull on it, found out real quick that it did not taste ANYTHING like I remembered, if fact it tasted like some thing a dog deposits on a tree trunk, could not finish that beer and haven't had one since.......