May I have this dance?

I've never been very good at journaling.  Every year, I make the attempt to start again, and I write religiously for a few days or weeks before falling off the wagon again.  I thought blogging might be different, but hey - it's still journaling.  Thankfully, my health has stabilized, so I'm not having to post continual updates anymore summarizing all of my crazy doctor visits.  That's a great problem to have!

Earlier this week, I finally got a chance to check in with a periodontist about this "overgrown gum tissue" that I've had for about 6 months.  After going through my medical history (helloooo.... that took almost an hour), she took one look and said it was most likely a granuloma caused by my Wegener's.  After numbing me up really well, she grabbed her scalpel and removed the extra tissue, packed it up, and sent it off to Baylor for a pathology report.  She kept telling me how excited they would be to get tissue from a WG patient.  Ha!  So glad I could be of assistance!

I went back to work that afternoon drooling on myself, which I know my students enjoyed.  So now that's healing, and I go back next week for pathology results, removal of my stitches (if they haven't fallen out already), and discussion about possible gum grafting.  Good times!

It's amazing how many different body systems are affected by these systemic diseases.  Like a gigantic game of dominoes, every problem results in another symptom; every treatment results in another symptom.  It really makes me realize how beautiful the human body is.  Everything runs so efficiently!  Every organ has multiple purposes, and no commercially-produced medication can come close to the efficacy of the "real thing".  

Kidneys regulate soooo many different things - blood pressure, hemoglobin production, potassium and phosophorus levels, bone health, and on and on and on.  Sure, I have pills and shots for all of those things, but they can't come close to a real, true, working kidney.  

Our bodies are designed to engage in this well-orchestrated dance, balancing and managing all these different parts simultaneously.  Only now, for me, it's like the dancers are all wearing poorly-designed shoes that are rubbing blisters and causing them to limp around the floor.  Sure, they're dancing, but their foxtrot looks a lot more like clod-hopping.  

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