THREE EXCELLENT REGIONAL CAUSES

The first one is to help out five-year-old Frankie Flora of Wappingers, attacked by a pit bull back in April and now recovering from some heartbreaking injuries. It's going to take him one heck of a long time to come back.

That's www.frankiefund.com.

The second one is in memory of a brave and dedicated radio colleague of mine, Jen Coudrey - who died last week after seven years battling a rare form of cancer.

www.jenfund.org is where you want to go. I only worked with Jen for three years, and hadn't seen her in ages - but on any given day, even in her suffering, she continued to be one of those rare souls who spurred the people around them to try to live their lives in the best possible way.

And finally there's continued great work being done at Albany Medical Center, who saw my darling Noodle through more than two years of treatment for kidney disease (still in remission!). Here's their link, and you can check out the Vasculitis Foundation for more on Henoch-Schönlein purpura, the condition that triggered her kidney disease.

This concludes the earnest and serious segment of our blogging day.

NOODLE HATH A LOOTHE TOOF

Just got back from Albany Medical Center and heard mostly excellent news about Noodle's HSP. The blood pressure's just a hair high but there doesn't appear to be any sign of relapsing. Also, as expected we learned she's still way way tall for her age. 3' 11" at just a couple months past five years old. How's the weather up there, kid?

Also, as the hed alludes, one of her front teeth is wobbling about a bit. Just in time for a nice round or two of "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth".

Tooth fairy's a bit skint this time 'round, luv.

OFF TO ALBANY TOMORROW

We are hoping that maybe this will be our last trip up to Albany Med for quite some time, seeing as Noodle's Henoch-Schönlein purpura appears to have been in remission for a good six to nine months now. We haven't seen any fresh weirdness in quite some time, but there are still questions we need to ask of her nephrologist.

You can find out more about HSP and related diseases at the Vasculitis Foundation.

HER REMISSION, YOUR MISSION

Great news for Noodle: her Henoch-Schonlein purpura is finally officially in remission after two and a half years of treatments and medication, and her kidney function is back to normal, and we can take her off the blood-pressure medicine.

Her whothewhat? is in remission?

Don't worry; it's what we said too after the doctors told us that she didn't have leukemia, but she did have this disease that, to the eye, presents almost exactly like leukemia, but is so obscure it needs a name in German and Latin. It ain't fun. To oversimplify, your kid gets a cold, and then a week or so after it's over their immune system for unknown reasons is still looking for something to do, like it's got a case of the Reggie Hammonds: Let's see...what we can (mess) with next. And goes after the small blood vessels in the knees, ankles, elbows, intestines...and kidneys. It gets ugly on the inside and the outside (warning: graphic).

Flashback to spring '06. Most cases of HSP go away on their own in four to six weeks. No sweat, said Noodle's doctors. The kidneys are only affected in one out of ten cases.

Her kidneys were affected.

Still, not to worry - the kidneys only fail in one out of a hundred cases.

Um, yeah. Great. Bartender? Double scotch, straight. And a hug.

Those abdominal pains could be intussusception. Better get her up here.

We're in the spelling bee from hell now, too. Intussusception is when the intestine tries to fold in on itself. Potentially fatal if things get jammed up and infected. And "up here" was the emergency room up at Albany Medical Center, the closest place equipped to deal with Noodle's situation. It's a super place on a Friday night. Only one gunshot wound that evening. In the end, it was just some nasty inflammation down there so we got to go back home.

But we got real familiar with Albany Med over the next couple of years. Kidney biopsy (CHRIST, THAT'S A HUGE NEEDLE), blood tests, urine tests, yummy barium-schmutz drinks, x-rays, weekends of infusion therapy with massive steroid doses, delightful hospital cuisine, and our little girl was a champ through the whole thing. We almost forget that she was just two when all this started, and now...fingers crossed, everybody...it may just really, truly, be over and done with, maybe, we hope.

At any rate, if you're somebody like us who gets to 9/11 and gets the impression they should be doing something useful to the rest of society on the day but damned if they know what, you could do worse than to drop a little something in the bucket over at the Vasculitis Foundation, which does research on HSP and a passel of related diseases in the charming vasculitis family. If that doesn't strike your fancy, try www.mygooddeed.org, which can point you to local charities who could always use a spot of help.

FINGERS CROSSED

Noodle's biannual kidney checkup is tomorrow in Albany, and we would really love to hear the nephrologist say "Nope, you don't have to come back up here any more" and send us on our merry way.

We'll see.

CAREFUL WITH YOUR KIDNEYS

I mention it because Thursday was World Kidney Day, which sounds like a bizarre observance unless somebody you love has had something gone wrong with their kidneys - like our sweet Noodle, who contracted an obscure type of autoimmune-triggered vasculitis called Henoch Schönlein purpura a couple of years ago and had it get to her kidneys, doing who knows what in the way of damage. That's my girl, picking up the condition whose name is in German and Latin. She's still on blood-pressure medicine and probably will be for quite a while to come, and every time she gets any kind of rash...like yesterday...we wonder if it's her immune system going hinky again and the HSP coming out of remission, and we get busy collecting urine samples for the doctors. We collect sterile urine-sample cups the way other people collect beer steins.

I mention all this a day late because yesterday wound up being yet another one of those aww-crap schedule-blown-all-to-hell days as a result, and I completely spaced on posting this. I did remember the post about telling Beast not to put poo in his toy shopping cart. (Nice priorities, Dad!)

WHO TO THE WHAT TO THE WHERE, HONEY?

Whoopee, there's nothing like Albany in January, as Mr. Waits and Mr. Nicholson can attest.

Her Awesomeness is taking the Beast to the GP today and to the pediatric urologist at Albany Med tomorrow to get his whizzination situation looked at. Stupid us, we thought we were shot of that place since the Noodle's unpronounceable kidney ailment appears to have settled down somewhat and we only have to get her checked out every six months.

And since Wednesday's to be a festive road trip as well as a doctor's visit, Beast will be seeking out a good pizza joint in Albany, not too far from the hospital. Suggestions?

I wonder if it has dawned on other residents of the Northern Dutchess area that thanks to the magic of the DOT decreeing interminable traffic signals for every Route 9 curb-cut in sight, it now easily takes less time to drive from (say) Red Hook or Rhinebeck to Albany than it does to drive from Red Hook or Rhinebeck to Poughkeepsie or Wappingers. 9G to the Rip van Winkle to the Thruway and zip, you're there...or even 9 to 9H back to 9 to 90, if you want your itinerary to be more rustic and sound more like a track off the White Album.

Also today is the Noodle's first-ever ballet recital. I figure in about seven hours we'll be wobbly in the knees from the sheer force of cuteness exuded by a gaggle of four-year-old girls in tutus.

After that comes the electrician and the mold-remediation guys and the roofer and the garage-door guy, and probably a blizzard - because there's just not enough on our plate.