It has been a long time since I updated this site and though a lot has happened,today’s post will be short. I’m going to give you a peek inside my treatment room.
Ever since around March of this year I have been doing Home Hemo, or in other words dialysis at home. We set up a room that used to be one of our daughters bedrooms to be the treatment room. Below are some pictures of the room.
The supply table.
My chair and the dialysis machines
In treatment.2+hours aday,6 days aweek. Think about it.
The Story Part 10
We are pretty much to the present now. Here’s a quick recap:December 06/January 07, I fell was given steroids which caused me to lose my mind, made me be hospitalized and from there that’s when the Dr.s determined I was in kidney failure and had high blood pressure. Through most of 2007 there were instanced I was hopsitalized almost every other month or so,usually for high blood pressure.
A quick explanation of the catch 22 of people in kidney failure. One of the leading causes of kidney failure is high blood pressure. One of the leading causes of high blood pressure is kidney failure. Explain that.
Anyway, it was Dr. appointments ad hospital stays during most of 2007 the beginning of 2008. Then ,as has been told, in May 23rd of 2008 I had the arm operation, in June I had the chest operation and that was also when I had to start dialysis. Permanently until if and when I get a kidney transplant. I have been trying to adjust to that.
Then the fist week of August of this year, One of my Dr.s had me have a biopsy on my prostate. Well, the test results didn’t get back as soon as was expected, and then my Dr, had a vacation planned. So it wasn’t until he got back,which was the last week of August that he gave me the test results,which were postitive. I have prostate cancer.
That pretty much brings this whole situation up to date. How a man can be considered relatively healthy for 52 years,and then in a matter of months have his whole world changed.
The Story Part 9
Nothing can prepare you for dialysis. Whether they are doing it by attaching tubes into your chest, the temporay access point, or sticking needles in your arm. My understanding is the purpose is to clean your blood of the toxins your body creates but can’t process out of you because the kidneys,whose function it is, can’t do it anymore. All I know is if anyone ever tells you it isn’t that bad, they are lying. I had my first 3 treatments in the hospital, and they really weren’t that bad. But my first treatment at the dialysis was hell. I had severe cramps.Very severe cramps. On the way home after my wife picked me up, I looked at her and told her that if this was what my quality of life was going to be like from now on, I didn’t think I wanted to continue living. Take a minute and imagine what something must be like to make a person have a thought like that. My dialysis has gotten a bit better since then, but not much. I am starting my 4th month of it and there are some things I know are fact. On Tuesdays,Thursdays and Saturday, my life is going to be involved with doing the dialysis and thast about all that will be accomplished on those days. My time on the machine is set at 3 hours. Now lets add in the time to get me hooked up. Some of the nurses are excellent at it and can get me hooked up in 5 minutes or less. Others can take almost 1/2 an hour. Now take the same amount of time to disconnect me from the machine and what they tell you is a 3 hour process is actually almost 4. Add the travel time to and from the center,and your at 4-4.5 hours. Towards the last hour of the treatment I get a major headache and the majority of the time I get major cramps and my blood pressure goes up. I have had what can be considered a “good” treatment probably 4 times in the past three and 1/2 months. Most treatment days within an hour or two of getting home, I fall asleep. Not intentionally, but the process somehow wipes you of all your energy. I have talked to other patients at the center and most tell me they have the same problem. So basically 3 days out of 7 you are useless to do anything productive.
The Story Part 8
With the realization that I could no longer work came the realization that I had to do some things very quickly. One of those things was to get everything out of my shop before I owed another months rent. We were coming up on July and I hadn’t brought in any money since before my operation in May. A friend of my wifes father had access to a moving van. The 29th of June, Her friend,her friends father and her brother showed up with the moving van and met my wife and myself and my brother at my shop. A random customer also came and helped out. It was amazing, in a matter of almost 3 hours, we had the building cleaned out.
The Story Part 7
From May 23rd on I realized my life had changed forever. I was not going to be going back to work in two weeks as I had been told. I was not going to take a year to have to begin dialysis as I had been told. After the 2nd operation where they put the tubes in my chest I have to have dialysis 3 times a week. And it’s not temporary, it’s permanent , unless I get a kidney transplant.
Some of the other realizations were I had to close my business. It took a while to sink in, but I had become disabled. I am know longer able to function like a normal person. Psychologically this can be very destructive.
The Story Part 6
While I was recovering from the first surgery, I developed breathing problems and was hospitalized again. During that stay the Drs decided I was in Stage 5 of kidney failure and I had to start dialysis immediately. To do that they had to create access to my system. The result of that is the 3rd picture with the tubes hanging out of my chest. After which I had my first dialysis treatment.
I have not been able to work my job since. Actually I have not been able to work since the first operation on May 23rd of this year.
The Story Part 5
From December 2006 to May 3008 is 17 months. During those 17 months the Drs said my kidney funtion had gone from about 40% to about 12%. Amazing how fast it changed in 17 months while your doing everything the medical people tell you to do compared to how it took 52 years to go from 100% to 40%. But even as recent as March and April of 2008, my Dr was telling me that dialysis was probably a year away,but I would need it eventually. There are several different types of dialysis,you can read more about it by following the link at the side over there——->
Anyways, to prepare for that eventuallity, I was told I needed to have surgery to create what they call vascular access and they what they call a fistula. That is what the first two pictures are from. I was told it would keep me out of work for two weeks. The operation was on May 23rd of 2008.
The Story Part 4
I spent several weeks in the hospital from December 06 to January 07. But when I got out I figured things were “ok”. Not great, but “ok”. I was able to go back to work, and since at the time I owned my own IT/Computer repair shop. I had to start taking medicine every day, which I didn’t like and I had to go see the kidney specialist every month or so, and I was suppose to start watching what I ate more, for instance cut down on salt/sodium which increases your blood pressure but outside of that and taking the meds and spending the money on the specialists life was going along as usual. Being in kidney failure wasn’t such a big deal after all I thought.