Pilot

Welcome to my take on the world of renal failure, dialysis and the transplant process. Right up front I'll establish my street cred; I have had a lifetime of kidney problems resulting in hospitalizations and ultimately my being placed on dialysis when I was 25. My first stint on dialysis was relatively very short. A year and 2 months after starting dialysis I received a living donation from my friend Jeremy Duncan (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYiEmzRdpAc). Unfortunately, I was not to know good health for very long. 5 years after the surgery I found myself back on dialysis after the donated kidney ran into some sort of trouble and stopped working. My doctors never gave me a reason for the failure.

So here I am, a second timer on dialysis and I've decided to chronicle my experiences of the thrice weekly trips to the dialysis clinic and the arduous process of renal transplantation. I've already been back on dialysis since February and it's pretty much been just as I remembered it. I guess that shouldn't be surprising since it's only been five years. First, we got my dry weight established which is a process where they have the dialysis machine pull as much fluid out of my body for a weeks worth of treatments which establishes a base line weight I should be at. The testing of the weight can be heady. Having a machine pull out all excess fluid, plus a little more, can leave you with painful cramps and a feeling of being completely used up. It's what I imagine running a marathon would be like without having anyone to hand you a little cup of water along the way. Once I was past a couple weeks of feeling like that, the process got pretty routine. I've had access problems, as I did in my first stint, which was ultimately solved by having another fistula created from the basilic vein in my upper arm. I was really fearful that the 15 gauge needles they use for the dialysis treatments would cause a great deal of pain in that part of your arm seeing as it's pretty sensitive skin but it's been pretty good. I usually don't feel a thing, though I know it's not the same for everyone. Some do not take that part of the treatment very well. Now in my ninth month of dialysis, I've gotten used to the "after treatment" feeling again. It feels like you've had a really hard day at work but instead you've been sitting in a chair watching your blood leave your body, get cleaned, then returned to you for 3-4 hours. At least there is free cable. Of course the pay off is getting to feel close to normal on your off days; for me Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Sunday I don't have dialysis either but that's when I usually start to feel the benefits of Friday's treatment wear off. The off days are never long enough.

Today I am writing this blog hoping to do a few things: 1) I'd like to get a sense of what kidney failure is like to deal with out to the general public who probably don't know someone with non-working kidneys, 2) I hope to connect with others who are on dialysis or have been on it in the past who want to share their experiences, and 3) I'd like to use this blog to pass on any news about dialysis or organ donation that might be out there. Mostly it will be the first one, I think dialysis is something that a lot of people find very foreign and I think it would interest them to know what the process is all about, not just technically but personally. How it affects the patient physically, as well as, emotionally. According to a story on azcentral.com,"As of October, 82,385 people were on the waiting list for a kidney in the country." (http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/11/08/20091108kidney1108.html) Thanks to the rising incidence of obesity and diabetes in the United States that number will grow, meaning more and more people will know someone on dialysis. Hopefully this blog will be a different but equally useful tool for those who want to know a different side of the process kidney failure patients have to go through to stay alive, as well as, a place for patients to comment about their experiences.