The Adventures of Kidney Boy

A Journal About Living With End Stage Renal Disease. Dialysis. Transplants. Love. Family. Friends. The Unsung Donor. This is my life, from the end of a needle to the bottom of a pill bottle.

Thursday, April 7, 2016


4/7/2016

I literally almost died during the colonoscopy.  No joke; I don't talk about it much anymore, and I don't remember talking about it much at the time - but the anesthesiologist really messed up during this.  I was on dialysis, and given a fluid expander, which is a no-no.  My lungs filled with blood, my BP dropped, and I was choking. If Jordan​ hadn't been in the room monitoring the process, I'd have died in a freak accident in North Medical Center.  Her quick thinking and stepping to action saved my life.  I woke up coughing, feeling groggy, and a bit stuffed up.  Turns out I was coughing massive amounts of blood all over the room and walls.  The nurse who worked there had the audacity to say, "Please stop coughing blood all over the walls, sir!" as if I was doing it purposefully and maliciously.  Also, later, I found out the doctor found a mass and at the time said, "Oh, there's the cancer."  I can only imagine what ran through my wife's mind.

I've, uh, been through some things in the past 13 years that I don't often recall or talk about much.  You just file some of these things away, or else you'd go crazy thinking about them. All I know is that I would be literally dead if it wasn't for my wife, and that's not hyperbole.  Her picture's gone around the world for such a silly thing, but not many people know what a real hero she is.  Reading this "memory" reminded me of all that, again.  I've been lucky and fortunate in so many ways in my life, in spite of what some people might deem a raw deal.  I wouldn't change a thing I've experienced.


~Steve