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.

Friday, October 19, 2018

The Kidney Boy Returns to Dialysis

Last Sunday, I woke up very early in the morning and went into the bathroom to do my usual business.  I noticed, however, that I was breathing very rapidly and very shallowly.  I went and told my wife - inititally we thought I was having a panic attack, but when my chest began to rattle and I spit up blood, we knew we had to call an ambulence.

I threw on some pants, a shirt, shoes, made sure I left my keys home, grabbed my wallet and insurance cards and waited for the EMTs.  They showed up, and gracefully loaded me into the ambulance and took me off to the hospital.

I spent the next five days there.  In that time, it was determined that I had pulmunary edema from excess fluid, congestive heart failure, and kidney failure and I'd need to go on dialysis.  Good thing I didn't remove my fistula after my last kidney transplant.  It worked like a charm.  I did dialysis on Tuesday.  It was rough, and I did not feel well afterwards.  The whole day is a blur for me.  Wednesday, another session - this time, much better.  I tolerated the treatement, recovered much quicker and Thursday, we had a great session of dialysis.  Friday, I did my last of the week, and I went home from the hospital.

I was hard being away from my wife and children this whole week; I can't even yet put it all into words, which is why I'm hastily writing this down.  I'll go into it more later, I'm sure, but I know I'm lucky to be alive.  So many people my age do just sadly die... but I don't want to yet.  I've got so much to live for.