I thought I had a live donor for a kidney.  We spent two days at UC Davis only to find that the proposed donor needed both of their kidneys to complete their life.  I went through a depression that was a deeper than I would have imagined.  I am now on medication for the depression and I feel much better.

The major milestone that has most reticently been achieved is I am at the two year mark for having been on dialysis.  Frankly, this has been accomplished by simply taking this one day at a time.  In the past two years I have had three surguries to build two access sites (fistulas), two Colonoscopies, two chemical stress tests, one angiogram, two surgeries to place permacaths in my chest and two surgeries to remove the tubes.  I have run through all my sick leave.

This has not been easy.  I could not have done it without the support and love from my family and especially the never ending love of my wife.

Davita, Orangevale, CA

Hello again.  As the title says, dialysis becomes a way of life.  Your entire life centers around your scheduled dialysis.  You really do not have an off time.  You no more than leave the facility before you are thinking about your next visit.

As with all things, there is a rhythm to dialysis.  For me, this rhythm begins in the morning before my dialysis appointment.  The facility is kept rather cold for several reasons, or so I am told.  First, the room is kept cold because the staff is required to wear protective clothing which is rather warm to wear while working.  Second, the room is kept cold for infection control.  After all, there is a lot of people coming and going each day and there are many opportunities of infection to be spread.

So, early in the morning, as I get dressed for the day, I wear several layers of clothing which makes me look as if I am going on a visit to the snow up in the mountains.  It is a bit warm to wear during my work day and I get hot I can peel off some layers but, when I need it, I am ready to take on the cold room.

The cream is so nice.  Be advised that some health plans will not cover this cream.  My health plan had to do some research to allow the plan to cover the costs of the cream.  In my experience, this allows a very uncomfortable experience to be tolerable.  If the technician that is “hooking you up” is good with a needle, they slowly insert the needle and slowly push the lidocaine in for just a second, wait a few seconds and then continue the push.  The wait allows the lidocaine to work and if this is done correctly, you feel nothing.  The cream numbs the skin and just below the skin allowing nothing to be felt.  If your technician pushes too fast you will feel the lidocaine “burn” but it is significantly less than what you feel if you do not pre-medicate yourself.

My Hemo Dialysis Photo

I began this process thinking that I would put up on the WEB a photoblog.  I believe I still will have a photoblog here but right now it has struck me that maybe I should put my dialysis experiences up for anyone that is going through this or help pass on some information to someone who is about to undergo this experience.

Frankly, a few years ago I was feeling absolutely awful.  Summer was coming and I really wanted to take a photo safari up the Oregon coast.  I was researching the trip on the WEB and I had a pretty good idea how I was going to approach the trip.  The only real problem was the I was so fatigued all the time.  I would get home from work and it was all I could do to make dinner and then I simply crashed.  I had no idea of what was happening but I eventually learned that my kidneys were rapidly failing.

Knowing my vacation was rapidly approaching I began the process.  I thought I was going to camp on the way up the Oregon coast.  I got all my equipment together and began the process of loading up the car.  What would normally have taken an afternoon to complete,  began to take two days.  Carrying out the equipment to my car was almost too much to do.  I would make a trip outside and then have to sit and rest for an hour.  None the less, I finally got the car loaded and I headed out.

As I was driving up I-5 it became apparent that after driving for most of the day I would not have the energy to pitch a tent let along make dinner.  So, as the trip was just beginning I decided to stay at motels.  I was stopping as the moment allowed to shoot some pictures so,  I was getting breaks almost every hour and that alone helped me keep going.

The plan was to make it to the Washington/Oregon border on I-5 and then head over to the Oregon coast.  Well, as I approached that landmark I got the idea to head on north to Canada.  I am a huge ice hockey fan and I have always wanted to go to the “mother country” of the greatest game on earth.   So, I forged on north.  I ended up in Vancouver.  Yes, I was in Canada but,  I was too tired to really enjoy the experience.  In fact as I was taking in the sights, I was beginning to wonder how I was going to get home, I was that tired.

Well, I did make it home, how I sometimes wonder.  I am not one to go to the Doctor.  This fatigue was something that needed to be looked at.  So, my chicken self, got into the Doctor, had some blood tests and the the news hit very hard.  I was told my kidneys were failing and the I had three choices.  One was to do nothing and die.  A second option was peritoneal dialysis.  The final option was hemodialysis.

My health care provider is Kaiser Permanente and they offered a class which provided all the information you need to make an informed decision which directly affects your quality of life and your ability to stay alive.  Which ever form of treatment you decide  to use, surgery would be required to allow access for the treatments.

As I learned,  peritoneal dialysis would require a tube to be surgically placed in your abdomen for placing and replacing fluids into your body at regular intervals.  It is done at home but requires lots of storage of the supplies and the time to complete the treatments.  Many patients are successful with this form of treatment but, I did not have the space to store the volumnous amount of supplys not did I want to have a tub hanging outside of my body….I have been down this road (tubes hanging out of my body) before and I really did not want to have the tubes again.

Enough for this entry…..more to come…..

]]> http://photoward.wordpress.com/2009/03/18/hemo-dialysis/feed/ 2 photoward photo http://photoward.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/breakfast-buddy/ http://photoward.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/breakfast-buddy/#comments Wed, 11 Mar 2009 03:58:08 +0000 photoward http://photoward.wordpress.com/?p=105 ]]> Her I am again.  I had a pretty good weekend photographing a belly dancer for the first time.  I drove up to Diamond Springs to do the shoot.  It was a really nice day and the drive was uneventful.  I will be posting some of the results as I get permission to do so.

In the meantime, We got to take care of my Granddaughter Sofie today.  As we were waiting for her to arrive I had a breakfast buddy, Buddy the Cat.  He is always around when there is any food around.  Needless to say, even bagels will prompt his visit simply to see what is goin on.

Buddy the breakfast cat.

Sofie is cutting some new teeth and so she was running a bit of a fever.  None the less she is a happy kid and most always is in a good mood.

These were all shot without flash at vairying IOSs os 500 to 3200.

My first dialysis access was tubes, called a perma cath, surgically placed in my chest.  I then had surgury in my left forarm with the goal of building a A/V fistula.  This access failed just after the perma cath removed was removed.  So, back in to surgery to have the perma cath replaced.  Then, the surgeries began again to build a new A/V fistula, this one to be located in my upper left arm.  This took two surgeries to complete.  It has now been about a year that the access has been in place.

Frankly, the hardest thing about being on dialysis is the diet and not being able to drink anything to the point of satisfying my thirst.  In the beginning, I thought getting stuck by the large needles would be the hardest part.  That is really is not a big thing.

Very few foods satisfy the requirements of having low phosphorus and potassium that a dialysis diet requires.  Since my kidneys cannot remove any fluid from my body, I have to limit any fluids  I place into my body.  I am constantly struggling with both of these items.  I am a Type II diabetic also which complicates it even that much more.

The fatigue that I am experiencing is very frustrating.  I am trying to work a 40 hour week.  To do so is getting harder and harder.  My hobby is suffering to the point that photography is a chore and simply getting out the equipment is so tiring that I am now not getting it out at all.

Hello readers. Here I go again. As I was sitting at my computer I looked up and this is what I saw. Buddy was keeping an eye on me. It seems that he keeps a pretty close watch on me. We had my granddaughter for a night and a day this week. As Sofie, my granddaughter, would sit in my lap and then go off to play, Buddy would jump up in my lap making me think he is a bit jealous and requires a little love to reaffirm his place in my life.

I find it a little difficult to write but, I am going to keep trying this to see if I really can blog.

Tree Blooms

This a grand experiment in getting to the WEB.  I will be enclosing photos as they com available.

This photo is a great example of what is happening now around Roseville.  Spring is close by and the trees are letting us know.