In a word – …ok…
I’m writing to you live from my fifth day of training, so I’ve only got a couple more to go and then I’ll be ready to take this show on the road, or back to my house, anyways. I had a little hiccup last week that hasn’t been entirely resolved yet, but hopefully it doesn’t interrupt the process anymore so that I can try to get on with this “new normal” in my life!
I really have learned a lot this week, from simply how to connect myself to the PD dialysis machine and make the whole thing work to nutrition, biology, human hygiene … at times it’s been a little overwhelming, but thankfully I’ve had pretty great teachers and their documentation seems to be on the ball, so I’m not too concerned about missing something.
I think the most daunting part is how so many pieces work together to replace the functions of my dying kidneys, and how everything needs to be kept in balance so that fluid levels do what they’re supposed to do and not cause more harm than good, and how pretty much everything bad can eventually lead to peritonitis … which is basically an infection in the area where PD dialysis works and the most dangerous thing to a patient like me!
It’s manageable, yet definitely a big change that is going to require a lot of coordination and time, but it’s better than hemodialysis (which uses needles) and much better than a way too early grave. Fighting it will get me nowhere fast, so I figure the best I can do is come into it with the best frame of mind possible and use it as a daily motivator to live better so that one day when I do get the option for a kidney transplant, I’m in the best shape to receive and make the best of it as the second chance that I really need.
I’m not crazy about making statements like that in my early 40s, but here we are!