Well I went to the PD (Peritoneal Dialysis) Clinic to determine if I am eligible for it. turns out I am a good candidate for the procedure. so now it getting Dr. Caldwell to "hear" me o this. He wants to wait until I have only 10% function...I am now at 15%. The big thing to get used to would be doing dialysis 4 times a day. Oh and the dialysis nurse knew my godfather Ike Brydlt. That was a shocker :) Ike did more for kidney transplant (live non-relative donation) more than I was aware of.
You see back when I was 17 or 18, I woke up one morning to his picture splashed all over the morning newspaper (the Edmonton Sun). You see Ike had placed an add for a kidney as he was on hemodialysis, PD was not thought of or it was in its infancy. I am talking 1982-1983 here. I didn't even know that he was that sick as no one had ever told me. I think I remembered being shocked and angry. Shocked because he looked horrible and angry that he could do that, just advertise for a kidney like he could buy one ore something.
Now I am glad that he had the courage to do the story that he did. it brought organ donation and dialysis to the forefront. Now it is almost routine to be able to do a non-relative, live kidney donation and there is the peritoneal dialysis which makes thinks so much better for renal patients who are dealing with kidney failure.
One thing that did get explained to me, was once a patient gets a kidney infection, it is really difficult to get rid of the infections. So my repeat infections were not my fault. i wasn't doing anything wrong at all. Just that the because the kidney has so many tubes, nooks and crannies as it were, that it is hard to get rid of an infection once one has developed. Add in that it took 3 months for the first infection to be diagnosed. My doctor thought I had pulled my back muscles because I was working as a nanny at the time and I was lifting a one year old a lot.
It was finally my boyfriend, who convinced me to get a second opinion and that was when I found out it was a baaaaaaad kidney infections.
So here is hoping we can get things done. I am hoping we can convince Dr. Caldwell sooner rather than later as I will need 4 weeks to heal after the catheter is put into the peritoneal (the "belly") cavity. Wow sponge baths fora month...hubby brightened up on that thought...lol. The pain has been getting me down as well has almost no energy. I want my life back! So i am hoping this works :)
Cora
