Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Dialysis 101

Sorry for the delay in posts. I generally like to wait until I feel good to write a post, and I really have not felt good recently. I don’t seem to have energy to do anything, and have to force myself to do the necessary things.

Anyway, this is the part of the process that becomes a grind, nothing new to see here, move along, the excitement is over. Recovery from this operation.... 1-6 months. Time required to get used to dialysis..... unknown.

I am not sure if it is just the general recovery from the anaesthesia and the operation, or just how you feel on a diet of dialysis 3 times a week. I was hoping to use the dialysis time to do something useful, but that does not look like it is going to happen. After a month of dialysis, I can only remember one person reading a book..... The rest, including me, are mostly lying back with their eyes closed, or watching TV. The process seems to make me very tired. I feel my best the day after dialysis, and not too bad the morning of dialysis.

The dialysis center itself is a curious place. The literature shows lots of healthy looking people with smiles on their faces, but the reality is very different. Lots of old sick people..... none of them smiling.... I may be the youngest and healthiest person there. (Yikes, that is hard to believe.) It has the same ambience as the chemo clinic at the cancer hospital. No doubt, everyone there is happy that the technology exists to keep us alive, but, there is no apparent joy in the process.

Anyway, my plan for situations like this has always been the same..... Keep on walking, put one foot in front of the other and keep plodding along. Several of my doctors (yes there are many) want to diagnose me with depression, and have offered drugs and/or therapy to get over the hump. I think that I will wait a bit longer before I head down that slippery slope.

Thanks for all of the comments and support.