Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Dialysis: Starting a New Routine


I had finally leaped the big hurdle and started dialysis. After years of denial, dread, and refusal to look at the inevitable future, the treatments had started and for the first time in years, I actually felt better. Even after just four treatments, my creatinine was lower than it had been ten years earlier, when I had my first PKD crisis and my left kidney had been removed.


(Creatinine)

My second week of dialysis started with the same schedule I would keep for the next two years. I was lucky to get on the first shift, so my scheduled treatment was at 6 am. My days were Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I am the director of the wine department of one the largest wine and liquor stores in the DFW area, so I was able to tailor my work schedule to my dialysis schedule. Wednesday's would be my day off, with a choir practice in the evening. I would go to work on Monday's and Friday's after dialysis (and some recovery time) work a closing shift. It was really quite a busy schedule! 45 hours of work, 15 hours at the dialysis center, and 4 hours of choir at church.

But I proceeded to keep the same strategy that I used to deal with kidney disease. If I would just ignore the pain and keep on keeping on, everything would work out in the end. And so far I guess it has!

2 comments:

  1. isn't that kind of the story of our lives in general? we just "keep on, keepin' on"
    so tell me.. do you remember what your Creatinine was when you began dialysis?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm thinking over 8, but I'd have to see if I can find a copy of a lab report. I certainly wasn't as diligent about saving and tracking lab reports as I should have been. Part of the whole denial process I guess.

    ReplyDelete