My Life On Dialysis

As one who tends to chase after destiny,and step back from common sense in order to see what is beyond.

I was shocked and shaken when four and a half months ago my health began to fail, I had trouble holding down a single meal, and not being the kind of person who gives up easily I continued to press on.

Knowing only that the God who brings life to the dead and calls those things which are not as those they were would stand in my defence and bring life to my body.

I have seen Him open deaf ears, and remove tumours and lumps, completely remove pain from peoples bodies, and I just naturally assumed my friend Jesus would do the same for me.

So I continued on

I threw up every day, and I turned a permanent yellow color, I also began to get painful uncontrollable cramps in my legs and hands and stomach.

after a month of this constant sickness, we gave in and went to the local hospital for a blood test, we returned home and within half an hour, we had a phone call from the hospital, an anxious sounding dr said" It is vital that you come in as we have found some abnormalities in your blood."

So we packed a bag just in case and headed in, the first Dr we spoke to told me that my kidney had failed and If I don't get treatment I will die.

given such a friendly option we went for treatment, I was sent down to acident and emergency with a letter in my hand, after handing it in I was taken through and placed in a hospital bed, the next day I was transfered to a specialist hospital for people with kidney problems.

we soon discovered a great lack in information, the first diagnoses I read while travelling in the back of the ambulance, it said "this young man has End Stage Renal failure."

To me End stage means you are going to die, but I was reasured, well kind of, by the ambulance guy that many people can live a long and happy life on Dialysis !.

Hospital number two:

So I arrived at the next hospital followed shortly by my wife, within twenty minutes a group of Dr's aproached us and I was informed, "Your kidney is not working, that means that your blood is full of toxins, and if we do not treat you, you will die."

given the options or lack of it, we accepted that I be treated and within an hour they performed a small operation to put "A groin line in" a groin line I later discovered is a small temperary tube used as an access in order to dialise you.

the idea of anyone coming near my groin with a scalpel terrified me, but as I had no choice I went through with the operation which takes place while under a local anasthetic, and it was pretty painless.

Introductions :

That night I receieved dialysis treatment for the first time, we knew nothing about what was happening only that I was plugged into a machine, and hopefully it would help.

I remained in the hospital for two weeks, and during that time, I colapsed had fits, and generally had a lot of discomfort, during this time I was told that I would be on dialysis three times a week for the forseable future.

to describe all the emotions we went through would really take a while, but to give you an idea, me and my wife spent at least three days crying, confused, angry, afraid. ect