Hey Steemers
As I mentioned in my very first post, I have recently been diagnosed with complete kidney failure, I am now only just into my 10th week of treatment.
Part of that treatment is having dialysis three days per week. It takes about 5 hours out of my day each time.
When I was first told I had to have urgent dialysis, I had no idea what it involved.
I didn't even really have much of a clue what the kidneys actually do for your body.
So I figure that most steemers would be in the same boat as I was, with no idea what dialysis even is.
Here is my attempt to show you a day in the life of a renal patient.
Now I always try to walk to the clinic where I have my dialysis treatment. Its about a 40 minute walk at my current pace, and I find that this time spent walking is like a kind of meditation for me. It clears my thoughts and always puts me in a great mood.
I have a lot of medical complications due to the kidney failure, one of them is severe anaemia. This makes it very hard to walk for more than 10 minutes as I feel exhausted very quickly. But i keep pushing through because I know that walking is good for my mind and body.
These are some of the sights I took pics of from my walk in today.
About 1000m further on I finally get to the clinic, its a sterile area and blocked off from the general public so have to press this buzzer and wait to be let in.
When I first get inside I check the board to see which machine I am on....today its number 5
This is a dialysis machine.
They hook up two tubes to my chest here....most kidney patients have whats called a fistula in their arm, but as i am new still i have this which i called a Vascular Catheter. The tubes go straight into my heart.
Now i have been hooked upto the machine (i call it a washing machine as thats basicaly what its doing) and you can see my blood running through out of my chest and into the machine.
Alot of people as if i can feel it, or does it hurt? No generally i dont feel the blood flowing. The only side affect i get is feeling really cold. Like i think the heater in this room is set to 22 degrees celcius, and i am very warm when i first get there, but one the blood is flowing i actually need a warm blanket to cover me other wise i freeze. This is comon with dialysis, you can see these three people who are having diakysis all using blankets as well.
And so it goes for 4 hours, i normally try to have a snooze, watch tv, they have free wifi so might do some stuff online as well.
Then its a reverse procedure to unhook me from the washing machine, and a check of my blood pressure, heart rate etc to make sure I'm OK.
A slight issue i have been having lately is after wards my heart rate is jumping up sharply, last friday my heart rate was over 150 and all i did was stand up!
I normally get my wife, Michelle, to pick me up after, and i usually am feeling pretty tired and just want to crash into bed.
So there you have it, a day in the life of a dialysis patient, thanks for reading through to the end, I wasnt sure if anyone would be interested!
I have attached this video in case you would like to know more about dialysis.