It’s surprising to me how little my friends and associates know about kidney failure and dialysis. Most think the dialysis process is a short-term cure—it’s not, merely a long-term treatment option. Neither is a transplant a cure—only another (hopefully, but not always) long-term treatment option. Perhaps the biggest misconception is that dialysis patients only need dialysis for a short while and then they’re cured. Not so. Once a dialysis patient always a dialysis patient save for transplant or death.
Krissi Bates writes extensively about her dialysis (and soon, transplant) experience at mykidney.com. She’s published an excellent series of photographs explaining visually what dialysis is like. Her images are anexact representation of my experience with the following exceptions:
- I don’t carry pillows and blankets with me; I wear a fleece sweatshirt and crappy clothes
- The color of my chair is different
- She has better television
- I use bigger needles
- Considerably more fluid (4.5Kg) is removed during my dialysis runs
- My dialysis runs are considerably longer (four hours)
This will be especially useful for my four-year-old goddaughter who thinks going to dialysis is going to Diann’s house. “He goes there a lot,” she said last week.
Thanks for the shout-out! My transplant was over a month ago, now, and things are awesome. If you’re interested in my transplant pictures, they’re up on the site, too :)