Diabetes and Dialysis #14



Another month has gone by and Christmas is just a few weeks away. Most of the shopping is done and we go to get our tree tomorrow.



I am just a big kid and I love Christmas. I love the tree, and by the way it MUST be a live one. Ain't no plastic tree in my house. Our family has always favored long needle pines. My dad liked white pines. In North Carolina we used to go out in the woods and cut one down. Usually they were yellow pines but we loved… Continue

Diabetes and Dialysis #13

Well here it is the month of November. Thanksgiving will be here soon and Christmas won't be far behind.

On the dialysis front I am still in goal on all my blood tests. In fact, other than my protein levels, everything is spot on. My protein is in the band just a little lower than they would like.

Still not taking any "binders". These are drugs they give you that will bind with specific things in your blood that allows the dialysis process to…

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Diabetes and Dialysis #12



So many changes. Oh not in the realm of diabetes or dialysis.



I now have a bouncing baby 10 year old boy rampaging through my house.



Now to be fair that is not true. My grandson has come to live with us and I wish my own kids had been this good at the age of 10! He just started school here in Mississippi yesterday and when he got home from school he nearly tackled me and that is no small feat...lol. You seem to forget so much when you… Continue

Diabetes and Dialysis #11

I guess it happens to all of us. I know it happens to my fellow diabetics regardless of what type you are. Of course it also happens to me. You get to the point where you are just sick of it. I find myself with that feeling tonight after my five and a half hour four hour dialysis treatment.

I am still using a chest catheder because my av fistula access has not matured yet. Chest catheders, I have found, are very cantankerous. Move your head wrong and…

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Dialysis and Diabetes #10

Well this little blog post is way overdue. Post #9 was entered on June 9th and here it is July 15th. Where has the month plus gone?

I call this blog post dialysis and diabetes but I never seem to talk about the diabetes side of things. So let me rectify that right up front in this post.

I went to see my endo this past Friday (Friday the 13th no less) and I got some really good news. Not only had I lost 34 pounds my A1c was 5.4!

Looking…

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Diabetes and Dialysis #8

It has been a hell of a week and it is just barely half over.

I got my first outpatient dialysis session on Tuesday. These sessions require me to leave work early. Soooooo I have to work extra hours on the days that I am here all day to make up the lost hours.

So Monday was a 13 hour day. Tuesday was 7 hours followed by 4 hours in a chair at the dialysis center. Oh, and for some strange reason (I think the dialysis machine sucked my brains out) I…

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Diabetes and Dialysis #7 - Round 1 Is Over



Well I am sitting in my nice comfortable hospital room...okay, it's not nice. So I am sitting here in comfortable hospital...not buying that one either huh?





So I am here in my hospital room with a neck that is kind of achey and the first round of dialysis completed. Tolerated things okay it's just the cathader in my neck that is bothering me a little. But I am in my own jammies have internet so can't be all… Continue

Diabetes and Dialysis #6A

Along with every thing else that is going on with this dialysis stuff, I have to suffer a great humilation.

What I got told (well after the fact mind you) is that I need to be exercising the right hand to help the AV fistula mature. I had no idea until I took the tour of the dialysis center. That was who told me. Okay, to be truthful my wife had also read it on the ihatedialysis.com website.

So they gave me this egg shaped thing to squeeze on. I…

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Diabetes and Dialysis #6

The time has come.

Got notified by the kidney doctor yesterday that my little honey moon period is over. I am slated to go to the hospital next Thursday to get a catheter dialysis access installed and they will give me two more units of whole blood then give me a short (2 hour) dialysis treatment. That will be followed on Friday by the second treatment which will be closer to the normal four hours.

The week following I will start my three days a…

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DIabetes and Dialysis #5

Welcome to the fifth installment of my blog as I start down the road towards starting dialysis. It helps me so much that I can write this and have others read about what I am going through.

I went for a tour of the dialysis center that I will be using once the dialysis starts. I really don't know whether this has helped me or not. I will tell you that I still would recommend it to anyone who has to go down this path. If nothing else it gives you the…

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Diabetes and Dialysis #3

Today marks the two week anniversary. Two weeks ago today I received the news that my kidney function was critical and that I would have to start dialysis.

In the past two weeks the I have been riding an emotional rollercoaster. On one hand I was told I needed to start dialysis. On the other hand I have not been placed on dialysis yet. On one hand I have been told that my kidney function (or lack thereof) is critical. On the other hand no one seems to…

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Diabetes and Dialysis #2

Just got back from the first surgical consult to setup getting the "plumbing" installed so that I can start dialysis. The surgeon was one of those doctors that I generally really like talking to. He was very outgoing and loved to talk and crack jokes. That is usually right up my alley.

Now please don't get me wrong. I like this surgeon. At least it first impressions are any indication. But today I just wasn't into that. I have come to terms with the…

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Those that know me well here on Tu know that I have been absent the past couple of days. I got some news that threw me for a loop and I had to take some time to get it all internalized.

I have to start dialysis. Hence the name of this blog, D & D, as in Diabetes and Dialysis.

My idea with this blog is not to scare anyone. But if telling all of you about the path I am on and the things that happen makes you take better care of yourself, then I would consider this blog a…

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I just read a post by a person who is T1 and is trying to get a job as a MRI technician. Problem. The person uses a pump and the pump cannot be worn inside that strong of a magnetic field. So the person is worried that they will not get the job. The kicker. The job involves diabetes research. Let me see if I understand this correctly. A person with diabetes may not get a job aiding in diabetes research because that person is a diabetic.



When I read this persons post it made me… Continue