Well my life has changed since I started losing my last Transplant. Went so downhill, so fast. Weight just fell off me and was constantly tired. It comes to something when you ask to start Dialysis, but having been through it all before I knew what would happen if I left it till I really needed to start. As far as my blood results were concerned I could of waited, but I was feeling so rough I knew I couldn’t.
Once I started the difference was immediate, even with only a couple of hours Dialysis a time. But then the fistula problems started, my veins would just collapse. When I had the Fistula done, the surgeon ( Mr Campbell) who I have known for many years from the MRI, said I had veins of a 70 year old. Bit much as I was only 40, but that’s the pleasure of being a Kidney patient since I was 2.5 months old. Well we kept trying to build my Fistula up but it wasn’t to be. I was getting hardly any Dialysis, sometimes only an hour in a week. Luckily my results were still OK . But it got to the point where there was no other choice but to start again. This time I had my new Fistula surgery at Salford Royal. I had never had a procedure done at this hospital as I only started attending when I was losing my Kidney. I was a little apprehensive but it was to be Mr Campbell again, that made it easier to deal with. You get used to doctors over the years and always feel more at ease with one you know and more importantly, knows you. I had a line put in whilst I was under so didn’t have to worry about missing more Dialysis.
Once this Fistula matured and we started using it, things once again were not going right. Once again the veins seemed to be collapsing. So off for a Doppler scan and was told it was actually very good. As time went on my results got a little worse, so more time on the machine.
Jump to the last few months and now doing the obligatory 4 hours on Dialysis, I still have a little trouble now and then but all in all things are looking up. I must have some function left in the Transplanted Kidney as I am not on any diet or fluid restriction, the latter one of the hardest things about Dialysis. The goal is at some point to go on Home Dialysis as I have done this before, but not quite there yet. I do needle myself from time to time but still need to build my Fistula up a bit more.
In the last 11 months, I have put on 11 kilos in body weight, still get tired, but not as bad.
The last month or so have helped me so much, I have gone from doing very little to getting involved in quite a few things and feeling so much more alive. Being involved in this group, running the Bolton dialysis units Facebook page, getting involved in the Dialysis games and also hoping to volunteer for this years Transplant games. My life is getting busier by the day. Goes to show there is always light at the end of the tunnel.
