Sorry to hear about the passing of your niece's brother-in-law. But I'm glad to hear that you are doing well.
My mother has suffered with a kidney disease for most of my life. She had to do dialysis, then she got a transplant, about 12 years later that kidney failed and now she is on dialysis again, waiting for another transplant. There is now a dialysis center near their home, but the first time she did dialysis the nearest one was about a 40 minute drive away. To me, that seems like nothing. But my parents opted to train and do the dialysis right there in our home. I was in middle school at the time. My mom didn't want a permanent port sticking out of her stomach, so 4 times a week my dad had to insert giant needles into her arm (they actually did surgary to make her veins bigger there, so they could handle it) and she had to be hooked up to that machine, in our family room, for 4 hours at a time. My dad had to take so much time off work for the training, and he had to basically play doctor to her, which had it's good and bad moments. It was quite a sacrifice. And it went on for 2 1/2 years before she got her donor kidney. Does anyone else have stories about dialysis, particulary anyone else who has dealt with doing it at home. I've never met anyone else who's lived through that.
This time around she's been on dialysis for over 4 years now, waiting for a donor. Of course, I urge everyone to be organ donors. She's lucky there is kidney dialysis, but for most organ failures there is no such option.
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Originally posted by transformer
