Dialysis Living - Photo blog

I am feeling a little better these days, although tired.  My neurologist doubled the dose on one of my meds.   It makes me sleepy so I only take it at night.  I still feel groggy and "hung over" from it in the morning.  Now I have twice the dose.  I have been doing a lot of sleeping the past few days.  I just can't seem to stay awake very long.  It will take me a little while to become accustomed to the new dose.  Other than that, things are ok and I am not so sad.

I grew up knowing what peritoneal dialysis was.  My Dad did peritoneal dialysis for three years before he received his kidney transplant when I was a teenager.  I grew up knowing there were two types of dialysis and I knew quite a bit about both.  I worked as a Nurse Aide at Beaumont Hospital when I was in High School.  I happened to be assigned to the kidney care floor.  So, I was really informed about all aspects of the care of kidney patients even before my Dad was diagnosed with kidney failure.

I chose peritoneal dialysis because I could do my dialysis at home and while I sleep at night.  (It didn't always work like that... Twenty years ago, my Dad had to do manual peritoneal dialysis four times every day.  That's not easy.)

Here's what my cycler set-up looks like...  It's up in my bedroom right next to my bed.  I needed storage for my supplies, but the dialysis carts that are sold through medical equipment providers are much more expensive.  And blah plain.  I got a 3 shelf wire cart from Target and also bought some colorful bins there too.  Much cheaper and much prettier!  It doesn't match the rest of my bedroom but who cares?  I just wanted something cheerful.  Period.  I think Nate Berkus will understand.

Celena added a baby peacock sticker she made for me to make the cycler look pretty :)

Here is my monthly supply of cycler bags.  There are between two and four bags in each box.  (I go through 2 bags per night).

See how icky it makes my office look?

I mentioned in passing to my friends, JoAnn and Jeff that there wasn't anything I could do about those ugly boxes in my pretty office.  Jeff replied "Wanna bet?"  So, he came over and took some measurements.  Here is Mark and Jeff at work installing my new shelf to hide the boxes...

 

Hayden helped too!

And the final product!

Much better, I think!  My thanks to Jeff for making the shelf and to JoAnn for making the curtain for the front.  It is so nice not having those boxes staring me in the face each time I go in that room.  I love my office even more now!

As you can see, I get through all of this with the help of my friends and family!

Peace,

Jenny