WebKittyn Warbles

So I went to the kidney specialist today. When I saw him last month he said we would give it six months and see then if I could get off dialysis. If not, onto the transplant list I would go.

I hate dialysis. Yes, it's kind of cool watching the blood running through the tubes and knowing it's my blood. It's kind of surreal, my lifeline running through plastic tubing. The cool ends there.

Common side effects of dialysis:

**Insomnia. The toxins build up and it's worse at night. I haven't slept in 48 hours. I'm so tired it hurts but when I hit the bed at night I toss and turn all night.

**Daily Vomiting. Those pesky toxins again. The kidneys aren't doing the filtering so the toxins have to come out one way or another.

**Lethargy. I walk out of dialysis and I can hardly pick my feet up. It drains everything out of you

**Blood Clotting. There is the constant risk of blood clotting from the graft.

There are more but those are some of the more fun ones, I didn't even get into the mental end of having all the spontaneity removed from your life. In general, it sucks. I hate dialysis.

Back to the doctor.

He gave me some samples of Rozarem so maybe I can sleep again and an anti-nausea pill so maybe I can go a day without puking.

Now for the big news.

I asked him if I could go down to either 2 1/2 hours a session or down to two days a week. He was willing to do the two days a week if I really wanted it but he said hold out. Why?

He said he "really believes" I will be off dialysis in 4-8 weeks. Three months earlier than his original estimate to even consider it!!! My creatinine level dropped from 6.7 to 4.6 in a month(!!!), my potassium was way down, all the levels were fantastic.

He wouldn't make any guarantees but he's one of the best specialists in NY and for him to say what he said it was a lot. People generally don't get off dialysis, this is big. This is the biggest gift of hope I've gotten for myself ever. I broke down in tears when he said it, he came over and hugged me.

I really need to get off dialysis.

Keep your fingers crossed for me. I go back to him on July 11th, that could be the day my life changes again. In the meantime I plan to spend the next month trying to keep to a kidney-friendly diet and doing whatever I can to help it along.

Go, me!