Surviving, healing and flowering after kidney failure.
I never realized how expensive peace of mind could be before my health insurer kicked me off my policy. Of all the things I took for granted before dialysis, health insurance was definitely one of them. When I tore my ACL in high school I had insurance to assist with the surgery and physiotherapy. When I learned I had an …
If I could have ripped it out I would have, but the tube connecting me to the machine was also connected to my heart. The cramping pain was so intense I just wanted it to stop. I was new on the unit, but the other patients were familiar with the struggle. They watched me, no doubt, feeling sympathetic as I …
One day, someone inside the dialysis unit will call my name and say, I remember her. It is the cycle of life. People come and go. As a dialysis patient, get used to it, so say the veteran patients and nurses. The other day I remembered to ask about Kenneth, a patient I hadn’t seen in a few weeks. Last …
My amazingly talented friend Aubrey Smith of Settler’s Cove Productions asked me to do a documentary on my journey so far. I was hesitant at first, but allowed him to do his thing. Didn’t understand his inspiration entirely, but I can see it in the quality of his work. Check out the recently released trailer.
When I walked to Nurse Sears’ office I passed the entrance to the dialysis treatment room; it was the picture of a human factory: Rows of machines with people lying on beds hooked up by tubes; nurses bustling about plugging in and unplugging patients; everything in motion like an assembly line. As one bed became free it was cleaned and a new …