Archive for June, 2005

Anna and I decided to go camping this weekend.  Simply put, it was awesome.  I’ll try to post some pictures this week, because the tail end of things needs to be seen to be believed.
So there we were Friday evening, watching the weather get miserable.  After dialysis the last thing I wanted to do was drive up to the park and setup camp, and thankfully my understanding wife agreed so we decided to go up on Saturday.  We woke up Saturday morning to the sounds of pouring rain outside.  In fact, looking out our front door there was a pond in the yard where the rain couldn’t drain quickly enough.  Awesome…  let’s camp!
I was having a bit of trouble getting up, but Anna finally motivated me to roll out of bed and get my pack ready.
After getting the car packed up, it was time to leave.  No more excuses.
Driving towards the park it was totally socked in.  Longs Peak looked like it was covered in thick gray soup, and what little we could see of the mountain was white.
We were a bit worried about arriving at a rainy/snowy campsite, but were pleasantly surprised to get to the park and find it drying out.  We setup the tent and got camp all ready thinking it might rain anytime.  It didn’t though, and we enjoyed a chilly afternoon around a camp fire.
Sunday was absolutely gorgeous.  We planned on driving over Trail Ridge Rd. but found it closed due to a bit of late season snow.
Then we went on a wonderful horseback ride through the Beaver Meadow area.  It was very cool, but like all trail rides, there wasn’t any "fun" riding.
Anyway, now we get to the good part. 
Monday morning we needed to get back in time for dialysis (and Anna’s work), so we left the campsite fairly early.  As we were leaving the park though, we noticed a lot of people pulled over, and a couple of Ranger cars there.  I was sure it would be something like a single elk sitting in the meadow or something equally disappointing luring all of the roadside rubberneckers.
We were pleasantly surprised to find that it was a bear that had drawn all of this attention.  We pulled over of course, and got out to take a look.  I was born and raised in this wonderful state, and this is the first time I’ve seen a bear in the wild.  But this wasn’t just one bear.  It was a momma and two cubs.  The cubs were hard to see, as they were hiding about 15 feet off the ground in a ponderosa pine.
As we watched, we began to realize what was happening.  We noticed two coyotes laying low in the distance, and the mother was obviously very nervous.  After awhile she for whatever reason thought the coast was clear, and called down her youngins.
The cubs came clamouring down the trunk of the tree, and began to follow their mother out into the meadow.  Almost instantly the coyotes (three all of a sudden) came in for the kill.  One of the cubs let out a loud "bleeet" and momma bear got very upset.  Momma ordered the cubs back into the tree, while she turned to keep an eye on the coyotes.  What was hilarious about all of this though, were the actions of those around us.  There was a nice family from Tennessee standing next to us, and as soon as the coyotes moved in for the kill, "dad" went ballistic grabbing his children and practically flinging them back into their car shouting loudly.  Over this (miraculously) you could here the screams of some of the other park visitors as they scrambled for their automobiles.
Anna and I just kind of turned our heads from the bear situation, to watch the situation unfolding behind us.  It was priceless.  Do people even read the literature they get at the park entrance?
That’s right sir, that mother bear whose cubs are about to be eaten is going to stop protecting them, so that she can run over here and eat you and your children.
Several minutes later the Ranger told us that the coyotes had a den nearby, and had kits to feed.  We left before seeing the resolution (we felt weird adding to the "human wall" limiting the bear’s escape possibilities).  I think though, that with three predators, momma had a hard time keeping both cubs safe.
Suddenly the "Circle of Life" tune pops into my head from the Lion King.
Like I said, I’ll try to get pictures up this week… it really was quite fascinating.

I realize this blog is supposed to be about my life on dialysis, which
seems weird because I don’t seem to bring it up much. The reason for
this is because dialysis a part of my life, but not the single defining
element of it. While logistically my life has to revolve around
dialysis, it doesn’t have to in action or purpose. This IS the life of
a 28 year old dialysis patient.
Still though, I feel some might wind up here looking for helpful
information about dialysis, or about ESRD (End Stage Renal Disease), so
I will log some thoughts here. Perhaps in the near future I’ll be able
to create a page on my site dedicated to this, but really that would be
a service to others, not myself (I’ll put that idea in queue with all
the other pages waiting to be developed).
*ESRD – what’s that?*
ESRD, or End Stage Renal Disease refers to kidney failure. Why they
can’t just call it that I don’t know. Actually I do know… anyone
with any medical history as a patient or as a professional knows that
doctors have a penchant for verbosity. Not because they like to hear
their own voice (like that annoying woman in the cubicle next to you who
won’t shut up), but because they like you to know how intelligent they
are, and how many words they memorized in almost 10 years of schooling.
ESRD can occur for a number of reasons. The two most common in this
country are: hypertension (high blood pressure), and diabetes. It is so
important to monitor your blood pressure, even as a young adult, and
make sure it’s within norms. I know more than one “young person” on
dialysis now whose kidney failure was life-style induced, rather than
from disease or sickness. My ESRD was caused by a disease called
Berger’s Disease
<http://atoz.iqhealth.com/HealthAnswers/encyclopedia/HTMLfiles/3248.html>
or Immunoglobulin A Nephropathy (IgA Nephropathy). It is an autoimmune
condition brought about by the IgA proteins in my body deciding they
need to attack my kidneys.
It is not something I caught, rather is something I probably inherited.
around 1998 I began showing signs and symptoms of something going
wrong. Some basic blood-work showed that I was losing kidney function.
It was then decided that I should have my kidney biopsied to figure out
conclusively what was going on. This was of course, a week before I
was scheduled to move to Germany to apprentice in the Shimmel piano
factory.
The results came back conclusively demonstrating that I indeed had IgA
Nephropathy. It was decided though, that because it was slow acting, I
should go ahead and move overseas. I did, and a year later was back in
the U.S. staring down the very real possibility of complete kidney failure.
We quickly began testing for a possible transplant, and my Mother was
approved shortly thereafter. In November of 2000, I received a kidney
transplant from my gracious Mother, and 4 days later was back home (just
in time for Thanksgiving).
Unfortunately a year and a half later that kidney rejected, and I began
dialysis.
So here we are today… I’ve been doing dialysis three times a week for
almost three years now (three years in July).
As my kidney rejected I was pumped full of all sorts of wonderful things
to try to save it. This included solumedrol (the IV form of prednisone)
and a special antibody treatment. Anyone who’s ever had a high dose of
prednisone knows what hell that can be. Well, this was a ridiculously
high dose. It’s actually something I’ve done before, as it was done
several times during “rejection episodes” that occurred during the year
and a half that I had the kidney. Anyway, after being on the verge of
death in the hospital for a few days, and then going bonkers on
prednisone, I was about ready to throw in the towel. Luckily a very
special person had a talk with me and I’m still here.
Thank you Fr. Seraphim.
I woke up one day with a couple of catheters coming out of my neck. One
on the left side for administering the antibody treatment, and one on
the right to begin dialysis (apparently they didn’t have a lot of hope
in the treatment’s ability to recover the kidney). For a few months I
used that catheter, before finally having a permanent access created in
my arm.
*Dialysis Accesses*
There are two main types, the fistula
<http://www.stronghealth.com/services/surgical/Vascular/patientedavfistula.cfm>,
and the graft. The graft is the same concept as the fistula, but is
synthetic material, whereas the fistula is simply an artery connected to
a vein (this brings high volume blood flow to the surface where it is
easily “stickable”).
They “gently place” a couple of 15 gauge needles in it 3 times a week,
and I try my best to sit still for 4 hours while they clean my blood.
Any questions? … actually you can feel free to email me if you have
questions about kidney dialysis with regard to my specific situation, or
if you or someone you know are personally dealing with this.

My quick explanation of dialysis is turning into a novel… I
apologize. I guess this is enough for today.

Like any good webmaster I occasionally look at my "stats" for people coming and going and so forth.  I figured this whole "blog" thing would mostly be something for me to just look back and read myself, to see how I change and interact with my life over time. 
But today I noticed that there are a few people actually visiting this place.  Most are coming from the New Coffee Room forum of which I’m a contributing (albeit worthless) member.  Obviously I furnish a link in my signature bringing people here… but do you realize the two truths this points to?
1) People read my posts there…  (whoda thunk!)
2) People actually want to see what I’m doing day to day!

….  well … after some thought on that second "truth" I’ve realized it’s more "subjective-reverie" than "truth".
I have to be open to the possibility that people are simply winding up here because of their inability to work a mouse, or because they mean to click on the profile of the person posting after me, and because of a precipitant muscle spasm, click on the link in my signature instead.

Well, in any event who are you people?  What are you doing here? 
There are only something like 5 of you so far, so I guess I’m nowhere near the status of Wil Wheaton and his blog (you might remember him as "Wesley" on Star Trek the Next Generation or Joseph ‘Joey’ Trotta in Toy Soldiers ).  But I still wonder who is interested enough to read? 
Geez… now I feel some responsibility to fill this space with quality content. 
In the words of Ben Stein: "I shall do my best."