A Man, His Dog and Kidney Disease
Just a little over one year ago, I was diagnosed with stage 4 renal failure (severe damage and loss of kidney function). Things progressed rapidly and by November my prognosis had been changed to stage 5, better known as end stage kidney failure. At this point, my kidney function was reduced to approximately 4% and we began the inevitable preparations for beginning dialysis.
According to the National Kidney Foundation, symptoms for stage 5 or ESKD include urinating less or not all, itchy/dry skin, fatigue, numbness in your arms, legs, ankles & feet, muscle cramps. shortness of breath, nausea, loss of appetite/weight loss and trouble sleeping. From my personal experience, this list is by no means exhaustive and there are effects that are not listed and way worse. We will discuss these at length later, but I think it is more prudent to explain how I got here and what my intentions are with this site.
In my twenties I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Yes, that is often called juvenile onset diabetes. I try not to overthink that name. I have yet to meet a doctor who could give me a satisfactory answer on how this developed. The theories run the gamut from a possible military service connection to my pancreas possibly never quite working right and just deciding to one day give up the ghost.
Regardless of the initial reason for my development of diabetes, I spent a lot of years vacillating between trying to take care of myself and completely pretending that I was normal and ignoring the disease at hand. As I got older, I did try to take care of myself more, but due to my late diagnosis and previous poor self-care, I experienced a sharp decline in my health.
Two years ago, my heart began to fail. This culminated in by-pass surgery. During this time, it became apparent that my kidneys were also beginning to fail. While it is uncertain whether my heart caused my kidney issues or vice versa, both are symptomatic of diabetes mellitus. So here we are.
It is my hope to chronicle this journey. If all goes well, this story will be one of a successful road to a kidney transplant and a return to a somewhat normal life. It will include copious tales of my adventures with my pup, Cooley – our self-care, walks outside, forays into the world around us and our learning to live life and try to do our best each day. With a little luck, we can inspire others who are living with chronic illness or those just simply weary of the world to not give up. Life changes but it is still a worthwhile option.
Some people stop living long before they die. Work a dead end job just to scrape on by. But I keep living just to bend that note in two and I can’t die now ’cause I got another show to do. – Drive-By Truckers, “The Living Bubba”
