Originally published February 4, 2016 To say this has been a challenging week is a bit of an understatement. Paul and I were very excited to be able to begin home dialysis. His last in center hemodialysis session was on Monday, after a trip to Charlottesville for PD training. We are definitely going to miss the wonderful people at Zion's Crossroads UVA Dialysis Center. Everyone from the staff to the other patients were friendly, helpful and so supportive. But on the other hand, no more 50 mile round trip 3 times a week. No more wasting 3 hours a day 3 times a week, not counting driving time. No more hemodialysis side effects!!!
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Originally published February 11, 2016 This has been a very trying week. After finally getting started with home PD, Paul has done very well with keeping up with his drain/fill times, we're both monitoring his weight, blood pressure and the amount of fluid he drains. It's been an adjustment, especially considering that from Tuesday when we began through Friday we either had to leave the house or had someone here every day. Between all that running around and him attempting to eat a healthy diet with lots of protein while recovering from having 9 teeth extracted on Wednesday it's been a real challenge.
Originally published February 11,2016 Well, after a rocky start it seems as if the peritoneal dialysis at home may be working out. Paul had a very rough first week but that was expected considering that he had 9 teeth extracted the day after we began PD. There were times I was ready to throw in the towel and haul him back to the dialysis center. But, starting on Sunday he began feeling a bit better. In fact Sunday and Monday were the best days he's had so far. He felt less full, had less cramping and was able to begin eating real foods again.
Originally published February 19, 2016 try to make sure to post what is going on with Paul so that everyone who is interested can follow along. I haven't made a post for several days now because, to be honest it's been a really crappy week. It seems as if our huge step forward to doing home PD has just set us up for more issues. It is convenient to be able to dialyze at home, but the problems and side effects aren't fun at all.
Paul has been having severe pain when draining and filling so when we went to his home dialysis team lab appointment we asked the doctor about it. This was especially troubling because while it is common for PD patients to feel some cramping and discomfort while draining there should be no pain involved in filling. Originally published February 22,2016 With all the ups and downs, mostly downs that we've encountered with the home PD it almost feels like I'm jinxing us to say that we may finally be on level ground. Thanks to a crap ton of laxatives (haha see what I did there) Paul should finally be emptied out. His drains and fills have been much less painful this weekend and things seem to be going smoothly as long as we can keep him going smoothly.
Originally published February 23,2016 I got the call yesterday that the cross matching test to see if Paul's body would attack a kidney from me was a negative cross match. That means there was no reaction and I can proceed with the kidney donor process. I'm waiting for a call to schedule my full day at UVA for donor evaluation. During that day I'll undergo several different tests and hopefully will be found physically and mentally able to donate my kidney to Paul. It's very exciting and also a bit frightening, I'm not scared of giving up a kidney or the surgery, my biggest fear is that for some reason I'll be found lacking and not be able to do it for him.
Originally Published February 25, 2016 My donor evaluation appointment has been made. On March 16, 2015 I will deliver Paul to the home dialysis department for his labs and will head over to family medicine at UVA to begin the in depth part of my role in donating a kidney. This will likely be an all day appointment just like the appointment for transplant evaluation was for Paul.
Originally Published April 4, 2016 After being assured that we had nothing to worry about with Paul's hospital bills because Medicare would pay from November 1, 2015, we have now been informed that they will not back date to that point. Despite Paul doing home dialysis they are insisting that they only cover after he had been on dialysis for 4 months.
Originally Published September 29, 2016 Thanks to things going pretty much routinely for the past several months with Paul's health there has been no need to post updates. Peritoneal dialysis is going well, his levels are pretty balanced with a few tweaks to his meds each month after labs. We were able to go on vacation with my family in August. One week at the Outer Banks was nowhere near enough, we had an amazing time. That is just one of the benefits of peritoneal dialysis versus hemodialysis that we've discovered.
Originally published 11/23/2016 I keep telling myself that I'm not excited, that it isn't a done deal and that they could still say no for some reason or another. But the facts are that the unbiased nephrologist that the transplant team wanted me to see has looked at all my test results and informed me that as long as I take a prescription daily med to keep my calcium level under control, and am aware of the dangers of kidney stone problems with one kidney he is telling the transplant team that he thinks I'll be fine to donate a kidney!
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AuthorPaul and Suzanne McKoy''s journey with kidney disease and Home PD. These blog posts have been pulled from the original "All for Paul" website and blog that we used to keep friends and family updated while we were going through this process prior to Paul's transplant on April, 13, 2017. ArchivesCategories |