Dealing w/ Chronic Kidney Disease with Crystal

Good morning, everyone. Hope you all are doing well today. Here in Lowell, it has been a rainy week. All is well, though, as of right now. I have been doing well in dialysis, so this is why I am saying that. Lately, though, I have been tired more so and not feeling the desire to do much. With this in mind, my darling daughters have been helping me out some. But to come home and not feel the desire to wash my dishes, clean up, and anything else necessary, it really irks my chain. I want to do the things that I say, but it is just so hard to do them when I feel worn out from dialysis or work. Yes, I get that way a lot. So, for those of you who have a kidney disease, try to find someway to get up and move around at least. I, for one, know that moving is the best medicine, but when I have days like this, I need help. Find someone to go walking with, someone to talk to, or just someone to have a shoulder to lean on. Ciao for now.

Good evening, everyone. I hope you all are doing well this evening. Of course, it is nearly 11:00 pm. So this may be just a short entry. It depends on how much I talk or babble to you all. I had one of my dialysis treatments today. As I told you all before, I have been cramping for the last several treatments. Today, I didn't cramp, which is a good thing. It made me feel good. I made sure to take me something to drink (a Sobe drink), a pack of peanut butter crackers, some canned fruit, and some apple sauce. I should be able to remember that this is what I had to do when I first started doing the treatments. All in all, I was also able to pen a poem about my treatments: No one ever waned to be here But unlike others, I enjoy my time The workers here have become so very dear So dear that I wanted a poem that rhymes. I have become accustomed to this crazy world As one will when they have a kidney disease We get hooked to machines without a quarrel. Instead, with all th...

Good afternoon, everyone. Hope you are doing well these days. And yes, I know that it has been over a month since I last blogged. I am sorry for the long length of time of being away from my computer. I have had a couple of tough weeks at dialysis and haven't been up to my normal energized self. The reason that I have had it rough is that I have been cramping up the last 4 or 5 times while being at dialysis. When I get my cramps, they start in my toes. My toes start going every which way and then the cramp goes into the bottoms of my feet. After that, it starts heading up towards my lower leg. And when I get these cramps, it is way worse than when you get a charley horse. And I am sure that most of  you know how bad those can hurt. On the days of these cramps, I am totally worn out when I get home. Therefore, I do not feel up to doing anything else. So please forgive me for not being able to blog as much. I will try to do better. Other than the cramping, I would say that I am...

Good afternoon, everyone! I hope you all have had a great weekend. I had a decent weekend, too. I know that I haven't been up to par on my blogging, but hey, I am only human. And today's entry is going to bring you into my lovely little world of a day at dialysis. This will also include something that came to me yesterday. They called me on Friday afternoon asking me if I would like to come in early on Saturday morning for dialysis, Naturally, I said yes. For me, an ideal day of dialysis means that I get to go in early and still be able to do things with my kids in the afternoon.This meant that I got to go in at 6:30 am Saturday morning. And when I get there and they are ready for me, I head in to get weighed and my temperature's taken. They don't measure the patients in pounds, though. We get measured in kilograms. Once the weighing and the temperature taking is done, they let me know which chair I am in  for the day. I head that way to put my stuff down and get...

Good morning, everyone. Hope you are having a great holiday weekend so far. First off, I would like to say that I am sorry for not blogging in the last two weeks. It has been a hectic two weeks trying to get things ready for the fundraiser that I held at my church, and speaking at the church that I work at  for their fundraiser for me. I have to admit that I was a little nervous about what I was going to talk about, but hey, my family was there to support me. Thank God for family. I got through the talk just fine. The podium was there and I was able to support myself by holding onto it. The luncheon was great. We had spaghetti, salad, bread, dessert, and drink. As of right now, I was given a guesstimate of about $2400. Yes, can you believe it? I couldn't and I am still trying to comprehend the amount. And the total for my fundraiser was $1175. So all together, as a total, that would come to $3575. This really supersedes the total from last year's total...$2500. Way to go,...

Good morning, everyone. I hope you all are doing great for it being a Monday morning. This past week has been a whirlwind for me. It is getting closer and closer to my fundraisers and still in the process of getting things together for these events. They both are in two weeks. I will be having both on the same day. That's just how things fell into place. These fundraisers will be on Sunday, May 18. The first one (a spaghetti luncheon) will be from 12:00 until 2:00 pm while the second one (a fundraiser benefit) will be from 4:00 pm until 7:00 pm. The first fundraiser will be at First United Methodist Church in Dallas, NC. This is the church that I have worked for for six years as of the 12th of May. I have been blessed to have such a great church as a work place. The congregation and the pastor have been so great, and I hope to be here as long as the last secretary - 32 years. The meal that they have planned consists of spaghetti, salad, dessert, tea, and coffee. This sounds goo...

Good morning, everyone. Hope you all are having a great weekend so far. I know I am. Right now, I am hoping that the dialysis center will call me to ask if I would like to come in early today. This is the norm for me on Saturdays. Now, last week, they called me in because they knew that I wanted to spend as much time with my daughter as possible. She was home from NC STATE, and luckily, we were able to have Easter on Saturday since she had to leave on Sunday to head back. What gets me, though, is that most of the dialysis patients try to get off of their dialysis procedures earlier than what they are scheduled for. For each 15 minutes that a patient gets off, that takes off a year of their lives. So, let's say that someone gets off 30 minutes early. That will be taking off two (2) years of their lives. It doesn't take long to add up. And this is why I am persistent about staying on my machine for the duration. Of course, it doesn't hurt that I enjoy my time at the cen...