I received a phone call yesterday from the IHC Transplant Coordinator's office. They wanted to set up a time for my Transplant Evaluation Appointment--the first official step on the road to transplant. This appt will involved a number of tests, xrays and interviews that will determine my viability as a good transplant candidate. The date of this eval is on Wed. Sept. 12th from 900a-330p. I will tell you all about it...
I know that I have been lax in getting regular entries done; and for that I certainly apologize. My only excuse is mental and physical exhaustion. Let me explain...
Like clockwork my dialysis goes every Tues, Thurs and Sat. This doesn't vary. What also hasn't varied has been the head to toe body aches accompanied by extreme muscle fatigue and near cramping of most major muscle groups. This is all caused by taking off water from my body, putting it into a state of un-equilibrium. The muscles react by cramping , and fatigue is a natural byproduct of this process. As a result of this, I am still useless on my off days. I have been told that feeling like this will ease up...which would be awesome!
Life in general has been slower than even I had grown accustomed to. Again, this is merely the result of dialysis. This is how most of my days are now going...
On dialysis days I am up at 500a. Dialysis begins at 545a and goes until about 1010a. After leaving I must eat, so my wife drives me to whatever food sounds good that day, then we drive home. I immediately lay down and am then dead asleep within a few minutes.
I then sleep for anywhere between four to six and a half hours. On waking I am groggy and weak. This feeling persists until around 930p when my brain begins to clear up a bit. In spite of the sleep earlier, I am still able to get back to sleep by twelve AM, or so and sleep another nine or ten hours.
On waking, I am again groggy, weak and fatigued. This persists for about three hours at which time the grogginess decreases leaving me only weak and fatigued. It is at that point that I get housework done, or I work on my personal projects.
By 330p I am usually sleepy and end up taking a nap wherever I am sitting for at least an hour. Most days I get two or three hours of sleep in the early evening. By 1230a I am usually ready for bed, preparing to be up at five for my next round of dialysis.
Sounds like a load of fun, doesn't it? :-)
On my off days I usually have to choose how I will expend what energy and creativity I have. Lately, I have been choosing my personal projects while hoping to have extra strength to write my blog. So far, this approach has not yielded successful results for getting my blog done. So, I decided this morning to write on my blog while I am on dialysis. Aside from multiple problems using my tablet on the blog site I have done ok.
That's about everything I have for today. I know there were several things I wanted to discuss, but in dealing with this app on my tablet, my frustration has pushed those things out of my mind. So, I will wrap this up with a quick sign off before I have any other issues.
I will try to be better with future entries--from my desktop computer! ;-)
Good Health to All!
ScottW
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