the story
i was diagnosed with acute kidney failure secondary to Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (H.U.S.) on December 13, 2007. i went to the hospital emergency room three days prior with weakness, severe vomiting, and diarrhea, and was given a shot of gravol in the right buttock and told to go home and drink plenty of gatorade. on December 11, 2007 my mother came to pick me up from college, i didn't drive to school because i could hardly concentrate on anything. i had just finished a final test for my semester, with a bucket beside me which i used to throw up in. she asked me if i wanted to go to the hospital. i said no, i wanted to go home and sleep. i do not remember this (i later found out that I had passed the test with a 97%). the next morning i phoned her and my father, and my father drove me to the emergency room. i was so fatigued that i couldn't walk. by this point i was throwing up at least 30 times a day.
in the hospital, the staff took my blood, and informed me that i would need to phone my parents. my kidney function was down to 4%. i asked if someone else could do it for me, i was tired, and didn't know how or what to tell them. they rushed to the emergency room, where the doctor spoke to all of us, saying that if i had waited any longer to come to the hospital, i would have died. he didn't know if i would make it through the night. however, if i did, then i would be airlifted to Calgary in the morning for emergency hemodialysis. i was given a catheder and was placed in the Intensive Care Unit of the Medicine Hat Hospital, and didn't sleep a wink that night. in the early hours of the morning, i paged a nurse and told her that i was scared. i was so tired, but was terrified that if i fell asleep, i would never wake up. i asked her if she could stay with me, and she said yes but only for a little while. she read her book aloud to me from the corner of the hospital room for about 20 minutes.
in the morning i was transported by guirny onto a small plane. i begged an elderly EMT not to drop me. the 4 other people on the plane packed their luggage ontop of me, like i was already dead. i was given a sedative, and made the 50 minute flight to the Calgary Foothills Hospital. upon parting ways, the EMT told me that he hoped i would be home for Christmas. i thought that he was positively ludacris. i was questioned about my entire life in the hospital emergency room, then was sent into minor surgery to have a portacath inserted into the arterial vein in my neck for dialysis. then was transported to a room on the Renal Floor. a note from my mom awaited me on the white board, saying that she and my dad had gone for lunch in the cafeteria and would be back soon. i cried until she got there. she and my dad had horrified looks on their faces as they viewed the tubes sticking out of my neck. throughout the next 2 weeks i had a battery of tests performed on me throughout all hours of the day, one even at 1 AM, an ultrasound. i don't remember much of this time, i just remember smells, and throwing up, and waiting a lot... and needing help to stand up, go to the washroom, have a shower, comb my hair... i couldn't read. i couldn't watch tv. i just cuddled my parents, held their hands, and watched my life go by.
my first dialysis, the nurse came in and said "i'm ready to take you to hemo." mistaking it for 'chemo', i frantically replied "but i don't have cancer!" the nurse explained that it was short form for "hemodialysis." oddly relieving. my mom and dad met me downstairs in the Dialysis Unit where i was hooked up to a machine that takes the blood out of your body, cleans it, and gives it back. the process takes 4 hours and initially was repeated 3 times per week. i slept through the entire treatments, waking up only when the machine alarmed because my blood pressure was too high (220/118 is one i remember) or because i had to throw up. i was released from the hospital mainly because the Renal Doctor was leaving for holidays. it was Christmas. i spent a few days at home, opening presents, taking medications, crying, going to dialysis in Medicine Hat... then i was sent to Lethbridge Hospital because the Renal Doctor in Medicine Hat was on holidays as well, and i needed constant supervision. i was there for 3 days, and then was sent home. there was nothing that they could really do to better my life there.
it has been 2 and 1/2 years since i was first diagnosed and nothing has really changed. i live at home with my mom and her spouse. i recently made the switch (due to money saving and staffing) from 4 times a week (Monday Tuesday Thursday Friday) for 4 hours each time, to 3 times a week (Tuesday Thursday Saturday) for 4 and 1/2 hours each run. i have more medically wrong with me than i can even tell you, and transplant is not on the horizon in my case, at least for now. my disease is at risk of ruining another kidney, and for minimal success i would require a dual liver-kidney transplant. which no-one seems to want to risk. originally my life span went from 1 day, to a few months, to a few years, with the average life expectancy on dialysis to be 5 years. i am taking life one day at a time, living on hope. mostly my mom's waivering hope, hoping that tomorrow will be better than today.
