Guess What? your kidneys are failing

June 2009 and my regular visit to the Nephrologist (Hypertension and Renal specialist) for what I thought was just our usual chat over my latest pathology results turned my world upside down. "How do you feel",  he said. "tired but otherwise ok" I said. "Well it won't last long, your kidneys are failing rapidly and you will begin to feel very ill and need dialysis before Christmas". You could have knocked me down with a feather. Even though I knew my kidneys were not good, I wasn't expecting them to fail so rapidly.
A brief history of my kidney problems goes like this; I had kidney stones as a teenager but the xrays at that time were not good enough to disclose any other prblems. By the time I was about 30 I had a repeat of the stones and this time I was told I also had Polycystic Kidneys. This means that blood filled cysts grow on the kidneys. As they get larger they reduce the function of both kidneys and removing the cysts does not stop the declining function. This condition is genetic and normally you find that other members of the family also have polycysitc kidneys. My case seems to be a genetic mutation.
So once I knew that dialysis was only six months away the next step was to make sure that I had a working access to the vascular system so that dialysis could be done via my forearm and this meant surgery. August 2009 and after multiple tests that preceed any surgery I attended Westmead for a surgery to create a fistual (connection of an artery and vein to increase the size of the blood vessels to make it easier to insert cannulas) see photo. That all went ok and apart from getting used to wearing my watch on the right wrist I haven't had any ill effects. I also have a new party trick. If you have never felt the thrill of a fistula ask me next time you see me.
About six weeks after the fistula was created I started dialysis. The nephrologist had suggested that I would be a good candidate for home dialysis. So I started six weeks of training at Blacktown dialysis centre working up to three sessions of five hours per week. I immediately felt better but combined with working I was tired. Finally just before Christmas 2009 my very own dialysis machine was installed next to my bed and a water filtration plant in the ensuite. When you see the attached photos you will quickly realise that it is not portable and yes it makes a lot of noise making it difficult to sleep. More details of the journey in the next blog.