What a start to the year!
Welcome to my new blog!
Instead of posting in various places on social media, I'm creating this blog to make it easier for people to find out the latest information about what's going on with me.
First, a recap.
I first truly noticed that I felt ill in October of 2018, when I was at Kings Island with my brother and niece. I was getting winded walking around the park, and that wasn't normal for me. When I would go to Cedar Point in 2017, I could walk 10 miles in a day and not have a problem. I felt like I had a sinus pressure headache, so I thought it was a nasal infection. It wasn't.
I've heard that people thought I wasn't myself all the way back to May of 2018, and I had been having depression and concentration problems since 2017. So I really don't know how long this had been going on.
As 2018 progressed, I got worse and worse. I could not stay warm. I had no energy. I would go to work, come home, eat, and then sleep. I wasn't really living... Just surviving. December was the worst. I lost my job due to a number of factors. I felt run down all the time. I withdrew from everyone and everything. After Christmas, I dragged myself out of bed and took my mom and brother to an Akron basketball game. I was exhausted, but enjoyed the game. I went to get something at concessions and I had a problem going up even one stair. I lost my balance and almost fell. After that outing, I rarely left bed. I didn't even have the energy to roll over in bed. Walking to the bathroom felt like running a marathon. And I was going to the bathroom every 2 hours at night, meaning I rarely got any quality sleep. I had stopped eating as trying to eat would cause me to dry heave for 15 minutes or more. Nothing tasted right, not food, not drinks. I had lost about 18 pounds in late December.
I was just waiting for my insurance to start on Jan 1, 2019, to go to the doctor. I called a local doctor on Jan 2 and scheduled an appointment for Jan 4. When I went to the appointment, the doctor ordered a fasting blood test. I drove back over to the office on Saturday, Jan 5 and had my blood drawn. Then I went home and crashed, sleeping off and on all day (even while sitting up)... Until 10pm.
At 10 pm, my phone rang. I was so tired and sore and hurting that I didn't even roll over to answer it. Then the home phone rang. It was my doctor's office. At 10 pm on a Saturday. That is never a harbinger of good news! They told me, in no uncertain terms, to go to the emergency room immediately. I considered protesting and saying I'd go to urgent care on Monday... But then I realized that they wouldn't have called me that late on a weekend if it wasn't truly an emergency.
So I spent Jan 5-Jan 9 in the hospital. They told me early on that I was suffering from kidney failure (End Stage Renal Disease - ESRD) and needed dialysis. This scared the hell out of me, but I couldn't love the way I was feeling. They monitored me on Sunday and instated a catheter in my chest for dialysis, which started that day. I went to dialysis Monday-Wednesday in the hospital. I asked for Wednesday myself, as I would feel a little better after each treatment.
I got to come home on January 9. Nyssa (my kitty) was very happy to see me. I relaxed at home on Thursday and went to my first outpatient dialysis treatment that Friday (Jan 11). Since then, I have gone to 4.5 hour treatments on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 6:30-11:30 am. I like this, as I have the rest of the day to do things around the house.
My condition is one that makes one "disabled" according to the government. So I've applied for Social Security as I have no income and spend a good amount of time in dialysis and after the treatment I'm usually wiped out and exhausted. Disability takes 5-6 months to start, so I'm going to be cutting things close until then. I still have financial responsibilities to take care of. It's a little stressful, but I'm trying to stay positive and only focus on the next step to keep from feeling overwhelmed.
I am feeling much better than I was at the start of the month. I'm back to being more myself. My mind is speeding back up, even though I'm not at 100%. I look forward to dialysis, although spending that long in the chair can get a bit boring.
What's in the future? I will have dialysis treatments for the foreseeable future. I have a meeting with a vascular surgeon to make a "port" for dialysis so I can get the catheter removed. After the surgery, that will take 4-6 months before they'll start using the port for a number of treatments; if it works, then I'll be able to have the catheter removed. I need to get tested to see if I'm a candidate for transplant. I would like to get a transplant, as it would allow me to end dialysis and live normally and go back to work. I have asked about the time frame for a transplant; I was told that the process will take about 4 years. A year after the transplant is verified to be ok, I'll be cleared to return to my career. 5 years is a long time, but it's better than the alternative. I came close to dying (and felt like I almost did on Sunday night in the hospital) and I refuse to get to that point again.
I do have a PayPal link if you have read this far and want to help out. Don't feel like you have to; your friendship, communication, and caring is more than enough. The link is:
http://paypal.me/ keitheyoung
Thank you and I will keep you all up to date as to what is going on with me.
-Keith
Instead of posting in various places on social media, I'm creating this blog to make it easier for people to find out the latest information about what's going on with me.
First, a recap.
I first truly noticed that I felt ill in October of 2018, when I was at Kings Island with my brother and niece. I was getting winded walking around the park, and that wasn't normal for me. When I would go to Cedar Point in 2017, I could walk 10 miles in a day and not have a problem. I felt like I had a sinus pressure headache, so I thought it was a nasal infection. It wasn't.
I've heard that people thought I wasn't myself all the way back to May of 2018, and I had been having depression and concentration problems since 2017. So I really don't know how long this had been going on.
As 2018 progressed, I got worse and worse. I could not stay warm. I had no energy. I would go to work, come home, eat, and then sleep. I wasn't really living... Just surviving. December was the worst. I lost my job due to a number of factors. I felt run down all the time. I withdrew from everyone and everything. After Christmas, I dragged myself out of bed and took my mom and brother to an Akron basketball game. I was exhausted, but enjoyed the game. I went to get something at concessions and I had a problem going up even one stair. I lost my balance and almost fell. After that outing, I rarely left bed. I didn't even have the energy to roll over in bed. Walking to the bathroom felt like running a marathon. And I was going to the bathroom every 2 hours at night, meaning I rarely got any quality sleep. I had stopped eating as trying to eat would cause me to dry heave for 15 minutes or more. Nothing tasted right, not food, not drinks. I had lost about 18 pounds in late December.
I was just waiting for my insurance to start on Jan 1, 2019, to go to the doctor. I called a local doctor on Jan 2 and scheduled an appointment for Jan 4. When I went to the appointment, the doctor ordered a fasting blood test. I drove back over to the office on Saturday, Jan 5 and had my blood drawn. Then I went home and crashed, sleeping off and on all day (even while sitting up)... Until 10pm.
At 10 pm, my phone rang. I was so tired and sore and hurting that I didn't even roll over to answer it. Then the home phone rang. It was my doctor's office. At 10 pm on a Saturday. That is never a harbinger of good news! They told me, in no uncertain terms, to go to the emergency room immediately. I considered protesting and saying I'd go to urgent care on Monday... But then I realized that they wouldn't have called me that late on a weekend if it wasn't truly an emergency.
So I spent Jan 5-Jan 9 in the hospital. They told me early on that I was suffering from kidney failure (End Stage Renal Disease - ESRD) and needed dialysis. This scared the hell out of me, but I couldn't love the way I was feeling. They monitored me on Sunday and instated a catheter in my chest for dialysis, which started that day. I went to dialysis Monday-Wednesday in the hospital. I asked for Wednesday myself, as I would feel a little better after each treatment.
I got to come home on January 9. Nyssa (my kitty) was very happy to see me. I relaxed at home on Thursday and went to my first outpatient dialysis treatment that Friday (Jan 11). Since then, I have gone to 4.5 hour treatments on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 6:30-11:30 am. I like this, as I have the rest of the day to do things around the house.
My condition is one that makes one "disabled" according to the government. So I've applied for Social Security as I have no income and spend a good amount of time in dialysis and after the treatment I'm usually wiped out and exhausted. Disability takes 5-6 months to start, so I'm going to be cutting things close until then. I still have financial responsibilities to take care of. It's a little stressful, but I'm trying to stay positive and only focus on the next step to keep from feeling overwhelmed.
I am feeling much better than I was at the start of the month. I'm back to being more myself. My mind is speeding back up, even though I'm not at 100%. I look forward to dialysis, although spending that long in the chair can get a bit boring.
What's in the future? I will have dialysis treatments for the foreseeable future. I have a meeting with a vascular surgeon to make a "port" for dialysis so I can get the catheter removed. After the surgery, that will take 4-6 months before they'll start using the port for a number of treatments; if it works, then I'll be able to have the catheter removed. I need to get tested to see if I'm a candidate for transplant. I would like to get a transplant, as it would allow me to end dialysis and live normally and go back to work. I have asked about the time frame for a transplant; I was told that the process will take about 4 years. A year after the transplant is verified to be ok, I'll be cleared to return to my career. 5 years is a long time, but it's better than the alternative. I came close to dying (and felt like I almost did on Sunday night in the hospital) and I refuse to get to that point again.
I do have a PayPal link if you have read this far and want to help out. Don't feel like you have to; your friendship, communication, and caring is more than enough. The link is:
http://paypal.me/ keitheyoung
Thank you and I will keep you all up to date as to what is going on with me.
-Keith
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