“But you don’t look sick.”

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Yoshi

For many people with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), it’s not easy. You don’t really think of all the crazy things that happen when you get CKD. The kidneys play a big part in your everyday health. You know (or may not know) the kidneys produce urine and subsequently you pee it out. You know that this stuff is just “waste” but honestly, do you really know what it is?

The kidneys act as filters for your body. When your kidneys start to fail, the filtration process gets worse, and while it may produce more urine at first (common for diabetics), it’s actually not filtering as much of the “poison” in your body. So what happens is that the poisons in your body are still in there, and wreaking havoc on your body.

While this may sound horrible, and it is, there are always ways around it. For people with stage 5 CKD, they must go on dialysis. There is no one, and I repeat no one that will say with any honesty that dialysis “isn’t that bad”. We hate it. Dialysis sucks. Anyone that has gone through it will tell you that it’s horrible.

But to the point of this whole blog post. Most people who are on dialysis and have CKD don’t look like they’ve got a chronic illness. As a matter of a fact, the people you work with could very well have it and you’d never know. But you better believe they are not “fine”.

Here’s some advice I tell everyone and I try to heed it myself. Some people really make it hard for me. There are a lot of people with illnesses and chronic conditions that you could never see. It won’t even be apparent. You know when you see that one person who parked in the handicap section and didn’t even look sick? He or she could very well be sick and need that spot. Don’t be rude and yell at them for parking in a handicap spot. You might consider asking them if they’re allowed to park there. But don’t be rude.

Treat everyone like you want to be treated. If you like being yelled at and harassed, then okay, by all means, continue to do so. But really, if you treat people nicely, you’ll get a nice response most of the time.

If you’re looking for resources for CKD or Dialysis, I’d recommend these sites. They really helped me out when I was looking for answers:

Davita – I haven’t used their dialysis centers, but I hear they’re pretty nice. Good resource for recipes and just plain info about CKD and more.
I hate dialysis – This is a great site for anything dialysis. This is a site made by patients for patients.

Do you have a story to tell? Any experience? Tips, tricks and advice?

Recent study says Dialysis 3 times a week not enough

Posted on September 22, 2011 by Yoshi

My view at Dialysis

A recent study is saying that receiving Dialysis 3 times a week may not be enough. A link here to the Forbes article. So what they’re saying is simple. Because every rotation involves a 2 day hiatus from Dialysis, that 3rd day (Monday or Tuesday) is the most dangerous day. As an ex-Dialysis patient, I have to say there might some credibility in this.

On the third day, which in my case was Tuesday, I felt the worst. It was the worst day of the week. My Dialysis schedule started at 5:30pm. So I had the entire day to go through before I received any treatment. That Tuesday was total hell, I have to admit.

Anyone who undergoes Dialysis knows how it feels. You’re at the point of kidney failure. That means you don’t produce urine. Now this may sound great, since you’ve only got to go bathroom when you have to poop. But honestly, you miss it mainly because you realize just how much it means to pee. Peeing gets rid of your toxins in your body and if you can’t pee, that means the toxins (that’s poison BTW) just accumulates in your body and well, it makes you feel like shit.

So think about it. That third day would have to be the absolute worst day of the week, right? I can go with this study then. But I have to agree with Dr. Paul Eggers. There should be more studying done. One study doesn’t mean it’s true. But honestly, how many people have to suffer before a determination is made?

UCSF scientists develop artificial kidney

Link

UCSF scientists develop artificial kidney – First, there’s a possible good outlook for a cure for diabetes and now we’ve got this. I love technology!

It's been quiet around here

Posted on January 24, 2009 by Yoshi

Well it’s been quiet around here, and for good reason. I’ve been busy with training for my peritoneal dialysis. Ooh, fun for sure. :D But as of now I’m starting my dialysis and so far, it just takes up a lot of time. If you want more details, you can always go on over to “Being Diabetic” where I talk about all that stuff.

I’ve also been busy with Japanese TV, since it’s the New Year, the new shows have started, and I’m just trying to keep up with everything. It would be a lot easier if I could just record every TV show that is aired in Japan, then sort them out later, but wow, that would be a large process! But it would be cool and fun for sure.

It’s the weekend, everything is quiet around here. I’m just gonna sit back and relax and finally catch up with some sleep.

So I have this tube in my belly…

Posted on December 11, 2008 by Yoshi

So I had surgery today and got my peritoneal dialysis tube stuck in my belly. This will enable me to do peritoneal dialysis next month. Which is good, because my kidneys are failing man. This will get me going, thank goodness.

In other news, remember that site that Danalyn and I had started not too long ago? Well, now another friend has donated his domain for it and it’s now located at it’s new home, jcrap.com. It’s now known as J-crap, and it looks like we’ll be having some serious fun with it. Hopefully it becomes something.

And just to pimp out that Danalyn’s got some themes and plugins going on at her site. They’re really cheap and I’m sure you could use them. So why not help out a starving designer and buy some of her stuff? She’d appreciate it.