More radiation and less kidney

In just 10 days, Stephanie and I are heading back to New Orleans for my second round of I131 treatment.  My scans seem to imply that treatment still is viable and Dr. Campeau has had several patients who have seen more response from further treatments so we are giving it another swing.  We fly out Tuesday the 15th, go straight to an appointment with a doctor and then I get admitted on the 16th for more radiation.  I know what I am getting into this time and have a cheap Chromebook that I will be using to watch movies, netflix, and just keep in touch.

The more worrisome side of the house are my kidneys.  As you may recall, my last two surgeries addressed tumors that were wrapped around my ureters.  This resulted in my kidneys getting backed up and putting strain on them.  I got stents inserted but they have a bad habit of clogging and causing further strain on the kidneys.  I am now in stage 5 chronic kidney disease and that means dialysis is coming and it is coming soon.

There are two types of dialysis but I am only eligible for hemodialysis where the blood is filtered through a machine and then put back.  To get to the point where I can do dialysis, I need to have a fistula installed in my arm, short circuiting a vein to an artery.  I will be having a consult to find out when I can get this done and it will still be several months after that before it will be healed enough to be used.  If my kidneys fail completely before that happens, they will need to put a catheter in my chest to be used for the dialysis in the short term.

These new developments really suck.  Hemodialysis is typically done three days a week at a dialysis facility and takes about 4hrs per treatment.  This starts to really interfere with life in a major fashion.  Two can be done on workdays but that really makes getting my 40 hours per week hard.  Of course, that is assuming I do dialysis one day on the weekend and that causes significant problems with camping, skiing, and any sort of activity.

Home dialysis is possible but Stephanie will need to be trained in placing the needles so that we can make this happen.  The machine is about 80 pounds and I would be connected to it every night for about 2-2.5hrs.  This makes everything a bit more tolerable but it still is a significant inconvenience to work and play.

I am not doing well.  I feel as if I am on the hairy edge of an emotional breakdown all the time.  The need for dialysis has hit me hard.  I know there are many people who deal with life on dialysis but this is just piling on.  There are people who deal with chronic cancer, people who deal with colostomies, people who deal with chronic diarrhea but I am tired of dealing with all of it.

I am not giving up and I am not stopping fighting but it is getting harder all the time.  Your support is needed and it is appreciated.