What's the Deal with Dialysis?
A conversation about the kidneys and what happens when they fail.
What's the Deal with Dialysis?
Episode 8.1 Val A Journey Through Diabetes and Transplant Trials: Finding Hope and Resilience
With hosts Maurice Carlisle and Ira McAliley
So, in my main artery. So they put two stents in there and then two weeks later I had a boom car accident. It moved the stent. I ended up back in the hospital getting another stent in there with more dialysis because they did the angiogram. So that's the second time I had angiogram and my kidney still functioning, and now they noticed that my aorta valve was slowly calcifying and closing, and closing.
Speaker 2:And then they said you know, we've got know, we've got to do an open heart surgery on you. And I don't know why, but every bone in my body quivered at the sound and thought of open heart surgery because I've had lifelong diabetes. I'm very frail. I tell people that look at me and my life condition. Don't judge me by my life condition and how young I look, because on the inside it's a different story and doctors are like all right, you're too young. So I researched online. I found this doctor that was in clinical trials. He said wait one more year and it could possibly open to everybody. So I waited another year and then he says well, you're too young, most of our patients are 80, you know that can't handle an open heart surgery. I'm like I don't think I can handle an open heart surgery because of all the complications and the infections and the diabetes alone means you heal four times slower than a normal person.
Speaker 2:So anyway, long story short, they got me in and they go the same way. They put a stent in your artery, they put a valve inside my old valve. They had to use dye again inside my old valve. They had to use dye again and again I had. So I had a total of I don't know four or five incidents of that toxic dye put in me and the and the you know temporary dialysis in my neck to take it out. And so my you know my kidney went through a lot and still works, and it did get to the point where they wanted me to go on diet. Well, actually they wanted me on dialysis because they thought I was going to have an open heart surgery. So I decided to have and they, I researched both kinds of dialysis and all the doctors were telling me now do the hemodialysis.
Speaker 2:And I found this one doctor who says you know, the peritoneal dialysis is, it's easier, you know less infections and it's not blood. You know they don't take your blood. I said, well, what do they take? And he explains they put, you know they put there's's a cavity peritoneal in your stomach and he said it fills it up with a type of sugar water and it sits there and dwells and it pulls from your intestines all the toxins and um, and then it drains it out of you and then it fills you back up. So there's like five or six cycles during the night of this procedure and I'm like, oh, and then I found out that I have to eat protein because at the time I was vegetarian.
Speaker 1:So I'm like yay, protein, how good.
Speaker 2:And then I didn't have to stop eating potassium, which meant I could have my avocados and bananas and tomatoes, so I went straight for it.
Speaker 3:Really quickly tell me what is the hemodialysis. What is it that you would have had to do if you weren't doing the peritoneal?
Speaker 2:Hemodialysis is a not-at-home procedure. You can't do it yourself. The person has to be licensed and certified like a nurse and it's done at these clinics and they put a stent up your arm which you have to have done three months before. It takes three months to heal and graft. I don't know and, but, being a diabetic, anything blood related, like a sore. It takes so long to heal. And then I've seen people when this one collapsed they have to go to another one, and then there's one in the leg and I'm like one in the chest. I'm like, oh no, you know, I want to stay away from hospitals and doctors. So I you know, and then the only trouble there is with peritoneal is that you can get an infection in your peritonitis it's called peritonitis, and that takes like almost a year to heal and I would have to go to hemodialysis in the meanwhile. So I'm trying to stay. You know, when I show you, when I hook up and everything, it's going to be a sterile, um, um environment right.
Speaker 3:Um, that's all great stuff. Hold on, just let me just look at my hand. So you had mentioned um that your boyfriend then become husband was willing to give you a kidney. Um, have you? Are you in line for a kidney transplant, or is that something that happened? What was the process there? What, how did that work?
Speaker 2:well, um, when my husband said he would that work well, um, when my husband said he would give me uh, offer me one of his kidneys, I did the again. I went through the procedure of the checkoff list to get all the tests done, because it had been a couple years because of the heart procedure I had to stop for. So now that I got the, the clearance on the heart and the clearance on everything, um, the only thing I had left to do was teeth, and no one told me this, but someone I can't remember, some non related doctor told me oh, you know, you shouldn't have any work done on your teeth after this procedure. Show, get it done now. So I'm'm like, oh, thank you very much. So I did have a cracked tooth and they I got it repaired, and then I went on the list for the National Kidney Association, and so my husband had to fill out this long questionnaire from Cedars, and since he has a problem where he's taking pain medication, they said would he be willing to take another type of medication or none at all? And so he just got a clearance from his doctor that he doesn't need any more pain medication. So he's going to continue with the process of a living donor now, uh, currently I'm on the list for a double transplant, which is kidney and pancreas.
Speaker 2:So the whole reason I have kidney disease is because of diabetes and if I get a new pancre, I get rid of diabetes and get rid of kidney disease and that'll be the end of that it's.
Speaker 2:The only problem is I'll be on lifelong immune suppressant drugs. I've currently researched how to get a kidney and not be on lifelong medication, and they're doing a clinical trial in Massachusetts where they take and it's not a full-on transplant of bone marrow, it's a partial transplant. So I guess a full-on transplant could take a year of bone marrow. But they take the bone marrow from the living donor, they culture it, they put it into the person that's going to receive it and for a year their body goes through transformation and it turns into whatever blood type and tissue type the donor is and then they won't need the immune suppressant drugs anymore because their body has become the recipient I mean the donors. So if that's the case, if that becomes out there, I'm going to consider that highly and deal with diabetes. I'm going to consider that highly and deal with diabetes, maybe with stem cells. You know, across that bridge soon. But you know we'll see what happens first. Great.
Speaker 2:Great stuff, let's see how has your life changed, your day-to-day?
Speaker 1:change from before you had to do your dialysis at home. You know, like in terms of your work and like how has it affected your life, and also like your husband. Well, dialysis has affected my life in. Thank you.