I Hate Dialysis Message Board

Introduction => Introduce Yourself => Topic started by: -Lady Noir- on August 23, 2009, 07:05:16 PM

Title: Greetings from New Zealand
Post by: -Lady Noir- on August 23, 2009, 07:05:16 PM
Hello there fellow ihatedialysis members.

My name is Nik, all the way from little ol' New Zealand.
I, myself am not on dialysis but my finace Mike has been on CAPD for 2 months now. He was diagnosed with 'renal failure' back in 2004, at the tender age of 20. Came as much of a shock considering we had absolutey no idea what kidney failure entailed, let-alone that he was unwell.
Since then, he was living on about 13% function.. had to live on those awful renal diets, which i must admit, he found it hard to stick to & all that (As i'm sure most of you understand!)
I'm wondering if i should bore you all with extra details about parathyroidectomy, potassium sky rocketing fun, but i think this will do for now.

Cheers for reading!

Nik  :yahoo;
Title: Re: Greetings from New Zealand
Post by: monrein on August 23, 2009, 07:33:33 PM
 :welcomesign; Nik.  I'm glad you found us and I look forward to knowing more about you and Mike.  Together we have tons of experience and are pretty good at offering support also.
Title: Re: Greetings from New Zealand
Post by: tyefly on August 23, 2009, 09:49:29 PM
    Welcome.....  this is a great place to share experiences and hopes........


      talk to you soon      kathy
Title: Re: Greetings from New Zealand
Post by: Brianna! on August 23, 2009, 10:07:01 PM
Welcome! Ah yes. The Diet. It sucks so much, right? We all know how that is!

Don't be a stranger on IHD!!!

 :welcomesign;
Title: Re: Greetings from New Zealand
Post by: Jean on August 24, 2009, 12:11:46 AM
 :welcomesign; to IHD, and be sure to tell us everything. We never get bored.
Title: Re: Greetings from New Zealand
Post by: RichardMEL on August 24, 2009, 03:02:46 AM
G'day Nik from over the pond. So sorry your fiancee has to go through this at such a young age, and you obviously by extension. Still it's all character building right????  :rofl;

You want to vent about the high K count (hey you can also call it "special K" if you like :) ) or the diet or whatever... feel free... we understand!!!!

Will your fiancee be looking for a transplant? Hopefully he could get a good outcome if he's suitable and that would make life much more normal for the two of you. Fingers crossed!

choice, bro!
Title: Re: Greetings from New Zealand
Post by: willieandwinnie on August 24, 2009, 06:04:30 AM
 :welcomesign; Nik. You found the perfect place for information, support and rants is you need one. You should have Mike join too. We are always here to answers questions and give advice. Hope we hear more from you.  :cuddle;
Title: Re: Greetings from New Zealand
Post by: willowtreewren on August 24, 2009, 06:44:20 AM
Hi, Nik!

 :welcomesign;

I'm glad you found this wonderful resource for learning more about renal failure. I'm looking forward to getting ot know you better.

 :waving;

Aleta
Title: Re: Greetings from New Zealand
Post by: peleroja on August 24, 2009, 08:43:35 AM
Hi, Nik, and welcome aboard.  It's great that you're willing to be a caregiver for your boyfriend.  Come on back and post often, letting us know how things are going.
Title: Re: Greetings from New Zealand
Post by: -Lady Noir- on August 24, 2009, 06:44:39 PM
Hey... WOW. I'm blown away with all of your responses.
Thank-you.

Quote
Will your fiancee be looking for a transplant? Hopefully he could get a good outcome if he's suitable and that would make life much more normal for the two of you. Fingers crossed!

Thanks!
He has been on the transplant waiting-list for a few years now. He went off it whilst he was waiting for a parathyroidectomy, which he had done in May this year. It was supposed to make things better with his bone strength (As he broke both his hips at the begging of the year!) But unfortunatley, the surgery itself damaged his kidney function even more.. days after he was let out of hospital, we got a phone-call from the hospital saying he had to come into the E.R as his potassium was at 7.2. We went straight into the E.R, they hooked him up to the heart moniter, gave him some sort of drip to lower the potassium but all that did was raise his heart rate to 175bpm lying down! They spent the next 3 hours batteling his potassium, finally got it down along with his heart rate. We were not aware they had planned to give him emergency HD, and start him on CAPD from then on. Came to a bit of a shock considering we assumed that after the parathyroidectomy, things would improve for him.
Ah well, thems the breaks eh!

Anyway, back to the topic of transplants, i got tested to become a donor for Mike about a year after i had our daughter Charlotte (Who is now nearly 4). Got told we were a match, went to do more tests & we discovered that yeap.. my kidneys aren't that great either! Not the extent of Mikes, but not enough to be a suitable donor  :waiting;
His Mum has been going through all the tests this year, only to find Mike has this little anti-body that may or may not reject his Mum's kidney! So his Dad, who lives in Austrailia has stepped up, and getting tested as we speak!

Title: Re: Greetings from New Zealand
Post by: Jean on August 24, 2009, 10:39:22 PM
Boy, enough is enough already. Hope things start to work better for you both really soon.  :pray; :pray;
Title: Re: Greetings from New Zealand
Post by: Yvonne on August 24, 2009, 10:51:23 PM
Welcome from the  :ukflag; You both are very young to be going through all this truma, I wish you all the luck in the world that his Dad's kidney is a match.
Title: Re: Greetings from New Zealand
Post by: sico on August 25, 2009, 09:24:28 PM
 :welcomesign; G'day Nik and Mike. I myself have not been here long. Heeps of good information on here from people in similar situations.
Sorry to hear your kidneys aren't 100% Nik. Post often and keep us up to date on what happens with the possible live donor.
Title: Re: Greetings from New Zealand
Post by: paris on August 26, 2009, 09:56:06 AM
 :welcomesign;   We are glad you joined this great group.  We have another New Zealander here, but she is on vacation right now in Somoa.  She will be very excited to see a fellow countryman.  There is great information here, but also, great support.  The two of you have already dealt with a lot and are very familiar with all the ups and downs with kidney failure.  I am sure you have a lot to share with us.  Post often.  Welcome to IHD



paris, Moderator
Title: Re: Greetings from New Zealand
Post by: MandaMe1986 on August 26, 2009, 10:06:25 AM
 :welcomesign;
Title: Re: Greetings from New Zealand
Post by: Hanify on August 26, 2009, 04:25:24 PM
Yay another Kiwi!  Where do you guys live Nik?  I'm in the Hutt, in Wellington.  I do PD.  Look forward to seeing more posts.
Title: Re: Greetings from New Zealand
Post by: -Lady Noir- on August 26, 2009, 10:50:43 PM
Welly aye! We're up in Auckland  :waving;
I've never actually been to Wellington.. haha, have you been to Auckland?
Title: Re: Greetings from New Zealand
Post by: billybags on August 27, 2009, 05:20:36 AM
     :welcomesign;      Hi Nik, Welcome to this site, I am fairly new to this as well but I am picking up so many tips and answers to questions.. I think we will all be internet renal doctors after a while.Ha Ha.
Title: Re: Greetings from New Zealand
Post by: RichardMEL on August 27, 2009, 06:16:56 AM
Ah wundy Wellington.

I landed in Auckland once at 6pm on a Saturday night a few years ago. I wanted to check out the city so I said to the airport hotel clerk guy what's the best way to get in and all that. He said "don't bother. It's closed. There's nothing to do unless you want to go hang out at McDonald's!" d'oh! Two French tourists also there were disappointed - they wanted to go shopping.

I hear flying into WLG is a bit of fun. Must put that on my list :)

oh yeah, welcome!! :)
Title: Re: Greetings from New Zealand
Post by: Bajanne on August 27, 2009, 09:47:36 AM
Welcome to our community (though a bit belated).  And a special greeting from one born under the Union Jack (Barbados) and living under it (British Virgin Islands).  I have a very dear friend living in Auckland. She sent me a book "The Real Middle Earth" with breathtaking picts of your country.  Beautiful!
As you must have seen by now, this is the place for information, support and even fun. We are more than a website; we are a genuine family :grouphug; caring and sharing.
I hope things do work out for your BF's tranplant.  Please keep us updated always.



Bajanne, Moderator
Title: Re: Greetings from New Zealand
Post by: Hanify on August 27, 2009, 03:10:38 PM
Welly aye! We're up in Auckland  :waving;
I've never actually been to Wellington.. haha, have you been to Auckland?

Many many times.  Lived there for 6 years.  We'll have to catch up next time I'm up or you finally make it to Wellywood!
Richardmeltmyheart you made the mistake of being in Auckland instead of Wellington.  Here nothing closes, and it's a fab place at night.  Shame I'm too tired to make use of it ha ha.
Title: Re: Greetings from New Zealand
Post by: Maxridex on August 28, 2009, 04:03:17 AM
Welcome :)
Title: Re: Greetings from New Zealand
Post by: -Lady Noir- on March 11, 2010, 03:51:43 PM
Crikey, i forgot all about this..

Hanify, where in Auckland did you live?  ;)

Just an update on Mike.. His Mum is just finishing up on the final tests, we will find out the results soon! His Dad is a different blood type, but they did some cross match tests, after months of waiting, he was told the results we're not so good, so we assumed it was a no-go, only to find out last night they are going to continue with the tests with his Dad  :2thumbsup;

Plus, Mikes creatinine has gone down by 400 in just a month due to a few changes with dialysis!  :yahoo;
Potassium perfect at 4 when it was 6.2 last month, phosphate & calcium perfect. Looking pretty good so far.