I Hate Dialysis Message Board
Dialysis Discussion => Dialysis: Transplant Discussion => Topic started by: kitkatz on July 20, 2006, 10:02:30 PM
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Things to do while waiting for medical results or a transplant.
Take up knitting.
Learn to crochet.
Paint by numbers.
Get a pet rock and talk to it. See of it grows.
Play rocks, paper, scissors.
Talk to yourself- have a conversation
Get the puzzle where all the pieces are the same. Put it together, if you can.
Buy a one million piece puzzle.
Play tic-tac-toe.
Buy a coloring book and crayons.
Sit
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Things to do while waiting for medical results or a transplant.
Take up knitting.
Learn to crochet.
Paint by numbers.
Get a pet rock and talk to it. See of it grows.
Play rocks, paper, scissors.
Talk to yourself- have a conversation
Get the puzzle where all the pieces are the same. Put it together, if you can.
Buy a one million piece puzzle.
Play tic-tac-toe.
Buy a coloring book and crayons.
Sit
You can even do some of those while sitting on the hemo chair in clinic ;)
Buy one of those hand held game boys and play many games
read a book
write a book
write poetry
with a book and pensil in hand .. draw or come up with designs for crafts or webdesigns or anything else
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A big thing I started doing through my "time" was listening to recorded college lectures. So much fun I tell ya!
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OMG, Lectures?? You have been given the gift of life and your listening to lectures??? Go out and live, let the world know, well, thats what i would do :-\ :P
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Educate yourself about the transplant process.
Get in shape for your future surgery and faster recovery.
Start planning the rest of your life free from all of the restrictions of dialysis.
Try to stay calm!
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I have been doing all that livecam for the last 18YEARS >:(
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Get in shape for your future surgery and faster recovery.
My bp has been too low for me to do much of anything (I get dizzy so much that I have stopped my own BP meds (they are to lower my bp) and told the nurse this. I lost so much weight when I got sick and dropped from 140 lbs to 112 lbs and now that I am back up to my 140lbs I need to start working out but it is hard when you feel like crap all the time and are dizzy every time you go out :(
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The reason I mentioned getting in shape was because if I had known I was that close I would have tried to excersize more. In reality I was tired and weak too and got enough excersize at work slinging VTR's and cameras around , climbing on news trucks, and walking the lot. Anyway reality is that we never know when that call will come. I will say that a couple of days before it happened I really felt it was getting close but that might have been wishful thinking more than anything else.
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Get a new phone
Get a cell phone
Get a pager
Get a walkie talkie
Get a car phone
Put a telephone booth in the livingroom
Become a world wide communications specialist so when the CALL comes you can be ready for it!
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Always go to Sunday Brunch and eat well so you will be stong for the surgery...or take a cruise a month before the transplant and eat two lobsters on formal night.
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The reason I mentioned getting in shape was because if I had known I was that close I would have tried to excersize more. In reality I was tired and weak too and got enough excersize at work slinging VTR's and cameras around , climbing on news trucks, and walking the lot. Anyway reality is that we never know when that call will come. I will say that a couple of days before it happened I really felt it was getting close but that might have been wishful thinking more than anything else.
Ya ... I feel like mine is a long way off .. but maybe that is just because it has been already 5 years and I know that I have a lot of antigens this 2nd time around ..
things to do ... try to put 10% of all my monthly money in a separate banking account to be prepared for anything ... opps I shoulda done that awhile ago :P
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Wait for the call, wait for the call, wait for the call >:( Remember to plug the phone in :-\ Phone Transplant Ward to make sure they have your number ::) (at least 10 times a week ;D)
Start a new job, as a car mechanic, so you can do bad repairs on all those cars. More chance of getting a transplant, more accidents ;D (Not Nice)
Kevno
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OMG, Lectures?? You have been given the gift of life and your listening to lectures??? Go out and live, let the world know, well, thats what i would do :-\ :P
Hey I live plenty now that I have been given the gift :D
But just to be serious for one second .... my thinking is much clearer now. Maybe that's why I can listen to those lectures again! >:D
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OMG, Lectures?? You have been given the gift of life and your listening to lectures??? Go out and live, let the world know, well, thats what i would do :-\ :P
Hey I live plenty now that I have been given the gift :D
But just to be serious for one second .... my thinking is much clearer now. Maybe that's why I can listen to those lectures again! >:D
Yes and this is something that the medical staff (I have been told by an American nurse once that daily hemo or pd is better than a transplant) don't seem to realize. When I had my transplant I noticed ... yes it was VERY noticable .. that you seem to be able to concentrate more once again like when you were healthy and you can remember things better.
Was that just me or do you notice this as well?? (Sorry I know off topic but jdat brought it up and I really want to know :P )
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Well double high five there for sure.
How I see things with the transplant:
- We are much more happier and relieved ( I know I was ).
- Because we feel better physically ( I realize this does not apply to all cases ) we focus less on our illness letting our minds work on other things more freely.
I'm sure there are plenty more things that could be added there!
I know tons of people who are on hemo and pd who just seem very forgetful and unable to concentrate anymore yet doctors never really mention that. I couldn't concentrate for one single bit during the whole Hemo and PD period I went through.
But coincidentally that changed just a could days before my transplant .... go figure .... I guess my mind was getting ready.
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I was much better able to concentrate after the transplant. To give you an idea what 3 times a week hemo did to me - I am the sort of bookworm that reads about 200 books a year. I read everything I can get my hands on. For the year I was on dialysis, I read about 12 books. It took me 2 weeks to read the Harry Potter book that came out that year. After the transplant I was back to my old reading habits and when the next Potter book came out, it took me 2 days to read.
It was so wonderful to get my brain back along with a new kidney.
Cora
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For dialysis I would stop by a news stand and buy a huge stack of newspapers and magazines to keep busy with during treatment. I also had a laptop that I bought just for dialysis back when I started in 1999. The damn thing cost way too much and I would be surprised if it's worth more than $100 today. No internet in the unit back then so I kept busy watching DVDs and playing flight simulator. Got so I could land the plane without crashing or overshooting the runway. I usually took food to the unit or had it brought in as it was a late afternoon-early evening shift. My wife would occasionally make barbecue and bring it to the unit. More than a few times I would have to cajole her to do that or go to a fast food place by cellphone. She works too with a 90 mile RT commute so she was pretty tired at the end of the day.
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I was much better able to concentrate after the transplant. To give you an idea what 3 times a week hemo did to me - I am the sort of bookworm that reads about 200 books a year. I read everything I can get my hands on. For the year I was on dialysis, I read about 12 books. It took me 2 weeks to read the Harry Potter book that came out that year. After the transplant I was back to my old reading habits and when the next Potter book came out, it took me 2 days to read.
It was so wonderful to get my brain back along with a new kidney.
Cora
Ya I noticed that too! I love to read books but ever since I lost my transplant I just can't seem to be able to get through books as fast. Same as with web design. I don't think it is the same with everyone but when I had my transplant I taught myself web design in between classes in college and then when the nest year came to learn it I helped the teacher teach the class and got advanced standing. Also in the job I had for 9 years I took over for a girl who went on vacation in a position that the business sends people to college to learn and I was able to do such a good job that they put me in her position and she got me lesser paying position. Yet now with being on dialysis I have not learned anything new or been able to even keep up on my own shorter hours job.
I just always seem so tired and slow all the time. ...
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Wait to get on the list, to get on the list, to get on the training list for NX stage machines.
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So thatīs it! ???. Iīm also an avid reader but soon after I started dialysis I realized I couldnīt concentrare on my reading either. I sometimes had to read the same page 2 or 3 times. I thought it was just me (maybe my eyesight was getting worse) but glad to know Iīm not alone.
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So thatīs it! ???. Iīm also an avid reader but soon after I started dialysis I realized I couldnīt concentrare on my reading either. I sometimes had to read the same page 2 or 3 times. I thought it was just me (maybe my eyesight was getting worse) but glad to know Iīm not alone.
My mom kept saying I was imaging things or making excuses but come on! I would read even these posts and sometimes I seem to have the hardest time reading more than a few lines. My eyes seem so lazy in how they seem to not be able to follow a lot of lines of text if there is a lot. I used to love to read and read a lot! ....But I thought it was just because I am dyslexic .. or because I am getting older! They are not excuses! I was just trying to figure out what was going on with me! I am glad to see other people say the same things because now I don't feel so crazy!! :-[ ;D
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Save money so you can live while being transplanted.
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Things to do;
Do one brave thing a day like :-\ Calling kitkatz (KATIE) then run like hell >:D
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You are going to spend your days running, Kevno! I have my big stick out and am looking up dark alleys for YOU!
(5000 unemployed comedians, and we get Kevno the wonder funny, number 5001)
Katie KaBoom
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Things to do, I will always be looking over my shoulder just in case (Note Being Nice) Kath is waiting for me with her Big Stick. My Friend Kath ;D
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I am looking for you Kevno. Come play nicely.
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Now that sounds like the Spider to the Fly :o
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"Come to my parlor" said the spider to the fly.
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Learn silly rhymes and songs so you can sing them at dialysis to the techs.
Make up silly rhymes and songs about the techs. Be sure to them.
Make up names for the transplanted kidney before it comes to you.
Make a welcome quilt for the new kidney.
Pack a suitcase for your hospital stay.
Get prepared for an earthquake or other natural disaster.
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More things to do while waiting for transplant or waiting to get on the list:
Chase Kevno around the IHD.com site with a big stick!
Call the transplant coordinator once a week to remind them you are around!
Count the pills you have left and decide when to call in the refills, so you can afford the copays that go with them!
Grab your butt and hang on because you are going for a ride!
Go to Rerun's unit and sit in her chair! Love ya Rerun!
Lose your sanity, go looking for it, find it, lose it again!
Look for your mind, because you have lost it again!
Rant, rave, moan and groan!
Make all of your doctors appointments and be sure to ask intelligent questions so you are well taken care of and they take you seriously!
Make all of your dialysis appointments. I have not missed one dialysis treatment in eight years. I have had to reschedule, but I have made everyone of them! I think I drive my unit crazy! I always show up!
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Things the Transplant Center can do to get us back..........
Call at 3:30 AM just to say "hi".
Call us in for a Dry Run.
Call to tell us we are off the list because our Phosphorus was too high.
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Call to tell us we are off the list because our Phosphorus was too high.
They can do that?? :o
lol good thing they haven't with me :P when it was high :P
hmm.. what else to do .. ah yes!
- pick my nose
- try to think back to the last year I peed
- look around the Nephrologists / transplant coordinators waiting room and try to figure out who's had a transplant or not judging on puffy faces :P
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Jenna said that when she gets a transplant she wants to take a car trip.
We have talked about where to go.
Maybe up the California coast. Or hit route 66.
Or maybe drive to visit all the internet cousins we have made
on IHD.com and livingdonorsonline.org.
Jenna used to read voraciously. It's very hard for her now.
She also used to write chapter books! Now it's difficult for
her to concentrate on writing on a fan fiction site.
Her birthday is tomorrow. She will be 21! My baby!!!
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Her birthday is tomorrow. She will be 21! My baby!!!
Oh wow we will have to wish her happy birthday in the Birthday Thread! :) Is she on here as well?
I want to visit PA when I get a transplant myself.
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Jenna said that when she gets a transplant she wants to take a car trip.
We have talked about where to go.
Maybe up the California coast. Or hit route 66.
Or maybe drive to visit all the internet cousins we have made
on IHD.com and livingdonorsonline.org.
Jenna used to read voraciously. It's very hard for her now.
She also used to write chapter books! Now it's difficult for
her to concentrate on writing on a fan fiction site.
Her birthday is tomorrow. She will be 21! My baby!!!
Just think you will have to have the restrooms lined up for her to pee in after the transplant when you travel. There is a site on line somewhere that tells you about the best bathrooms in the nation.
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Jenna said that when she gets a transplant she wants to take a car trip.
We have talked about where to go.
Maybe up the California coast. Or hit route 66.
Or maybe drive to visit all the internet cousins we have made
on IHD.com and livingdonorsonline.org.
Jenna used to read voraciously. It's very hard for her now.
She also used to write chapter books! Now it's difficult for
her to concentrate on writing on a fan fiction site.
Her birthday is tomorrow. She will be 21! My baby!!!
She will read and write again after the transplant. I remember how clear my mind was. (not any more)
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Clean and organize everything!
Do a little at a time and when you've finished, start over. That way it's alway ready. After my first transplant I was in no shape to do much for weeks (heavy lifting, bending, etc). So right now I'm on top of chores I used to let slip, because I just can't imagine what will happen when I'm out of commission for that long. My husband hopes to donate, so he won't be able to do anything either :-)
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Okay, I am trying to be optimistic about the future, and the road trip idea keeps coming up, so I am gonna try to
make a plan. Someday we will go! Here's a place to start. http://www.roadtripusa.com/ Anyone have any suggestions about a good
route to choose? I never could find the best bathrooms list!
Thanks,
Karol
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If you have kids who have access to a computer have them plan your route. We have a teacher who was his classroom get on the net and they plan his route across several states at a time. They really look for the weird stuff. He has seen the biggest frying pan and the world's largest potato. He has taken tours of some pretty good places. I will look for the bathroom link.
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Get mad at the doctors and their inability to move things along...calm down...get pissed again...calm down....
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1. Make adorable little stuffed dolls that look like the medical personnel who give you trouble.
2. Sew cute little clothes to dress them in.
3. Stick pins in them and laugh.
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1. Make adorable little stuffed dolls that look like the medical personnel who give you trouble.
2. Sew cute little clothes to dress them in.
3. Stick pins in them and laugh.
:rofl; Good one!
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Jenna wants to learn to drive now (she tried while on dialysis but felt she was too distracted to focus.)
Then she wants to go on a road trip. I have been driving so much - back and forth to La Jolla for 3 months - I think I can wait a little while!
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Even though that scene looks beautiful, my first thought was OMG, no gas station in site ;) Is that on your way to LaJolla? why are there no other cars on the road? lol, i get kinda spooked driving on a road where there are no other cars, too many what ifs ::) :P then again, that is just me and my demented mind going 1,000mph 8)
(I need to start getting out more don't i) :P
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That would be a nice road to ride a motorcycle on. :)