Hello from Alaska

[jaybird87]

Hi!
I am an 18 year old currently living in Alaska, back in August of 2017 my boyfriend of almost 3 years was diagnosed with IgA nephropaphy (hope that spelling was right). His kidneys were at 2% when he was diagnosed, it was all a rather scary time! He recently told me about this website, &after using it a few times I decided it might be more helpful to be able to ask my own questions&be able to reply to others. I don’t know a whole lot about dialysis yet, but I’d like to learn since it’s something he’ll be dealing with for a while. I’m not excited to have to be on a page all about dialysis, because who is excited about dialysis? However, I am excited to be on this page to better my understanding of what he’s going through while also providing people that are going through the same situation I am.
Thank you for letting me be apart of this community, I hope to learn lots&make some friends who understand everything that’s going on (instead of friends who talk about his disease in relevance to greys anatomy, yes that did happen).

[iolaire]

Welcome to the site.  I hope that you are in one of the major population centers? 

I grew up in Southeast Alaska in Petersburg and graduated collage from UAF in Fairbanks. I hate to think how people deal with dialysis in say Petersburg which was not that small with 3,000 people and a heath clinic, much less any of the small communities of say 50 people.

[jaybird87]

Yes, we are right outside of Anchorage! I think we would have had to relocate if we lived in one of the villages. He has to travel into Anchorage so much for doctors appointments. I couldn’t imagine dealing with dislysis and the transplant process in a small village.

[Charlie B53]

Welcome to our IHD 'Family'!

Many of our members or the caregivers for a family member suffering from kidney failure.  You have come to the right place to ask all your quewstions.  We strive to share our knowledge and experience in Hopes of easing the problems associated with our kidneys and all the related issues this causes.

When I was first diagnosed I started looking on-line for information and found the Kidney School
http://kidneyschool.org/
This site has self-paced learning modules designed to teach us more about our body, the kidneys, how they work, what goes wrong, and how the types of dialysis can help keep us alive in a some what health condition.  While our labs will never be the same as a more 'normal' peerson because of the increased risks of further problems when our labs are much different than these altered levels.  It's a great site to learn from.

Other than here it IHD I don't know of any place that can find answers to every question.  Here at IHD we have soo many members with great numbers of years of successful treatment.  Between us we know a lot.

Take Care,

Charlie B53

[cassandra]

Welcome to the site Jaybird97


   


Take care, Cas

[MooseMom]

Oh, Kidney School is a terrific source of information to those who are new to the whole renal failure/dialysis circus!

You just HAVE to tell us more about the Gray's Anatomy discussion!  I bet it was absurd! 

[jaybird87]

Oh, Kidney School is a terrific source of information to those who are new to the whole renal failure/dialysis circus!

You just HAVE to tell us more about the Gray's Anatomy discussion!  I bet it was absurd!

Oh my gosh, it was genuinely painful to listen to! I love Grey’s Anatomy, it’s one of my favorite shows and they do a good job at making the surgeries themselves realistic. However, having your life compared to a tv show where they do a domino kidney transplant with TWELVE patients is not quite the same! I just kind of nod&laugh about it because I’m not sure how to explain to people that that’s not exactly what’s going to happen. Also, the episode itself doesn’t really talk about the surgery risks, what happens afterwords, dialysis struggles, it really is just a WHOLE lot of drama in one episode.

[sahern]

I am in Fairbanks and do PD at home.  The clinic I go Through is Denali Dialysis in Anchorage.  They are great and have always been there to help with any questions I have.  Good luck and hope everything goes well.