Greetings from New Zealand

[-Lady Noir-]

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 

[monrein]

  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.

[tyefly]

    Welcome.....  this is a great place to share experiences and hopes........


      talk to you soon      kathy

[Brianna!]

Welcome! Ah yes. The Diet. It sucks so much, right? We all know how that is!

Don't be a stranger on IHD!!!

 

[Jean]

  to IHD, and be sure to tell us everything. We never get bored.

[RichardMEL]

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? 

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!

[willieandwinnie]

  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. 

[willowtreewren]

Hi, Nik!

 

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

 

Aleta

[peleroja]

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.

[-Lady Noir-]

Hey... WOW. I'm blown away with all of your responses.
Thank-you.

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 
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!

[Jean]

Boy, enough is enough already. Hope things start to work better for you both really soon. 

[Yvonne]

Welcome from the  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.

[sico]

  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.

[paris]

    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

[MandaMe1986]

 

[Hanify]

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.

[-Lady Noir-]

Welly aye! We're up in Auckland 
I've never actually been to Wellington.. haha, have you been to Auckland?

[billybags]

           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.

[RichardMEL]

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!!

[Bajanne]

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 caring and sharing.
I hope things do work out for your BF's tranplant.  Please keep us updated always.



Bajanne, Moderator

[Hanify]

Welly aye! We're up in Auckland 
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.

[Maxridex]

Welcome

[-Lady Noir-]

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 

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