I'm New Here But Not To Dialysis!

Hi There! My name is Brielle and I am from Ohio. I have been on dialysis now for 23 yrs! I started when I was just 13 yrs old. My kidney failure was due to a hereditary issue that I was suppose to grow out of (Renal Reflux) but I had a lot of stress in my life at the time ( mother passing and custody battle) that my B/P was so very high constantly everyday that my kidneys went out on me. I started on PD in 1990 and got a kidney transplant in march of '91 that only lasted for a week. My stepfather was the donor:) we only had the same blood type but no matching genetic markers. They did the transplant anyway thinking the immune suppressants would work. Well, it did not and I became very sick. Sicker then when I was doing dialysis. The doctors tried to save the new kidney and tried to repair it after my body attacked it but but they could not save it. I went back on dialysis. This time it was in-center and a fistula was placed in my rt arm. I did hemo for 3 years and then my fistula started growing really big! It started enlarging the right side of my heart and was putting pressure on my heart and throwing off the balence of fluid in my body which started give my asidies (where fluid startes building up in the peritoneal cavity) I had to get this fluid drained every other week ( which was about 2 to 3 liters of apple juice looking fluid!!) it was painful and some what dangerous because all of the vital organs are located!! My doctor suggested that they tie off the fistula and go back on PD. So, from '94 to '98 I went back on PD until I got my 2nd transplant from my dear brother. That one lasted 2 weeks. I got pancreatitis either from the transplant surgery or the immune suppressants. To this day we still don't know. At first doctors did not know what was wrong with my. They said I was either constipated really bad or had bad gas. I went to several doctors. Finally, I came across a doctor that told me I had pancreatitis! It was a relief. He put me on TPN (a iv nutrition bag) that I carried around with me in a back pack on my back for 3 months straight). I was to have no food either during this time because my pancreas had to heal. I during this time I went back on hemo. After healing totally from pancreatitis and many surgeries in between I am a healthy home hemo patient that has been doing the nxstage since May of 2012! I love doing it at home and I put my needles in (I have a graft in my left thigh and got this put it at 2001) and my amazing fiancé helps me with my treatments:) I usually have a pretty good outlook on my dialysis but sometimes once in a while get down but who doesn't!!?!?! Thanks for reading my story and I am so happy to be here!