Hello

[Marinterry]

Hello my name is Terry, I'm from the bay area, Marin County, California. I just started dialysis two weeks ago. I googled a question I had and this site was one of the options. I've been living miserably for the past 18 months. I suffered a total renal failure that was initiated from a flu shot. I had a severe reaction, my kidneys shut down, i gained 50 lbs in just a few days. Since then it's been a bumpy ride, new meds, steroids, chemotherapy to help boost. As a result of new meds were new problems....high blood pressure, thyroid, cholesterol, aches, pains, skin problems, and the list goes on.
It's been a mental, physical and emotional ride. The greatest gift I have is my son, who has been there for me mentally, physically and emotionally. I was off work and on disability for 6 months last year, had the FLU and pneumonia, first I was scared I might die, and then I was scared I might not. My son came over at least once or twice a week, brought friends, hung out, smoked pot, had a great time, drove me nuts. It was probably what saved my life. Made me get up, shower, get dressed, eat, when otherwise I would not. He's always there for me in any capacity, words just don't do justice what he means to me and how much I love him.
I want dialysis to help, and I'm hopeful at this point. I don't feel any better yet, but they have taken off 30 lbs, and that alone feels good. I'm very tired a lot, and dialysis zaps me, I generally sleep 12-14 hours after.

[Poppylicious]

Hello Terry and a big, warm  to ihd.com.  Thank goodness for your son driving you nuts! You've been through a lot in such a small amount of time ... hopefully you'll soon start to reap the benefits of dialysis.  We're a supportive bunch of folk, so pop in often.

Many *huggles*,

Poppylicious, Moderator

[SooMK]

Welcome Terry. It must make you proud and grateful to have such a caring son. I hope things start getting better for you. It's still early days. There's lots of good advice here. Glad you're here.

[PrimeTimer]

Welcome, Marinterry! The Bay Area, huh? I'm suddenly craving fish and chips!! Anything from the Pacific Ocean is delicious!! Hope you make new friends here, everyone seems very willing to help so just speak up and you will be heard! 

[Bambino_Bear]

  to IHD Terry!

[Rerun]

Hi Terry, and welcome to IHD.  The FLU Shot?  Did they say how many times that happens?  Are you allergic to chicken feathers?  That is the only thing I had to sign in order to get the flu shot! 

Things will get better.  For some reason our bodies get use to having all the fluid and toxins sucked from us 3x a week.  There are other types of dialysis you could look into and believe it or not the more dialysis you get the better you will feel. 

Welcome, and I'm so glad you joined!

Rerun, Admin   

[kristina]

Hello Terry,
I am very sorry for you to have gone through such a horrifying experience because of a flu-jab,
with such drastic consequences for your future life and you have all my sympathy!
I have also been found to be allergic to flu-shots/jabs... and I had only two flu-jabs in all my life,
the first one gave me a complete SLE/MCTD flare-up, making me very sick for many months
and the second one gave me as a result the most horrendous bronchitis...
I nearly ended up in hospital, because the bronchitis began to affect my lungs in a serious way...
It seems to me that these flu-injections/flu-shots have lots to answer for...
... unfortunately, I have never read about any medical researches being done
or any negative results of flu-jabs being published and that makes me wonder...
... because I am sure we are not the only people whose bodies cannot tolerate these flu-shots...

I do hope you do find lots of answers and assistance here on IHD and I send you my best wishes,

Kristina.

[Marinterry]

I've been on hemo dialysis for a full six months now. I still hateitasmuch as when I started, but I guess I got used to it, it's now a part of the routine. I'm on the UCSF list, currently at 6.5 years. I did receive new information about "the waiting list", it may cut the wait time a little. I'm B+.
I'm ready to let go, but for the sake of my son and the possibility of a donor, I'm still hanging out. I realized I love my son more than I hate dialysis. He still has some life lessons to learn, and I just can't be that selfish. So here I am. I haven't been on this site since I introduced myself, but this site has been a huge help with acceptance.
I ruled out peritoneal because I'm a water lover, swimming, skiing, floating, anything with water, I'm in. PD doesn't cut it for me, so I do the 3 days a week, 3.5 hours per session at 450.

[Michael Murphy]

I am glad to hear you have become accustomed to Dialysis, I am almost two years into my Dialysis sentence.  When I started I was terrified by the prospect of Dialysis but I learned the worst thing about starting Dialysis was the fear of the unknown.  Since I will never be eligible for a transplant (skin cancer) I cope by dealing a week at a time. Every Friday I loudly announce I won't be coming back this week. I it helps the funny thing is now I am not the only one doing it at my center.  Dialysis is now a job for me. Not a fun job but a job never the less instead of a paycheck I get to live some more.i just retired and now that I am not working full time I even get time to enjoy my self.  Dialysis sucks but my life doesn't  it's pretty good.  Three days of work and four days off not bad. 

[Darthvadar]

Hi Terry.....

Don't know how I missed you... Still, better late than never....

  to IHD....

Darth... Moderator...