A newbie from Chicago

[kmt_sesh]

Greetings, everyone! This is my very first post. I actually registered some months ago but lost track, and on a whim I decided to check tonight. And now I'm in. I'm very glad to be here

First off, my name is John but on the internet I generally go by the odd name kmt-sesh, which is an ancient Egyptian thing. I love the subject and volunteer in the Egyptian exhibits of two museums in Chicago. I am a male and fifty years old.

I've had diabetes since around my mid-twenties. Aside from some serious vision problems that were stopped and mostly fixed, my kidneys had been going downhill for quite some time. They went down to less than 10% functionality in November, when I ended up in the hospital. My blood glucose was 26 and my creatinine was over 10. I started dialysis right then, when the surgeon implanted a central line in my neck and then in my chest. I was going to hemodialysis three times a week since November, at a clinic that was luckily very close to my residence.

The nephrologist I met at the hospital is my nephrologist today. He's terrific. For some reason from the start he thought I'd be a good candidate for peritoneal dialysis, so I very recently completed pretty intensive training to do that, here in my apartment. In fact, as I type this, I am dialyzing though the new catheter in my abdomen. The machine is whirring quietly behind me.

That's enough for now. As is known to my friends at other forums to which I belong, I am a windbag. But I joined this forum to look for advice and experiences from folks who are in the same (or similar) boat as I am.

Thanks so much for having me! 

[skinnacat]

Hello..nice to meet you..I am Tammy and am also on pd dialysis..been doing it for almost 3 yrs.
I am gonna be 45 in a couple months so I am in the younger group of people on here I think 

[LorinnPKD]

Welcome, John!

I haven't seen any of the Egyptian exhibits in Chicago (great town!) but one of my favorite places in NYC was the Temple of Dendur exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  It's such a powerful spot.  And it's a maze to get there from my beloved American Wing but always worth heading to spend a few moments.

So glad to hear PD is working for you!

[PrimeTimer]

   Welcome, kmt_sesh! Sounds like you are off to a good start doing home PD. Hope that continues to go smoothly for you. Obviously you have a lot to contribute. That's always a plus here!

[cassandra]

Welcome to the site John

   


Take care, Cas

[smartcookie]

   I am so glad you decided to check us out again and post! 

I got to go to Boston a while back to see a friend.  We went to the Fine Arts Museum there, and they have a lot of Egyptian artifacts.  I really enjoyed seeing that exhibit, even though I don't know a lot about Egyptian culture. 

[Xplantdad]

Welcome John! I used to t live in Palatine (NW suburbs of Chicago)

It was a great place to do some of my growing up years. Back then, Palatine only had a population of 2600 people. It's a LOT bigger now!

[Charlie B53]

Welcome to the IHD 'Family'.  We are always glad for new members to come in and stay with us.  There is a wealth of information here and if not what you are looking for you can always simply ask.  No question should ever go unanswered.  We have between us many many years of experiences and have run into most every problem.  There are sure to be new 'curves' thrown at us, but we will find ways to cope with most every situation.

And when all else fails, you can rant and rave at what is driving you crazy any particular day.  I really helps just to vent and relieve pressure.

Take Care,

Charlie B53

[kmt_sesh]

Thanks for your warm welcome, everyone. As I write this I'm hooked up to my PD cycler and just started my first fill. That's a little uncomfortable but it's gotten a lot better since the first time I did it, in training. At that time it felt like someone was pressing down on my intestines.

So nice to hear from everyone.  Lorinn and smartcookie, you two just mentioned a pair of the museums (the Met and Fine Arts, respectively) I've always wanted to visit. They have the two largest ancient Egypt exhibits in the Western Hemisphere, and I'm an ancient Egypt fanatic.

But for now I'm still getting accustomed to PD and wrapping my mind around this. Dialysis has been going on for over half a year, but that was mostly hemo. I'm still new to this PD. I'm half-tempted to check Amazon to see if they have kidneys for sale. Or maybe e-bay?