Love And Kidneys

[Paul]

I am lucky enough to live in England where all medical treatment is free. However it is underfunded, so hospitals try to save money wherever possible. And as transplants are cheaper than keeping the patient on dialysis for years, patients get sent to a talk on transplants before they even get to the point of needing dialysis. I was sent on one, and found they have three parts to them. First part: they tell you all you need to know about transplants. Third part: various people who have had them talk to you about what it was like. And surreally, the middle part was basically a "sales talk" for going on the transplant list ("Roll up, roll up roll up, come get your free second hand kidneys here - special deal, after the operation, each kidney now comes with a free lifetimes supply of medication"). One of the sales points they gave us was ".....And after you get your transplant, you will be much better at making love"!

During the "talks from people who have had a transplant" part, one was from a guy whose wife had selflessly donated one of her kidneys to him. But afterwards I wondered if it had been selfless, or if she had offered him the kidney after hearing that bit about him becoming better at making love to her?

[MooseMom]

Well, that's bizarre, but I guess there is a modicum of truth to it.  Someone who is in generally better health is going to be better at a lot of things!

Having a spouse on dialysis is hard.  Having a spouse who is chronically ill for any reason is hard.  It's hard for the whole family.  I would suppose that any wife who loved her husband would just want him to feel better and have a better quality of life.  For most people, transplantation can offer that.  It is what it offered me, and I know my husband is happy that I feel better both physically and emotionally. 

[smartcookie]

   That last line got me!  I have never heard that transplants make you better at sex... Maybe I should use that in my transplant education with patients!

[iolaire]

So after my transplant my small does of Labetalol was stopped. I believe that helped firm things up.

But honestly using that as a selling point makes it seem like the selling party is fairly uneducated, as the other selling points like a longer life are should be much more significant - unless you have some sort of catheter in your belly that might make skin to skin contact difficult or even prevent cuddling.  My wife is not interested in touching my fistula with the pulsing vein, I'm sure she wouldn't want a plastic cattier touching her.

[Paul]

But honestly using that as a selling point makes it seem like the selling party is fairly uneducated

I bloody hope not, it was their main transplant surgeon!

Although I will say this: Before dialysis started Mayday messed up my fluid intake considerably, I ended up so overloaded that even my lungs were holding fluid. And everything south of the lungs was full of water and swollen to enormous size. Ladies, that was when you needed to know me.

[Whamo]

  I'm glad I'm on the transplant list.  My sex life has deteriorated quite a bit since I started on dialysis six years ago.  In fact, it's non-existent.  My wife doesn't seem to care.  I do.