Introduction

[Jeisanl]

Hello everyone, I'm Jessica, 39 yo female from Puerto Rico and I'm a newborn on PD. In February 2018 was diagnosed with CKD and was in such bad shape that the doctor told me that I needed to be hospitalize immediately because of the level of toxins in my body. Been on PD for 2 months. Ready to fight this battle even on the worst days.

[cassandra]

Welcome to the site Jessica


   

[LorinnPKD]

Jessica, welcome!  I was 40 when I started, about the same age.  I've been doing hemo for almost 2 years now and it's going OK!

Wishing you strength and stability!

[kickingandscreaming]

Welcome.  I've been doing PD for just over 2 years.  it works well for me.  I hope your peritoneum holds up well for you and that you can be careful enough with your procedure to avoid nasty infections.  So far so good on that score (knock on wood).

[Marilee]

Hi Jessica and welcome! My goodness, I bet your head must be spinning at such a rapid diagnosis-to-dialysis rush (my hubby spent over a decade with CKD before finally needing PD so we had the time to wrap our minds around it before the time came). Hope you're feeling better now!

[Paul]

 

Hello Jessica, welcome to the site.

Well done at coping with such a quick diagnosis to treatment speed. I had several years to prepare, and still I was not ready!

[Charlie B53]

Hi Jessica, and Welcome to IHD!

I did very well on PD for 3 1/2 years, good labs, could eat and drink most anything and everything I wanted.

I wasn't so happy with the long time PD required but it was well worth staying alinve and NOT being sick.

I could complain, but that would have done anyone any good, nor would it change anything.  So I pretty well just learned to adapt to a new style of life.

3 1/2 year in I must have gotten a bit too complacent, too much of a hurry setting up my Cycler.  May not have cleaned my hands as well as I should have been doing.

I must have momentarily 'touched' a fitting while making connections.  Not even enough to realize that I had touched it.

But I must have, as hours into that nights Cycles I felt abdominal pain.  What I thought, and as a 'Man', I think.  And as a Man' my Wife will tell you that in 'Her Opinion' I am usually wrong (NOT). So I thought I simply had a drain Pain.  Everyone on PD sometimes gets a Drain Pain, but those quickly go away when you 'fill'.  This one didn't.  By the hour it got worse, and every hour it kept getting worse.

Within four or five hours I knew that I was in trouble.  I had the Wife call my Nurse.  Took a sample of my flulid and it was obviously cloudy.  I knew I was screwed and, Son was here to take me to the ER. We never did manage to kill that bug, the infection kept coming back.  I had to have that cath removed and a Hemo cath put in.

Don't mamke my mistake.  Keep your hands clean, take your time staying very carefull with every connection.

Take Care,

Charlie b53

[Jeisanl]

Thank you all for the warm welcome. Yes it has been very stressfull. What some people get years to prepare their homes for PD I had to do it in 3 weeks. I will be going back to work next week and don't know how I'm gonna work that out.  Talking about infections,  all this is soo scary, everything or anything can cause an infection. I'm trying really hard to stay positive and calm. To all you Warriors my admiration and appreciation. May God give us the strength to fight this battle.

[kickingandscreaming]

You can avoid infections by keeping your mind focused on what you're doing.  There have been a few instances when I accidentally touched a connector with my hand.  But I was paying attention so I was aware that I screwed up and could abort that phase of treatment and avoid getting infected.  If I had just plowed right through, I could have ended up with an infection.

[Marilee]

Our nurse said that the last patient with an infection forgot to wear their mask while connecting: They did a culture and found "mouth germs" were the cause.

But errors don't always end in disaster:

One morning, my hubby woke up because his tummy was all wet. Somehow the titanium connector that's on the end of the catheter to connect the transfer set was on the floor with a bit of tubing from the catheter still inside. Somehow, it had torn right at that collar and juice was squirting all over. We could hear our nurses voice in our head, "Close, Clamp and Call!" We got a clamp on the catheter and called straightaway. They took us in, we saw the surgeon that day, he installed a new titanium connection, he got a course of antibiotics just in case and no infection ever presented itself.