Hello from Ormond Beach (Daytona) Florida

Hi everyone! It's good to be among so many others who have been there and are doing that while beiing candid and still maintaining my kind of sense of humor. I'm 63 and have been on in-clinic hemo (Davita- Ormond Beach, FL where I live) since 1/06. I'm a NJ native but have been in FL for 24 consecutive warm Christmases and New Years and I hope many more. I consider myself very lucky, having been diagnosed ESRD at 30% of kidney fuinction in 1998, without symptoms, based on routine blood tests. I never had any symptoms until wicked anemia set in about a month before I started dialysis and shots of EPO did no good. The start of dialysis was part of a bad 8 months that began with prostate removal folllowed by an absessed abdominal infection requiring emergency surgery, then gall bladder removal, aortic valve replacement, and finally emergency surgery to repair a brachial artery aneurism probably caused by a bad needle stick in my non-fistula arm. After 6 weeks of a heavy duty intravenous anti-biotic under the care of my Special Angel and life partner Diane I finally started recovering and have felt like a rebuilt '57 Chevy ever since. The prostate cancer was discovered during a cadaver transplant workup at the Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville. Thankfully the cancer was removed with the prostate surgery and I was placed on their waiting list in late October 2005. I'm told I'm #3 in the queue which could mean tonight or several more months. I feel lucky that I feel OK but tired after dialysis, but great the other four days of the week, so it's not like the wait is killing me. I also feel lucky that I have ESRD and not some other terminal disease that doesn't come with the options of dialysis and transplant to continue living. I know transplant can be a tradeoff between dialysis and heavy drugs, but everyone who has been there says give it a shot. Adjusting to dialysis didn't come easy- it took me about 6 months of trial and error working with the dialysis nurses to finally get it right. I don't expect to recover from transplant overnight either. Joining an online dialysis support group 4 years ago was instrumental in self education and attitude change. That Group experience took me from feeling cursed to feeling blessed based on the options to continue living, and living the same kind of fulfilling lifestyle so many other dialysis patients have lived for years. I learned early on from that Group that we cannot change our circumstances, but we can change our attitude about them. Yes I have bad days too, just like perfectly healthy people. I've been very impressed from what I've read here and I'm glad I found you. I'll try to pass on as much as I can about in-center dialysis when questions arise, and if you don't mind I might pick the brains of those of you who have had the transplant experience. Good to be here.