Close to Nowhere

I received some incredible news recently. As some of you may know, my health has been pretty shabby for a while now. First, my lungs shut down, then my kidneys failed and then I had to have my gall bladder out.

I’ve been on dialysis since the kidney failure and that saved my life. I’ve gone from an almost complete invalid to actually being able to walk across the house, sweep the floor, etc. I’ve gone from being extremely depressed and feeling totally useless to feeling like I can do things again.

I went to dialysis in Oxford at the Fresenius Medical Center there. I couldn’t go to the one here in Holly Springs because daughter Dana is an RN there and company policy said family couldn’t treat family. Actually, that made sense to me. And since we live about halfway between Holly Springs and Oxford, it wasn’t any further.

I was terrified the first time I went. I’d had dialysis while in the hospital, but going to a strange place with strange people was really scary.

However, the people who took care of me are wonderful. Everyone there from techs to RNs, to the doctors really seem to care about every patient in there. There were several who were my “regular” caregivers and I won’t list them by name as being favorites, as even the techs and nurses I rarely saw treated me, and all the other patients, like we were special.

When I first started going there, Dr. Hamilton said that it was rare for anyone to be acute (recoverable), as most folks and me especially were chronic (permanent).

However, after a bit, the nurses and the family practitioner that I saw regularly, began to be happier with my numbers (don’t ask me to explain that; I just took their word for it). Several times, I took a 24-hour test and each time my numbers were better.

Last week, I took the test again. Kathy said I needed a 20 to “pass” the test. I made a 22!

I am now officially off dialysis and have healthy, working kidneys again. I’m going next week to have the tubes that connect my blood veins to the dialysis machine surgically removed. They’re placed near my shoulder and on the inside run all the way to my heart.

I’m still a little stunned – and a lot scared. Fortunately, I have a great support backup with the clinic in Oxford, and of course, Dana and Kris at home.

I am living proof that once in a while, God grants us a miracle.