Let’s backtrack a little. Transplant is something that needs to be done at specific times to specific people. Unfortunately by the time my Dad was being talked to about transplant, he was way too sick to perhaps even survive the surgery.

 

The liver team turned me off of Duke – they gave my Dad false hope, having him believe that his body would be able to be able to not only survive, but thrive, with a liver transplant. I saw this myself- one of the doctors was going on a 3 week trip, and told him that they expected to see him up and walking laps around the unit by the time they got back. The nurse in the room and I just gave each other confused looks. The man in front of me would probably never walk again. He never did walk again.

 

As can happen a lot with liver injury is that where the liver goes, so goes the kidneys. There was a point around Christmas 2018 my Dad would go to get a paracentesis (procedure to remove fluid removed from his abdomen which wasn’t occurring naturally because of liver failure); and then other days he’d go to dialysis – which is a medical solution we have for failing kidneys. It was in the dialysis clinic at Duke that my Dad all of a sudden decided to go home with hospice care on New Years Eve – he didn’t want to end up like the other older drooling old men who “slept” during the entire session.

It is in the same dialysis clinic at Duke where I’m sitting now for the first time. (I got back out of ICU last night).

 

Suffice it to say that I REALLY don’t want to have to be doing this. After waking up from my weeklong nap and learning that it was my kidneys that royally screwed everything up, and that I had spent several days on continuous dialysis- — only to have to switch over to normal dialysis — I was heartbroken, angry and scared.

 

I’d always thought that I’d rather get diagnosed with another type of cancer, even if it meant chemotherapy, than have to go on dialysis. I still think this.

 

I just know kidney failure as mostly something that you don’t come back from. So far one kidney doc thinks I’ll bounce back, but he’s working off of bad information and an inflated ego. Most other docs say they are “hopeful” that this will help my kidneys bounce back. The only doctor who is committed to saying anything, is saying that a transplant is in my future. And he’s the head of Lung Transplant Surgery here at Duke who did my surgery.

 

It could go any way.

 

For the next couple weeks I’m just going to concentrate on diet and hydration and going to dialysis when appropriate- otherwise it’s still the Joe Sleeper lung show. I’ve really for to catch up from this setback and make sure I do all I can to get these lungs working fantastically and to do all I can to make sure that they stay that way.