Thankful Tuesday: TODAY IS A GIFT!

I received this in the mail TODAY!

Mr. Clark and I got to spend  Valentines 'Day ' together. We both sorta had the day off. Mr. Clark split his day and I ended up having to take the full day off. For none other than a Doctor appointment. It was the day that Fresinius sets  for the 'TEAM' to evaluate his progress. 

 The news we received was bitter/sweet?

 We are getting close to saying 'GOOD BYE' to Fionia the filter. She has tried her best to keep Mr. C. stable. The problem?? She feeds Mr. C pure sugar.

 Because this causes his sugars to be too high, Miss Fionia is not effective. 

He is blowing up like a balloon. His heart, eyes and limbs are at risk.

To understand the procedure. Peritoneal is FLUID filtering. Hemo dialysis is BLOOD filtering. Peritoneal dialysis  is like eating 6 candy bars a night! Giving him extra insulin has not touched it.  It doesn't make sense that this is the solution. Maybe it wasn't meant for a diabetic?

PD (Peritoneal Dialysis)has given Mr. Clark FREEDOM to be at home. (instead of a dialysis center).   FREEDOM to work and travel easier etc.

News today: We are temporarily??? switching to HEMO dialysis. We will be going to a center 3 nights a week. Mr. Clark can still work. He may even feel BETTER.

We are trying to be optimistic that switching to BLOOD now will be healthier for Mr. Clark.

As they were explaining it I was smiling with tears running down my face. A smile? because I felt embarrassed for crying. This terrifies me! Tears and more tears. For many reasons, 2 reasons for sure is: Fear of the unknown,  and because we will temporarily loose Nurse Barb. We couldn't be so courageous with out her!

It's emotional for both of us.

 Mr. Clark is trying to be brave. I asked him to PLEASE, PLEASE consider a live donor so we could get a kidney transplant sooner. He said I can't put anyone I love through it. (he is A+ ,b.t.w!)We've tried over and over to convince him that some one's life could be blessed if he would just reconsider. He won't.

So our next adventure will be what is called NOCTURNAL Dialysis. It is done for 8 hrs. 3 'nights' a week. The hard part will be that it's quite a distance from our house so I well either sleep in the lobby of the center or find a church member to stay with on those day's (if I'm brave)  He will start at 8:00pm and end by 5:00 am.

* NOTE: this will be temporary until he decides if this  type of dialysis is what he wants. We can be trained to do it at home. It is alot more intense. At home it would still consist of 5-7day's a week.

Here is the positive: 

 1- He won't have the weight gain.

2- He won't be packing around 1300 mls of fluid in his belly.

3- He won't have the x-tra water in his legs so his restless leg will be less painful.

He may feel much, much better.

The negative:

It will be even harder to travel. -- every where we go we have to find a dialysis center.

FYI: Dear family, Our EASTER break IS OFF :( TEARS!

He is getting a catheter put back in his chest on Tuesday.

They are keeping is PD Cathe in so that it is available if he changes his mind??

We are THANKFUL today for *OPTIONS and for the gift of life.

We should never take it for granted.

TODAY IS A GIFT

(Thanks Meg, now you know why when I received it today I CRIED even more than usual! So sweet of you my dear friend ) XO