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- #121
The Persian Eggs look great! Are you able to us Himalayan Pink Salt? Some folks who can't use salt can use that.
As the nephrologist told me firmly, “Salt is salt, no matter what it is. Sea salt and the fancy salts are the same except for the various other minerals found where they’re found. And under no circumstances use salt substitute. It’s potassium in a blue container.” So, guess that’s that.
Agreed!!! Definitely very fortunate. And I’m also lucky I don’t have any dietary restrictions or anything. Though some foods do make me sick but nothing like Blooie or others.
And I agree, very interesting. I appreciate the opportunity to learn about this, even if it isn’t under ideal circumstances. Wish nobody had to go through this.
I wish so too, Kelsey. And as you mature you’ll be touched by people who have bad things happen to them and you’ll wish it hadn’t happened to them. It might even be you, and you’ll wish it, too. But I had my pity party last night and I don’t have time or need to do it again. I have CKD, and that’s the way of it. Now I deal.
I think about Linda, enjoying our big family Christmas on Christmas Day. She had a bit of a middle backache, but Christmas is a lot of lifting and work so she assumed she’d overdone it. She and Russ went home from their daughter’s about 9:00pm. By 11:30 that night she was in so much pain she fell to her kitchen floor and lay in her own vomit, unable to do anything but scream and cry. The ambulance came and the doctor on call that early morning in the ER happened to be a cardio/vascular surgeon, who suspected immediately what was going on and got the cath lab on high alert and standing by. A quick scan confirmed his suspicions and she was rushed down to have a ruptured aortic aneurysm repaired. The repair was successful, but she threw an embolism shower into her kidneys, shutting off their blood supply. And they died. December 26 she had kidney function, by December 27 she had none. Talk about an abrupt change. Linda didn’t even take Advil unless she had a rare headache, and suddenly she’s getting dialysis 3 times a week, she’s taking more pills than I do, she’s on nitro patches, she’s totally restricted food-wise, and she was still trying to make the family worry less. Two years in she had a coronary bypass done. And two years after that she was gone. I wish never happened. But it did. It just dammed did.
Nope, if I have to have this, I need to be grateful that I’m getting time to adjust to a new normal. I still have hope that I can reverse some of my kidney damage - her kidneys were instantly gone, as if someone had just removed them, within hours. The images are unbelievable, with that huge aneurism about dead center and her kidneys clearly visible behind it. The next image is a greatly reduced aneurism and her kidneys are already barely there.
Kelsey, we all have stories. This is all part of mine, but it’s a small part - a new part. I am not Kidney Disease. I am me WITH kidney disease. Have you ever noticed how I don’t refer to Kendra as “a Spina Bifida kid”? Even doctors do it. They say, “Spina Bifida babies tend to.......” whatever. Well, Kendra isn’t a Spina Bifida kid. She’s a kid with Spina Bifida as part of her story. Granted, it’s a big part, but it’s not her whole story. Kidney disease isn’t mine, either. Nor was it Linda’s. So we can wish something like this never has to happen, or we can acknowledge that it does. God never promised that there wouldn’t be pebbles, stones, and even boulders as we walk this path called ”life”. But He did promise to hold our hands as we walked it. That’s good enough for me.
And who knows....you’re still really young. By your own admissions, you’re still wondering what’s in store for you....what you’ll end up doing for a career. Nothing seems to hold your interest for long yet, and that’s okay. But wouldn’t it be something if you’re here interested in this stuff because all along the Good Lord had put us on a shared path, and a possible career choice is right in front of you, right now? The country needs good dietitians. People like Linda needed, and people like me need, dietitians. You’re smart and you need a career, and the usual and mundane doesn’t appeal to you. just sayin’.........