Dialysis

People are often asking me how a person can live without kidneys. Well, it isn't any fun, but you can survive. Three day a week for 4 hours a day, James has to go to dialysis. If you don't know what that is, it's a machine that, over the course of your treatment, removes all of your blood and puts it through a filter and cleans it. It then puts the clean blood back into your body. A few months ago James had a fistula put into his arm. A fistula is a tube inserted into his vein that enlarges the blood flow. When you put your finger over it, you can actually feel the blood flowing through.
During dialysis they insert two needles into his upper arm, one that takes out the blood and another to put it back in. He has to sit, for four hours, totally still. If he moves his arm at all, the needles pierce through his vein and cause horrible bruises. Personally, I can't imagine how hard that would be to sit totally still for 4 hours. He absolutely dreads it and I don't blame him.
Sundays are the worst days for him because he has to go an extra day between treatments. Today was a particularly bad day. His lack of kidneys has caught up to him today. He is really starting to bloat up and he didn't leave his room all day. I came in to see him and his throat and face is totally bloated. The fluid is really starting to build up. He's having trouble breathing, not to mention that the first thing he did this morning was throw up and then he didn't eat the rest of the day. Poor guy. I know I said this morning that he was hanging in there, but today was bad. Let's all pray that tomorrow is a better day. Love you all.