Many years ago I remember hearing a saying for the first time “nothing is as constant as change”. Boy is this true when you begin dialysis. While Jim is stilling doing good on his dialysis, a lot of changes has occurred during the past 2 months. Here are a few ways in which our lives have changed…..
- We now sleep upstairs in the spare bedroom (a.k.a. Lindsay’s old room) because it is much more accommodating for the cylcer and many boxes of solution and supplies we have.
- Our dogs now sleep in Jason’s room. At first a little confusing to them, but they have adjusted well to this change (plus the treat they get each night at bedtime probably helps).
- It now takes us 2 days to take out the accumulation of trash we have Thursday mornings. This consist of trash bags of cycler tubes, fluid bags, supplies, etc. And oh yea…who can forget the weeks worth of broken down boxes the bags come in.
- At 6:00 p.m. every night we prepare the cyler for bedtime. We do this a couple hours prior to going to bed so that the bags of solution are heated up.
- At 9:00 p.m. on the dot we are ready for bed. After Jim “connects” we wait to listen for the 3 beeps telling us of his “low drain volume” and bypass the initial drain. This is the most painful time during the whole process. If there are not a lot of fluids in his belly to drain, he says it feels like a vacuum sucking out his insides. He pushes the bypass bottom and we sleep.
- At 6:00 a.m. everyday I wake Jim up to “disconnect”. He then goes downstairs to continue to sleep 2-3 more hours in our bedroom, which he describes as the best sleep he gets….”heaven”.
- Jim was not able to hunt at all this year. If anyone knows Jim, they know how he loves to hunt. Every weekend, every week as much as he can. Maybe next year.
- We cook a lot more. On Saturdays and Sundays we try new things and experiment with new recipes. Not sure why. My theory is that it’s the one thing we have total control over and that is a good feeling.
- We no longer travel. At least not Jim. Hopefully when the weather turns nice we will be able to go out to our lake. We will pack up his cycler and his many boxes and see how that goes. For now it is “home sweet home”.
- Jim has not been able to work since November. Most likely he will never be able to go back to his job as a pressman. As long as he has a tube and extra fluids in his belly and continues to get leg cramps, this makes it almost impossible for him to do his work.
Some things haven’t changed. We continue to laugh at each other and support each other. We go to sleep each night not knowing what the next day brings, but know that we will be there for each other. For now…. this is our “New Normal”.
