it's new year's eve and here I am writing another post on this blog. Yes, I live a boring life! LOL!!!
First - I need your help. Does anyone out there have experience with ESRD? What are the signs of the final end stages? I have read about it, I'm just looking for personal experience - not textbook information.
Hubby is still gone - still taking care of his dad. He has been gone 1 year, 3 months and 2 weeks. This week he got sick. He has not been able to keep anything down in the last 3 days. Everything he eats and drinks comes back up. No, he will not go to a doctor. I know that it could just be the flu, but he has had so many episodes like this that I wonder if his digestive system is shutting down. Neuropathy of the stomach? intestines?
He said this evening that he is feeling a little better. Well, I think that he hasn't had anything going in for 3 days so he should be at the point where there is nothing left inside to come back up. He said that his ribs hurt and I reminded him that a couple of years ago, he broke his ribs coughing.
Second, I'm sharing a comment from a reader:
I've followed your blog for awhile now and I wanted to let you know that you have helped me cope in my own struggle to try to co-exist with a non-compliant diabetic. After 26 years of watching the downward spiral of my loved one I can truly say that I have been able finally to detach and try to recover my own life lest I lose it due to stress and worry. She continues to eat whatever and however she wants, refuses to take her meds properly or at all, won't go to the doctor, won't exercise, etc. I know the worst case course of this disease and she is on it and knows it and refuses to change. I am done and your example has given me the strength and courage to step away and save my own life. Thank you for your sharing and courage. God bless
I have to say that this past week has been an interesting for me. Probably my usual end-of-year review. I'm an artist. And I have always admired Laurel Burch. However, I had absolutely no idea that she had passed away. At the end of 2007!!! And when I did the math....that is about the time that hubby started getting ill, having complications from his diabetes....about the time that I sort of took a hiatus from my art and started caring for him almost full time. It was quite a shock to realize that the last 6 years of my life have literally been on hold. I wonder if I should have said I was done before I ever started???
I continue to get back some of the person that I used to be. I now know that while I feel so sorry for him, he is not here, he is 1000 miles away, and it is not my job to worry about him, or help him out. I can (and am) a good listener. He can call me anytime and I will listen and then try to remind him of things he has forgotten. We do have a history together. We still talk 2-3 times a day.
My youngest sister and I are planning a vacation together. We are going overseas and it will be our 3rd trip to this destination. In the past, I have planned everything about every trip and this time, I turned it all over to her. I told her that I am just not who I was. Not yet. And she said she understands. Part of it is due to mom's death. I am coming out of that grief. But I am also coming out of the grief that this marriage is over. Yet at the same time I know I am so much better than I was a year ago. I'm in a much, much better place. I have found my art again. I am being creative again. I am discovering things such as the death of someone that I completely admired. I am taking care of myself. my body AND my spirit.
Which brings me to tomorrow. Someone sent me a great quote. Tomorrow is the first page of a blank book....write an amazing story! I feel so refreshed and energized. I want to write an incredible story in 2014. I want to have an incredible year. I pray that my grieving is over. I know that we all have to go through it. I know the steps well. I am looking at midnight as a door. And while I cannot shut the door to the past completely (not sure I would really want to do that), I am opening the door to 2014 wide. I EXPECT it to be a great year!!! I am praying that God will bless me and make me a blessing to others. I pray for anyone who is living with a non-compliant diabetic. That God will bless you and lift you up and give you the strength where I failed. And my failures have been huge.
I pray that I can continue to share the knowledge I have of living with a diabetic....even having a long distance non-relationship with one, and that my life might help you a little. I thought when he told me that he was staying to take care of his dad, that my life with a diabetic had stopped. But not really! The stress is less. My life is much better. The diabetic spouse is in the background now. Backgrounds by nature of the term are always there - they never completely totally go away!
May each of you have a wonderful 2014!
DW
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1 comment:
It's me again. Ironically I am a health care professional in dialysis and very familiar with ESRD. Because of this I also know too well the outcome of many noncompliant diabetics.
Diagnosis of ESRD is only conclusive through examination of a person's blood work, of course. Some physical symptoms include fatigue, muscle aches and cramping, dry and itchy skin, and lessening of urine output. Many ESRD patients still make urine. The blood work tells most conclusively whether the kidneys are efficient in removing toxins from the body. Most diabetics, especially uncontrolled ones, should also be under the care of a nephrologist in order to monitor the level of kidney function. Once it goes below a certain level, hemodialysis is indicated.
The majority of hemodialysis patients are such due to uncontrolled diabetes. You would not be surprised to learn that even that does not ''wake up'' most of them to become compliant.
''Uremia'' also manifests in mood disturbances, mental confusion, depression, and even hallucinations if severe enough.
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