Info on Dialysis and Current Cancer Treatment

John with the staff at DSI ~

Hi! If you are like I was before March 1st, you do not know what a dialysis machine looks like or much about kidneys other than the fact that they help you in removing fluid! Well, if you decide to read this, you will know much more than you did before! First of all living without kidneys or kidney function is a miracle...but very difficult to do. The kidneys do more than just help you get rid of fluid. They also clean your body of toxins that are in all food. There are great foods out there like bananas, peaches, pears, potatoes, pumpkin. But they have high levels of potassium. Your kidneys excrete potassium out so they are healthy and not a harm to your body. However, if you don't have kidneys, you have to stay away from the high-level potassium and phosphorus foods (nuts, cheese, peanut butter, milk, beans) plus you are limited on the amount of fluid that you can have a day as well! (four cups of fluid a day) The reason you cannot have extra fluid is because your kidneys work 24 hours a day, and although it seems like John is at dialysis everyday, the truth is he is on the machine for only three days a week for 4 hours! The rest of the time fluid is building up as well as toxins. Extra fluid is very tough on your body. Once your stomach gets too much fluid it starts to "go" into your tissue and it will eventually make your blood pressure get high as well. I am going to type this in caps JOHN ROCKS AT doing everything he can to make living without kidneys easier! He cracks me up sometimes because he looks at some of the other patients that are IN dialysis and they are eating stuff he knows that they shouldn't ~ he is like, "man, don't they know that they should not be doing that???" It makes him sad in a way because they have this shot at life and they don't seem to care. But enough about others; this is about John!
Right now he is doing pretty good. He seems to be tolerating the new cancer treatment. It is a type of Chemo. The name of it is Torisel ~ it is an injected drug so... for the time being, we are going to Tucson every Tuesday. (Makes for quit a bit of time away from the house ~ with dialysis three days a week and now this.) But, we are all trying to make the most of every situation! He really does seem to be doing well other than his blood pressure is very very high at times and he seems to be sleepy a bit more... but he continues to work and still has that beautiful smile that I fell in love with! ~ Keeps him from getting in trouble :)