06.06.06
Today marks the bonus year. It was around this time last year the projections were not too good for me making it. So, I feel like I got a pretty good deal of another year – thanks to Jerry.However, today I had closure with another kidney friend who did not make it. I eulogized a friend. She was a friend’s mom and our relationship started at St. Johns Hospital in Nassau Bay last January. It was my first week back in the office after recovering from the kidney transplant and my friend told me his mom was having some kidney problems and it was approaching dire circumstances.
When I arrived in the hospital room, I introduced myself to her husband. She was asleep in the hospital bed, ashen and frail. Her husband and I talked about her condition. Through my journey, I am fluent in the language of bloodwork levels and the symptoms of uremia. As I heard her story and her numbers, I was curious as to why she was not already on dialysis.
There were frequent phone calls that week to check on progress and eventually she was prepared for her first dialysis treatment. As the weeks went by and she was undergoing dialysis treatments, her health began to return. I would get phone calls about her good progress, the care she received at the dialysis center and the recent scoop on the dialysis technicians – since many were my friends. A common conversation was to check on her fistula to see if it was mature enough to remove the catheter access.
There were discussions of a possible transplant, with her husband as the donor, but other health complications prevented that possibility. After some time, she was able to qualify for and her husband was trained to administer home hemo-dialysis which allowed her blood to be cleansed daily.
Eventually, she made a turn around and was back to living life.
In one conversation, she expressed her excitement about a trip to New York. When she returned, she relived the great time she had and the great food she was able to enjoy again.
Her other son and wife came down for a visit on Memorial Day weekend and the time was spent doing things that only a few months before had been things that she could only hope or dream to do.
There were other plans of travel and fun times, but they were interrupted.
She had a stroke and heart attack on Memorial Day and after an agonizing couple of days in ICU, it was apparent there was nothing else to do. She had made her decision clear if she were ever in this situation. So last Thursday, I was with my friend, his father and brother as they directed the medical professionals to fulfill her wishes.
My last time with her was similar to the first time I met her, at the side of her hospital bed at St. Johns hospital, except this time it would be the night before she passed. It had been a busy day and I stopped by the hospital late and I was able to sit with her for a while. The family had gone for the day, but her favorite show was showing on the television. Although she did not respond, I spoke with her about the courage and strength she displayed since meeting her in January and how she had given that to her family in this time.
As I left the hospital that night, I reflected on the interlude about her progress and return to health. I thought of it as a gift, one of those good gifts – a time for last memories to be good memories. I did not know her very long, but we were both members at the “fellowship of dialysis” and from my interaction with her, I had the opportunity to observe a strong woman realizing a second chance and her attempt to live life abundantly. I believe she finished well.
posted by Jeff Waldo @ 4:51 PM
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