Schooooooooooooooooooooooooool

Today marks the first whole month of school I've attended since all this mess happened.

I'm have a busy, but not overloaded, course schedule and have classes Monday through Thursday, with dialysis on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I usually get out of dialysis a little before 2 pm, and I have class in Sacramento, about 30 minutes away, at 3. Sometimes traffic is good, sometimes it's not. That's just a game I have to deal with. I try to get something to eat in between that time too. If I don't, I wouldn't get to eat from somewhere between 9 am and 8 pm. Not good for a dialysis patient! Eating on Monday and Wednesday can be a bit of a struggle too in the sense that I'm not really suppose to eat fast food that often.

I'm glad to be back in school. It's so great to have something to do after having nothing to do for a year. I know I won't prefer that when all the work is piled on, but it's better than being miserably bored. I'm doing okay I suppose. This past month has been extremely exhausting for me though. I'm not used to being up and about and out all day long day after day. At the end of the day, I'm so worn out when I get home. Hopefully this will improve as I build my stamina back up. I guess I have an excuse with going to school and dialysis on the same days. Sometimes on Monday and Wednesday, I just want to put my head down and nap in class, having just gotten off treatment plus just eaten. Nap time please. Nope, no rest! I should probably learn to go to sleep much earlier at night than I do also though.

Sometimes I regret having to take so many classes my first semester back after my troubles, but I'm making it through. Hopefully I'll get adjusted soon and will power through. Now I just need some new music to listen to on the way there and back, hmm...

Live Donor Clinic

Last night, UC Davis Medical Center hosted a Live Donor Clinic in a conference room in a hotel next to the hospital. The head of the transplant center had a talk (with a horrible slideshow, poor people had no idea how to use computers lol), followed by the head transplant surgeon. It was a little informative, mostly boring, and quite hard to understand since they both had heavy accents lol. That's all fine, they know what they're doing in their main jobs and that's the important part. The lead of the live donor center talked a little next and then we were all introduced to a panel of 4 sets of donors/recipients. There were a pair of young brothers, a husband and wife, a brother and sister, and an older pair of brothers. Each person talked for a bit about their experience throughout the process, as well as saying many good things about UCDMC. They were very emotional, which is understandable considering how big of an event it is, and all very encouraging. Having done my own research over and over since all this happened, I didn't really learn anything last night, but seeing the emotional aspect of it from the donor/recipient point of view did help. I was able to talk to a few of the panelists afterwards also and discuss how dialysis affected them, among other things.

A year ago

Last night, a year ago, all this kidney mess reared its head. It's been a crazy year, but I made it through. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. Keep them up please. Still need to make it through the daily struggles with dialysis and need to get a transplant.