So, last Wednesday I dropped by the Riverside Campus of the Ottawa Hospital at the crack of dawn to have Peritoneal Dialysis Catheters surgically implanted in my body. Y’know, I could have just stayed home and worked remotely, but I thought it would be fun to get some good drugs and have some holes cut into me.

Seriously though, my kidney function is dropping (somewhere around an eGFR of 15 and on the way down) and my doctors think it’s a good idea to prepare. I really can’t argue, even though I have been dreading being at this point from about 2008 onwards. Side note: I have learned from experience that sticking my head in the sand and hoping that a medical condition will simply go away does not work. Who knew?

So, this morning I went to consult with a surgeon about Peritoneal Dialysis, specifically having PD catheters surgically implanted in preparation for Dialysis.

Ye Gods, I don’t want to do this. But I don’t feel like dying yet, so I guess I have to.

Surgery is now scheduled for early May. When I was asked if that was ok, I did respond honestly and said that, “none of this is ok and I’m barely holding it together”, but that’s not helpful so I followed up with, “sure”. I’m a nice guy that way.

So, this morning I go to consult with a surgeon about Peritoneal Dialysis, specifically having PD catheters surgically implanted in preparation for Dialysis. I had hoped that this day would never come. Now that it’s here, I am feeling a wide range of conflicting emotions.

Did I do enough to prevent getting here?

Did I push alternate theories, did we really find the cause, and is there still some larger problem looming?