Kidney Failure - My Husband's Story 2

Although we knew in our hearts that eventually my hubby would need to do dialysis, we tried to avoid it. He was in denial, he thought that my taking medication his kidneys would eventually get back to normal. Of course it would not be true, when an organ in your body is damaged, it would only be Allah's power that can turn it back to normal. Divine intervention so to speak. Medication sometimes can help to reduce or prolong the damage.

In case of kidney failure, there is no symptom for you to know that your kidneys have failed. Tak ada kaitan nya kalau kita sakit pinggang dengan kerosakan buah pinggang. I have also learnt along the way that although we have 2 kidneys, only one is active, while the other is on a standby. In case of the active kidney failed in it's function, the other would be working as normal. For damaged kidney patients, it would mean that both kidneys are not functional anymore.

In hubby's case, physical symptoms were, his swollen legs and feet. They got bigger and heavier each day. His weight keep on increasing even though we have been controlling his diet. Blood pressure were always on the high end, his blood sugar level is already normal i.e between 5 - 7 mmol/L. The blood sugar level was normal because, the medication is accumulated in the kidney, since the kidney is no longer able to process them to discharge them through urine. His urine is getting lesser and lesser too.

Since the kidneys are no longer functioning, with the presence of fluids in the body not discharged out, the pressure on the other organs are also increasing, this is causing the blood pressure to increase. As the fluid in the body keep on increasing, my hubby was coughing and wheezing almost non stop, his chest was full of phlegm. For the past one year, I think, we became the largest consumer of tissue papers.

During the monthly visit to the hospital, his blood was taken for testing. Progressively, blood urea level and creatinine level in his blood had also increased. Starting with around Creatinine 200+ mmol/L in April 2010 to 700+ in March 2011. Urea level in March 2011 was 24. (I will put down the spec for normal people later). No way he could survive without dialysis, if we prolong it, he would have complications, may even be in a coma or worse.

The Neprologist - Dr Goh, advised him to be warded for dialysis. So on 15 March hubby was warded into Hospital Seberang Jaya for the second time in his life. On the 16 March, the first IJC (Inter Jugular Cathether - I think hehehe) was placed on his neck by Dr Goh. After that they performed blood dialysis on him for the first time.

A kidney patient will need to go through dialysis for the rest of his/her lives 3 times a week and at 4 hours per session. Cost wise, each session cost between RM150 to RM200. If you can get yourself listed to the government hospital (a long waiting list), then nit is free. Otherwise be prepared to spend around RM3000 per month (inclusive of medication). If you don't do dialysis, either after you have started it, death can prevail since your toxin level (urea and creatinine) will increase and eventually overwhelmed your whole body functions.

After the first session, hubby's condition improved a lot. The swollen on the feet seemed to have shrunk a bit, he was not coughing so badly anymore, the amount of phlegm was reduced too.

To be continued...

Spec for normal kidney function - blood test result (the only way to know)

Creatinine 51 - 124 mmol/L (millimol per liter of blood)

Urea 2.0 - 6.8 mmol/L

Kidney Failure - My Husband Story 1

It has been 4 years since I have left the employment. Berhenti kerja lah tu. Tahun pertama tu aku tercari-cari jugak apa bisnes nak buat. Bermacam-macam kursus keusahawanan aku join. Macam-macam program aku fikir nak join. Tapi akhirnya tak menjadi pun.

Actually, I was getting a bit depressed as well. My husband was getting stressed out by the fact that I was staying at home without any income coming in. We used to enjoy 5 figures salaries between the 2 of us and now it was reduced to a around 40% of the total income. The girls are getting into the universities and everything would rest on his shoulders. I was using the excused that I have no one to take care of my mother who was getting more and more dependent on me. I couldn't get out of the house without worrying that she would fall and hurt herself. She is almost bedridden and has the tendency to stay awake at night and sleep through the day. She really need someone to look after her day and night.

At the end of 2009 I finally made up my mind, I had to go out to be earning an income before I "kill" my husband or ruin my marriage. I told my sibling that either we hire a maid to take care of my mother or someone else had to take care of her.

The maid finally arrived on 4 April 2010. It was Ayin's birthday. It was at subuh prayer time on 16th April, at the time when Syia wanted to go to school that we noticed my husband had fainted. I remember that he woke me up at around 5 am. when wanted to go to the toilet. We went back to sleep and at 6.30 am that we found him fainted. I panicked, called his cousin Dr Zainab for advice and with the help of Abang Lang (who arrived the evening before, Alhamdulillah) Ayin, we rushed him to the hospital. He was diagnosed with hypoglycemia. His sugar level was 1.8 which was far too low. For a diabetic, hypoglycemia is much more dangerous than a hyperglycemia. If we had delayed a few more minutes he would have had a stroke or even die.

Prior to that attack, hubby had been complaining that his eye-sight were not good. He wanted to make new specs, but he was adviced to see the eye specialist before he should make new glasses. His eyes could not focus well, and it would be a waste of money to make glasses which he would not be able to use. The specialist found sugar deposits on his eye nerves which is common for diabetic. Hubby was asked to control his sugar level.

My hubby was so paranoid about the increase in his sugar level that he dared not eat anything. On the evening prior to his hypo attack, he could hardly walk because he had not eaten enough. All he would eat was rice and soup. He was so weak, he could barely walk without holding to me. I had started to drive him to work because of his tiredness.

Since then we have been going for monthly regular check-up. After a year, we are told that my husband has kidney failure.

Note :

Hypoglycemia is low blood sugar level below 4.

Hyperglycemia is high blood sugar level.

The normal person reading would be around 5 to 7.

Disclaimer :

This is going to be a personal journal on my husband's strive as a kidney patient. My intention to blog this is not to gain symphathy from anyone. It is more of documenting the journey that we have to go through from the eyes of the care giver and the patient himself. Maybe something good may come out of this but at least it would remind me to be thankful to Allah.

Dari Kamar Hospital Seberang Jaya

No, NO!! I am not sick... Alhamdulillah.... pssst Not really true, I have a slight cold. Not that it would be enough to get warded anyway.

No, I am not working here as well.

But I have been sleeping in this room for more more than 2 weeks.

It is my hubby who is warded here. He has been diagnosed with kidney failure.

He was here at first was to start the Heamodialysis treatment, but the IJC ( the catheter placed for the procedure) was septic or infected by bacteria. He need to be re-admitted to make sure that the infection does not affect his other vital organs.

The story on my hubby would come later.. I promise.

This entry is more about me first..

I thought that my addiction to blogging has been long cured. Looks like I was wrong. In fact I missed it a lot. At times, my mind felt like it was going to explode because, I have many things that I want to blog about but somehow I couldn't do it. Reasons... there are a few, but they may seem trivial and lame at this moment.

Thanks to the technology, you can blog from anywhere right?.

At the beginning of his stay here, I was anxious about hubby's well being, so my mind was focussed on his health. But after he is already stabilised, I was getting very bored. The doctor won't discharge him yet, not until his infection is gone anyway, therefore my mind is left to wonder aimlessly. Thank God Ayin is back from college and I could borrow her laptop and the broadband.

So last night, I wandered through the blogging world to see who is still around. Many have moved to facebook and twitter but there are still a few of my old blogging friends who are still active. Phew!!!. Lega...

I am trying to make a comeback. Not so much to find popularity or what so ever, but there are things that I want to pen down like my hubby's hospital episode, his reaction to ill-health and the caregiver point of view. One day my daughters may need to refer if they have to care for someone they love, just like me. This can be their reference point.

My english is I think dah berterabur...... semua pitching ke laut habis.

It has been 4 years since I left employment and it becomes rather rare that I speak in proper english. So please bear with me.

Untill next time

Salam

AN