Question: what if you find out you have to go on dialysis and you don’t know kidney beans about the subject?

Answer: Urine trouble. (Hint: you have to say it aloud.)

My son Matthew found out recently he has to have surgery this week because his lone remaining kidney hasn’t been getting a passing grade.

On Thursday, Matthew, and my daughter Susy and I will arrive at Valley General Hospital where a vascular surgeon is going to install a “fistula” in Matt’s arm to join one of his arteries to a vein; and a catheter in his abdomen. The plan is that either of these bionic devices will be able to help take over the work currently being shirked by his failing kidney.

The hardware can’t do it alone, though. That’s where Susy, my son-in-law Curt, and I come in. About a week after the surgery, we will attend a rigorous training program. And two weeks later, Matt will begin one of – as yet undecided – methods of receiving dialysis. He’ll either have hemodialysis at the kidney center 3 to 4 times a week, or we will administer peritoneal dialysis here at home for 8 hours every night while he’s sleeping.

And that pretty well sums up the extent of our know-how about the new “adventure” we are all facing.

When God invented us, he designed our chassis with plenty of backup systems. In case one of our parts fail, well, hey! it may have come with a handy “spare part”. These are some of the paired body parts He installed on both sides of our bodies:

1. Eyes
2. Ears (both inner and outer)
3. Nostrils
4. Kidneys/ureters
5. Legs (all sections from ankles/feet/toes up to hips)
6. Arms (all sections from shoulder to fingertips)
7. Ribs
8. Lungs
9. Ovaries/fallopian tubes (for females)
10. Breasts and nipples
11. Testicles/vas deferens (for males)
12. Ventricles and atria of the heart (they are not symmetric in size/shape but you do have a left and right one of each)
13. Adrenal glands
14. Parathyroid glands
15. It’s likely there’s a few bones, nerves, tendons/ligaments, pieces of cartilage, and blood vessels associated with each part that would also have mirror-images
16. And probably a whole bunch more I left out or we don’t even know about yet.

Of course, God didn’t arrange for any of those body parts to have an unlimited shelf life. The only part He designed to be permanent is the soul.

Matthew lost one of his kidneys to cancer eighteen years ago. Since then, his second kidney stepped in and until recently has been doing a fine job all by itself. Even though the doctors kept mumbling about the possible need for a transplant or dialysis in the future, we weren’t the least bit worried. At least, until two weeks ago, when the doctor called to say “It’s time.”

The thing is, we were each given two kidneys – not three. When you need a third one, it has to be gifted to you from a fellow human being. Last year though, a pig’s kidney was successfully implanted in a human body with encouraging results.

According to the Associated Press, “Surgeons attached the pig kidney to a pair of large blood vessels outside the body of a deceased recipient so they could observe it for two days. The kidney did what it was supposed to do — filter waste and produce urine — and didn’t trigger rejection.”

In the meantime, Matthew can’t wait for a human or animal replacement, and has to choose what kind of dialysis he wants while he’s waiting: hemodialysis at the Enumclaw Northwest Kidney Center, or peritoneal dialysis administered to him by Susy and me (with Curt as backup) here at Kartar Ridge Ranch. And that, kind reader, is where you might be able to help us.

None of us here – not Matt, Susy, Curt, or me has known anybody who ever actually had dialysis, or served as a caregiver to a dialysis patient. The only person who considered having dialysis that I know of was my Uncle Leslie Rawson. It was offered to him in the 1990s. but my Aunt Mary told me he declined to have it. Leslie died of kidney failure shortly after.

It wasn’t till the 1960’s that the life-saving technology really emerged. The first machines in use in the 1940s looked like this.

.

Today they look like the one on the right.

The University of Washington is considered the birthplace of repeated dialysis treatment beginning in 1960. Until then, patients in end-stage kidney failure were simply left to die.

We wish we could talk with people – other than medical or nursing staff – that actually had or are living with either kind of dialysis. If they chose to have the at-home peritoneal kind, we would especially like to hear about the earthy details from non-medical caregivers like ourselves.

If you can, please use the Comment section below to tell us – anything – about what you know, have experienced, or recommend. Or email us at fordvid@gmail.com. We will appreciate your help!