While not Endometriosis-related, I feel this story needs to be shared. It may help someone make a similar decision…and save lives.

A longtime friend of mine whom we shall call Johnny Doe recently had a terrifying experience that almost killed him. And, had he not eventually decided to go to urgent care…he’d be dead. He’s allowed me to share his tale here with the world .

So, pay attention to your bodies. And do get medical care if you need it…I’m glad Johnny is still with us today…and has a renewed passion for living. Stay with us for a long while longer, Johnny. ❤

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So here’s what happened. I had been sick for the past 3 or 4 months. Possibly longer. I thought I was just getting a series of colds and flu. But it slowly got worse. I started eating less because food just became gross. I lost 30 lbs. I became increasingly physically exhausted. I started having an increasingly difficult time thinking… things stopped making sense. I started getting these very intense shivers, like I was freezing cold, and then i’d vomit. That started happening increasingly often, and when it became a couple times a day, that’s when I decided to go to urgent care.

By this time, I could barely walk, because of exhaustion. I guess I looked like death, because they took me back quickly. Blood test showed that my sugar was over 500 (i’m diabetic) and that my kidneys had stopped functioning because of a very severe infection. By then, I was kind of out of my head, and things happened fast. The catheter bag had a small amount of dark red urine and nothing more coming out, and so they decided I needed dialysis. So those months of colds and flu that I tried to ignore, was actually me being poisoned by my blood because it was no longer being cleaned by my kidneys. My blood had effectively stopped bringing energy too.

I do not remember getting the hemodialysis catheter put in my chest. I just looked down, and I had tubes coming out of the right side of my chest, and a couple extras in my forearms and in my right thigh. When things happen out of my control, I tend to go along with it. So I was in the mindset of do what you have to do to get through. But even then, it was like getting slapped by a buick. I was stunned.

It wasn’t until hours later, when I was in the hospital room, that all the discussions with the doctors started to really sink in. My kidneys were dead, and my life was dialysis to stay alive. I panicked pretty bad, and got really depressed. What was I going to do for work? Could I work on my car anymore? What is my life going to be like now? I was in the hospital for 2 weeks, while they tried to get a handle on the infection. They even thought it was cancer, I had a lovely and very painful bone marrow biopsy done. Came out ok.

To be totally honest, I enjoyed the hospital stay. No stress of work or home, got to lay in bed and sleep all day, food was brought to me. I eventually was able to eat some of it too. I was stunned that I had no energy. I could barely stand up. I basically had to build up the strength and energy to walk. That really knocked me for a loop. I got healthy enough that they sent me home. After the second day, I started vomiting and shivering again, so I went to the emergency room. The infection returned with a vengeance, and put me back in the hospital for a couple of days. New super antibiotic, and I started feeling better.

I now go to a dialysis clinic. It was 3 times a week for 4 hrs a time, but has been cut to 2 times a week, for 3 hrs. It’s not bad. Nice, friendly people there. You sit in a recliner, and they connect a couple of tubes from a machine about the size of a filing cabinet to the tubes coming out of my chest. Then you lay back, and watch TV. I bring a laptop and read some internet and then nap. It doesn’t hurt or anything, but I sometimes feel some weird random light cramps. Considering my blood is being pumped out, cleaned, and pumped back in, i’m ok with it.

My time was cut back, because my kidneys started working again. I’m currently at 30%, and if they continue to improve, I won’t need dialysis again. I’m what’s called “acute failure”, meaning my kidneys didn’t fail from genetic problems, or over use or abuse, but from an outside cause… an infection. I’m one of the very,very lucky few. I suspect they’ll fail eventually because of diabetes, but hopefully in the far future.

To be honest, this whole experience radically changed me. I smell and taste things differently now. I eat healthy and love it. I now have a desire to take care of my health, and I lost a lot of fears about the future and getting older. I faced a lot of things I was running from. I was terrified of dialysis, but I learned to accept it, and now i’m extremely grateful for it. It’s a wonderful, incredible technology that can literally save your life.

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