After a decade or so of varying degrees of constant chest pressure and pain, I have been totally cardiac-symptom-free since beginning dialysis. This is nothing short of a miracle, and I am ecstatic!
After years of struggling with stairs, huffing and puffing after dressing in the morning, feeling exhausted from vacuuming or walking around the block, after years of this every day, day in and day out, and through the night as well, I walked a mile today. I even passed a young man on the sidewalk, left him in the dust. Then I topped it off by climbing 10 flights of stairs with ease.
As I told nephrologist Dr. Michael Butman this afternoon, "I haven't felt this good in 10 years. Well...except for a few really fantastic kisses. But then it wouldn't be fair to hold dialysis up to those standards, would it?"
He smiled and concurred, "It's only a machine, Heidi."
Mystical experiences, yearnings, politics, little dramas, poetry, kidney dialysis, insulin-dependent diabetes, and opportunities for gratitude.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Followers
About Me
- Heidi's heart
- Southern California, United States
- Perhaps my friend Mark summed me up best when he called me "a mystical grammarian." I am quite a mix--otherworldly, ethereal and in touch with "the beyond," yet prone to being very precise and logical, when need be. Romantic in the big-canvas meaning of the word, I see the world as an adventure, as a love poem, as a realm of beauty and wonder.
Blog Archive
- ► 2010 (176)
- ▼ 2009 (169)