A difficult birth, shock and oxygen deprivation damaged both my kidneys. As a teenager I skipped my medication. At 26, a single glass of orange juice sent me straight to the emergency room. This is how my dialysis began.
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It Started the Moment I Was Born
Well, I was born through a difficult delivery — shock and oxygen deprivation damaged both kidneys, and I went into chronic kidney failure from the start.
Young Kidney Patients Will Understand
Throughout school I didn't take a single one of the many pills I was prescribed. Young kidney patients will get this — back then I was immature and didn't want to be looked at differently. I wanted to be like everyone else, so I simply stopped taking the medication.
What's different about chronic kidney failure is this: you get tired very easily. Really, really easily. Every day felt like I hadn't slept enough (toxins piling up, after all).
A Glass of Orange Juice at 26
I graduated from university without trouble, found a job and worked hard. Then at 26, in the middle of a workday, my parents suddenly called: based on my test results, the doctor at Chang Gung Hospital said I needed a fistula created immediately and emergency dialysis.
I brushed it off: "Okay, okay, I'll go back in a few days."
That evening I drank an orange juice a colleague bought me (high potassium). Within hours: vomiting, then pulmonary edema.
Pulmonary edema feels like trying to breathe inside a swimming pool.
I couldn't lie down to sleep anymore — I could only sit up. My breath started to smell of ammonia. That's when I finally realized how serious things were… but by then it was far too late.
Not Until You See the Coffin
Even though doctors had told me when I was young that I would definitely need dialysis someday, "won't shed a tear until you see the coffin" describes people like me perfectly.
Luckily, Heaven still gave me a little face: it let me finish school and start working before dialysis began.
What do I have to complain about? Nothing. If anything, I should thank Heaven.
Originally published on the author's Pixnet blog "A Dialysis Life Destined to Be Extraordinary / Kidney Transplant Reflections," 30 December 2020.
The content of this article is personal reflection and experience sharing only, and is not medical advice. For any questions about your health, illness or physical care, please seek help through professional medical channels and consult your physician.
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查核：「透析做得越多、越長一定越好，人人都該改成每天透析」有多少證據？
結論：不成立。大型臨床試驗顯示，每週增加血液透析次數「有部份好處也有風險」，並非越多越好，也不是人人適合每天透析；現行指引仍以每週三次、足量透析為標準。
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血液透析第一個月：沒有人告訴我的 12 件事
剛開始洗腎的那個月，我手足無措。這是我希望當時有人告訴我的事：從乾體重、抽筋、到該帶什麼去洗腎室，外加一些根據國際指引整理的補充說明，幫你比較快進入自己的節奏。
