Round 1: A new fight

It feels like it was yesterday…

It was one day in late July 2010, and I was working and next thing I know I am being rushed to the emergency room. Once at the Emergency room, the doctors said that my kidney transplant that I was living with was rejecting, and I’m going back into kidney failure. I’ve always had a mindset that whatever gets in my way, I will fight, so even with this news, my mind would not allow me to think of the worst case. 

It was not too long, and the Doctors came in and said Mr. Jones, we are going to have to put you back on dialysis. Can I do Peritoneal Dialysis? I asked. Their response was no sir you can not because you need dialysis right now, maybe after you start Hemo and everything is going well you can make that transition. I said ok and proceeded with the instructions my nephrologist gave me and went on Hemodialysis. Now, before I continue into that part of the story, Let me tell how the conversation went with me finding out what dialysis center I would be going to. I walked into the dialysis unit to talk to the nurse and get my information. When she handed me the folder, the first page tells me what center I will be going to. It said a dialysis center further away from where I live. Now, this was a problem for me, as I am sure it can be for many others. Trying to drive after a treatment can sometimes be a challenge, and getting a ride or catching can be futile at best. 

So I asked if there is a way we can find a closer center because that is too far for 3 days a week. She asked well if you have a center in mind(Wham, mission complete) I said yes I sure do. There’s a clinic just right around the corner that is literally 3 mins away from my house . So she looked into it and was able to make that happen for me. The whole medical staff was awesome from the great nurses,cleaning crew,doctor and nutritionist. One of the dialysis nurses on the weekend was my normal dialysis nurse when I went for my appointments at kaiser. In this same process, I was fired from the job that I had. So I’m starting dialysis and getting deeper into full kidney failure (ESRD). I started dialysis in Aug of 2010, by September my kidney function in my transplant kidney and original kidneys were gone. It was during that month, while I was at choir rehearsal for a gospel group, I had a major seizure which I was admitted to the hospital for 2 weeks. When they released me, I was fine with no problems and thought I could get back into my normal life. I found out quickly that I was Completely wrong.

It was Oct 2010, and I had the worst headaches that I’ve ever had. I got tired of hoping it would go away and decided to go to the ER for it. Once in the ER they started to run tests (x-ray, ct, etc.) an Hour or two later than me and my dad were sitting in my ER room the Dr. walks in and looks at me with this look. You know the look, the look that says something is terribly wrong, and it scared me because I had no idea what he was going to say. He says Mr. Jones, um, you have a brain bleed on the right side of your brain(Subdural hematoma) and we are going to be taken to emergency surgery. The feeling in me was basically what just happened. All I could think about was my grandfather that had brain surgery some years before and everything he went through. Would I remember family and friends because I fight as hard as I do for them, and I kept thinking if I can’t remember them, do I keep fighting or know what to fight for when I wake up? I spent a month in the hospital for that procedure. It was these events in those three months that caused me to have a number of other health issues that caused problems for me till 2018. That was the start of a new fight, one that I was determined to win.