Waiting outside the dialysis room:
My
father was diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD stage V) two and half
years ago. It was extremely difficult to believe that fact and for a quite a
little long time life was chaotic. We still hope for some miracle like an idiots that one day he shall be
healthy again. After the diagnosis the treatment options available to us
was either to undergo a Kidney transplant from compatible donor sharing same
blood line or to take Hemodialysis twice per week with each session of 4hrs.
After quite a struggle we got my father’s name registered in Human Organ
transplant Center, which is the cheapest and well equipped dialysis centre in
the country, for hemodialysis session. Yeah, it was quite a struggle because
the number of patients with chronic kidney disease just keep on rising each day
while there are limited resources at the hospital. There are three shift running,
morning shift from 8 am to 12 pm, afternoon shift from 12 pm to 4 pm and
evening shift from 4 pm to 8 pm, in the hospital. Before we submitted necessary
documents for getting free dialysis for 2 years, we paid for few dialysis
session and per session we had to pay about 1500-2000 NPR (which is a cheapest
fee for dialysis in the country) and the cost may rise up to 3000-3500 when we
had to purchase dialyzer which generally works for about a month i.e. 8
dialysis session. There will be extra cost for the medicine for kidney patient
which is very difficult to afford by poor and average family. With the recent announcement of
lifetime free dialysis by government, many families now do not need to worry
about dialysis cost however they have to still work hard to pay bills of
medicines and living cost in the capital.
Generally
one of us would take my father to hospital as he was not strong as before and
also emotionally fragile. It was very painful seeing once such strong person
protecting our family transform into someone so weak and who would easily give
up on life. A hemodialysis session would be of 4 hrs where the machine would
purify the blood and then the purified blood is then entered back into the
body. So literally, a machine, would be doing the function of a healthy kidney
i.e purifying blood. With 2 session of dialysis available to kidney patient per
week one has to rely on 8 hrs of purification of blood which in healthy people
would continue for 24*7. During the dialysis session we visitors would wait
outside in waiting hall while our patient would undergo hemodialysis. However
we would visit our patient from time to time to check upon them as well as to
feed them. Further nurses would call visitors of respective patients when they
had to carry some test or to provide blood as the Packed Cell Volume (PCV count) of kidney patient goes
down way below normal due to non-functioning kidney.
Waiting
outside the waiting hall listening to all the stories of people from all over
the country, while our patient would undergo dialysis, really became a means to
console one another. We would generally share about our home, how we came to
learn about the disease, where we live now etc etc. We would hear many
heartbreaking stories like a story of mother how her son was diagnosed about
disease during medical checkup for applying visa for abroad, a story of
daughter how her father learnt about the disease while taking routine checkup,
a story of husband how her wife got the disease due to high pressure and
diabetes. There were countless stories. In fact these stories would give us
strength to carry on with our lives accepting the fact no matter what. These 4
hrs outside the Dialysis room would be the longest hours of our lives. Outside
we are engulfed within a flood of thoughts about how life was so perfect before
and how insecure and harsh the future is. We would pray outside for everything
to go fine inside the dialysis room.
Hearing
different stories, there was not a similar pattern of how people get the
disease. Yes undoubtedly most people suffering were found having high pressure
and diabetes and had heavy alcohol consumption history. However there were
patient with no alcoholic history and high pressure. Also people as young as 16
yrs of age were suffering from disease. There were male and female from age as
young as 16 yrs to 60 yrs suffering from disease. I must here bring into light
the very famous saying “prevention is better than cure”. Well I believe that
Ministry of health along with its alliance should focus on doing research about
the cause of the disease like if its hereditary or due to high pressure or due
to consumption of adulterated food or due to consumption of agricultural
products grown with excess pesticides in farmland. If we are able to find cause
we can avoid them. In meantime family of kidney patient should provide extra
love and care to their patient as well as stick with them in their struggle
against the disease and never ever let them give up.
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