Today is preparation day! Tomorrow begins a new modality of dialysis for us here at home. But first...

On January 29th, 2011, my 43 year old husband was diagnosed with failed beans after a minor stroke. He's had diabetes for many years, and battles weight as well. After a week in the ICU, we came home to an amazing dialysis unit (Wellbound of Lafayette, Indiana).

Initially, we chose to do Peritoneal Dialysis because that's what was recommended to us. We began that in April of 2011, and while we loved the freedom it gave us being untethered to a dialysis unit three times a week, hubby still battles weight. The dialysate gives him anywhere from 500-800 calories a day, so even cutting his caloric intake back to 1200 a day doesn't help a ton. Add to that the fact that a large wound on his heel has put him in a wheelchair for awhile, and it makes for weight issues.

He is currently active on the transplant list at IU Indianapolis, but needs to shed weight to actually be ready to accept a kidney should we be so blessed.

And so, tomorrow, we will begin a NEW phase of the Journey of the Failed Beans.

Home Hemo dialysis is not new, but doing it at night is far more recent. Doing short bursts of daily hemo is much better than three times a week in center, however, longer dialysis, overnight, allows you to slow the rate of blood moving in and out which is gentler on your heart and your fistula. So for the next three weeks, I'll be learning how to do this mode of dialysis at home, and we'll set it up for overnight.

Lots of learning in our future, but I'm extremely excited about the opportunity to make him even healthier, help him lose weight, and get him closer to a new bean. :)

Jen