I am a renal patient on peritoneal dialysis, and live with my wife Debbie \u2013 have done for 47 years! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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For a few years now, I have volunteered at\nmy renal unit offering peer support. I\nget calls from the renal team asking if I can speak to patients who may be\nunsure about their treatment decisions, and help them make the right choice for\nthem. Prior to the virus, if someone\nwanted to know more about peritoneal dialysis I would invite them to my house\nand show them how I am all set up. Obviously\nI wouldn\u2019t do that at the moment, but since the COVID-19 pandemic I haven\u2019t had\nanyone referred to speak to me even by phone – I wonder if it because people are scared to\ngo to the hospital because of a fear of catching the virus?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As my treatment is home-based anyway, not\ntoo much has changed for me or my renal treatment because of COVID-19. I knew I could ring my renal team at any time\nif I needed to, and they would ask me to come down at a particular time – luckily\nI haven\u2019t had any problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The only difference is that Baxter (who\nprovide my peritoneal dialysis products) don\u2019t come into the house anymore when\nthey make a delivery \u2013 I open up the garage and they drop my delivery in, and I\nsort it out from there. They\u2019ve been really helpful, and they always keep their\ndistance. Prior to the virus, they might\nhave come in and had a cup of tea and a piece of cake if they weren\u2019t in a\nhurry, but times have changed…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That being said, in some ways I have quite\nenjoyed the lockdown \u2013we\u2019ve had nice weather so I was able to go out in the\ngarden, have a cup of tea and cake. Of\ncourse I miss the pub lunches and seeing friends, and we\u2019ve had to cancel our\nholiday to Turkey. Our daughter works at A&E and she has to be very careful\n\u2013 we haven\u2019t seen her for weeks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first few weeks were very frightening \u2013\nwhenever Debbie went shopping, she would come back terrified, washing her\nclothes and hands. The news was getting worse and worse and we were full of\nuncertainty. Debbie has to go and care\nfor her mother who is 95, and has had to be very careful there in case of\nbumping into a carer or someone else who may unknowingly pass the virus\non. The carers have been wearing gloves,\nbut don\u2019t always wear masks – which has been a worry. It\u2018s been so many weeks, but the severity of\nthe situation is still dawning on her mother who can\u2019t understand why she can\u2019t\ngo to the caf\u00e9s anymore!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The only negative I would say, is that I\nhaven\u2019t had any phone-calls from anyone just checking in to see if we are ok \u2013\nif we were worried we would ring, but not everyone might have the confidence to\ndo that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We did have a letter from the renal team\nright at the beginning of the pandemic, but we haven\u2019t received any other\ninformation from NHS England, or the government about additional support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our neighbour has had several letters with\nupdates of information and where to get support, but we haven\u2019t received\nanything like that. We have each other \u2013\nso we are lucky, but I think people who are on dialysis at home on their own,\ndo need that support \u2013 perhaps a phone-call once a week to ask how their\nfeeling. It doesn\u2019t have to be from the\ndialysis unit, just from someone to check-in \u2013 it could be another patient, or\neven be a zoom meeting. I can understand how people could get lonely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have some other health issues as well as\nrenal \u2013 and for this, they are forever telling me I am going to have a\ntelephone appointment – and then they never ring. They sent me an appointment for 11am \u2013 they\ndid say it could be any time \u2013 but then I didn\u2019t hear anything all day and I am\nstill waiting two weeks later!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dialysing in the hospital, you would never\nknow who else you would have to see \u2013 it must be difficult and worrying for\nthese people. I do worry that releasing\npeople and allowing more people to go out might cause more problems – we have\nalways thought there would be a second wave and are worried about the shops and\npubs opening up again. I have decided I\nam not going to go to the football anymore \u2013 even after this \u2013 for me, things\nhave certainly changed for the long term. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I am a renal patient on peritoneal dialysis, and live with my wife Debbie \u2013 have done for 47 years! For a few years now, I have volunteered at my renal unit offering peer support. I get calls from the renal team asking if I can speak to patients who may be unsure about their treatment decisions, and help them make the right choice for them. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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