I have told almost no one at work about my condition, for I neither want nor need any special consideration from my employer. I enjoy my work and am very grateful that I can carry on with it. Nothing offers more encouragement to the prospective dialysis patient than listening to one who is being successfully treated by this therapy. It helps him to realize that he is not about to submit himself to a mere maintenance measure that will just delay the inevitable, but, rather, that he will be receiving effective treatment that will keep him well and permit him to resume an essentially normal life. With this thought in mind, I have tried here to describe my feelings about home dialysis, with the viewpoint that mental attitude and adjustment are just as important for success as proper therapeutic technique.
Life is a mental as well as a physical state.
Home dialysis can truly be a gift of life, provided the patient can adjust his thinking and accept his plight. He really is not so badly off after all. It is now nearly three years since my first dialysis, and a little over one year since the preceding was written. I can state frankly that my attitudes toward this therapy have not changed significantly. My shunt was replaced by an arteriovenous fistula in my left arm in June, 1969.