How Did This Cancer Patient Extended His Life
While On Dialysis?
by Residence Dialysis
Have you ever wondered how some dialysis patients seem happier with dialysis? How is it that some people get so tired while others are acting like nothing ever happened?
I want to tell you a story about..
A Very Special Patient
I was taking care of a patient who had been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. And yes, he was also on dialysis. This man also had multiple tumors spread throughout his body.
On paper, it was a bad situation.
Doctors gave this man 6 months to live and at 74 years old it seemed like that was a realistic timeline. This isn’t a sad story, it’s a hopeful one because this man made it to see 76 years old! A couple months shy of 77.
I learned a lot from this man and that’s what I want to talk to you about today. I want to pass on the hard earned experience I observed from this man while he went throughout this unbelievably hard battle.
Tip 1: The Only Thing You Can Control
I used to hate when people tell me, “Well at least you don’t have it as bad as that other person.”
What does that mean? I shouldn’t be worried about my problems at all just because the next person has it a lot harder? Is that supposed to make me feel better?
As dialysis patients, we have it hard. Very hard.
We travel to a clinic, deal with traffic, get stuck by needles, have our blood withdrawn and put back in to us by an artificial kidney and then have to commute back home – THREE DAYS A WEEK.
That’s extremely hard work!
So when people tell you “Hey, at least you don’t have it as bad as that guy” you almost want to grab them and explain with great detail how hard you really do have it.
So of course, I’m not going to tell you that.
What I’m going to tell you is what I learned from the our special patient.
Take Control of What You Can Control
Every now and then I would ask this special patient how he was processing this new disease mentally and emotionally.
One day he casually drops a huge life changing tip on me and says “I don’t think about it much, I just focus on the things I can control.”
What that meant to me was, there is no point in stressing about the fact that you have this disease, what good does that do you?
You should focus on everything that is in your control like your exercise habits, diet and outlook on this disease.
Yes, you’re in control of your outlook!
One patient could dread doing dialysis treatments because he feels like it’s robbing him of his time but another patient could be extremely grateful that dialysis is helping him live longer!
It’s all dependent on your outlook.
Tip 2: What Are You Fighting For?
He lived in Los Angeles and was completing his dialysis treatments from the comfort of his home so I got to meet his lovely wife and his sons who would come to visit him.
One day he tells me to look at his wife, I look at her with a smile and he says to me “She’s the reason I’m still fighting. I know she’ll be fine when I do leave but I want to stick around for as long as I can, for her.”
Yes, I absolutely starting crying right after he said this to me haha but this special moment brings me to my 2nd tip.
This man was being self-less.
He was fighting this fight and maintaining this positive outlook on what was left of his life for his loved ones.
We always have someone looking out for us, someone worth fighting for and keeping them in mind when times are tough is a great motivator for all of us.
That’s It For Now
I hope you found this helpful in the battle against dialysis.
These tips have brought me a lot of peace in my day to day life and I hope they do the same for you.
You can always reach out to us directly if you’re interested in home dialysis or just have a question.
We also made a similar video to this topic if you’d like to watch more here.
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