Kidney Disease Support Group, Part III

I just returned home from attending the support group. There were probably ~25 people that showed up to the group, about half came as a couple (patient + support person), and the other half showed up on their own. There was mix of people that have received transplants, patients still on dialysis, and those that have not started dialysis. There were also some very new people who seems not to have any information regarding kidney disease so about 2/3 of the time was people sharing the most basic information.

Since I’ve been on dialysis for 2.5 years, both hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis, and I’m a Googling fiend, I already knew most of the basic info. I was telling my sister afterwards that it felt a bit like business school class where you had to jump in to talk. I guess I could have shared more but I usually don’t like talking that much in bigger groups. I was really looking for people sharing their personal experiences, which is stuff that you can’t fine online. I did speak to a few people after the meeting about fistulas and the general consensus is that I should get one.

I know it’s only one meeting but I didn’t get that much out of it. I probably won’t be able to change my dialysis time for each Saturday meeting so I need to decide whether to keep going.