Living with Dialysis

Good morning  to all my friends.  Today is the first day of my blog.  You can look at my blog every morning  where I will share my thoughts every day.   Here you can learn what it is like to live with dialysis.    For those of us who did not know what dialysis is, it is the process of removing toxins and fluid from your body with a machine.  Normally your kidneys take care of these functions, but when your kidneys do not function, then you require dialysis to do this.  There are several ways to do this, I use the NxStage system, where it can be done at home.   This is ether done by Peter my husband or Liliana my daughter.   The were both trained to do this.  

Because they do my treatment at home, this gives me the liberty of not having to go into a center 3 times per week which would take an average of 5 hours of my day to accomplish this.  At home I dialyse 2-3 hours but it is done at my convince at night.   I am able to schedule work for my husband and have a relatively normal life.  If you can call normal fitting in doctor visits,  medications, and using 2 literes of oxygen when I get tired or short of breath.    The breathing problems are not a result of the dialysis, but a result of vasculitis.  This is an inflammation of the small blood vessels that  damaged my kidneys and is now attacking my lungs.   That we will save for another day.

I will also be posting some of my amazing recipes, as you know I am a great cook.  Not too toot my own horn.   So here we go.  If my anemia was not so high I had actually had the energy to cook for my amazing family.  I would be making for them today  my Amazing baked potato salad with Prosciutto.

If you have kidney disease check with your dietitian to see how much of this you can eat.  Potatoes are high in potassium and this is a concern if you are on dialysis.  Because I do my treatment evert day and my potassium levels are within nomal limits, I am able to have a 1/2 cup serving as a treat.
The recipe as follows:

24 Oz.  Baby yellow and purple potatoes cut in half.
2 Tbs.  Good Olive oil
2tsp.  Seasoning Salt
2 tsp.  Fresh ground pepper.
2tsp.  fresh thyme leaves.

Mix all the above ingredients and bake for 18-25  minutes until potato are crisp and tender.

For dressing.

1/4 lb  prosciutto crisped up in the oven
1 bunch of scallions  chopped
2 table spoons good mayo
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 tbsp olive oil 
1 tsp pepper
2 garlic clove grated or super fine chopped
salt to taste

Mix all the ingredients together and add to warm potatoes so they may soak the dressing.   Serve chilled or room temperature.  If you don't have prosciutto you can substitute a good  bacon.