The move is over

Good afternoon everyone, it’s me, Mike.

Well, it’s been a very hectic two months. Two months? Wow, time fly’s by when you get busy.
I’ll try and bring you all up to date.
A lot of you know by now that we moved to Milwaukie Oregon. The three of us are starting to get settled in now. Each of us are finding out that a house is a whole lot more work than an apartment. But we’re adjusting, slow but sure.

I wanted to let everybody know a little about the symptoms of stage 5 CKD (chronic kidney disease)

A person with Stage 5 CKD has end stage renal disease (ESRD) with a GFR of 15 ml/min or less. At this advanced stage of kidney disease the kidneys have lost nearly all their ability to do their job effectively, and eventually dialysis or a kidney transplant is needed to live.

Symptoms that can occur in Stage 5 CKD include:

* Loss of appetite
* Nausea or vomiting
* Headaches
* Being tired
* Being unable to concentrate
* Itching
* Making little or no urine
* Swelling, especially around the eyes and ankles
* Muscle cramps
* Tingling in hands or feet
* Changes in skin color
* Increased skin pigmentation

Because the kidneys are no longer able to remove waste and fluids from the body, toxins build up in the blood, causing an overall ill feeling. Kidneys also have other functions they are no longer able to perform such as regulating blood pressure, producing the hormone that helps make red blood cells and activating vitamin D for healthy bones.

You can find more information on kidney disease here
http://www.davita.com/kidney-disease/symptoms-and-diagnosis/a/687

Diane is experiencing all of these symptoms in one form or another. On July 16th, I went with Diane to her kidney doctor. After Diane got her two shots, the doctor told us that the beginning of dialysis will be determined by the severity of her symptoms. At this point, she gets nausea, but she is NOT vomiting. So there’s still time.

Diane’s short-term disability has run out. So now we’ll have to pay her insurance premiums completely on our own, as she is all too often too tired to be able to work for more than a couple hours at a time.

The extra $500.00 a month for the insurance, along with Diane not being able to work, is going to make for some interesting times for us.

A week ago, the social security people sent us a letter saying that it’ll be at least 90 days before they’ll make a determination on Diane’s eligibility for long term disability. Everything I’ve heard so far about the federal Dept. of human resources they are likely to deny Diane’s application the first time through, just out of hand. And then it’s still a mystery if she can even get the federal disability being a Palau citizen.

Diane will need the disability to qualify for Medicare. We’ll definitely need Medicare for Diane’s dialysis. There’s no way I could pay for even one dialysis session with what I make at work.
It’s going to be rough enough with half our family income gone and paying the full load of insurance premiums. Even with that, the insurance only pays for 80%. We’re still getting bills for the other 20%.

The outlook looks bleak, but we are trying to be brave anyway.

Wish us luck.

Talk to you all later

Mike