Jenny Underwood

Caregiving in the First Person for Kidney patients Jenny Underwood

This book is for Caregivers of Kidney Patients. My son Jamie wrote the following when he was sixteen and only two years into his renal disease. By then he had been on hemodialysis two years, had both his kidneys removed via nephrectomy and had received a kidney transplant. He was one of the kids chosen to receive the Courage Award in the state of Arizona presented by members of the Armed Services who had won a distinguished award for courage. One recipient said, "These kids face adversity every day while we only had a short period of time in combat. They are to be honored for their courage." Jamie wrote "Courage is when all your fears kick into high gear! And when it's all over, it is usually followed with overwhelming cheer for those who bear witness to it and most of all for the one who does it." Hope is what sits in your heart and mind when your loved one is on the roller coaster of renal disease. You hope that they overcome and even flourish in this challenge and the next. There are many points where you hope. When your loved one is in surgery, you hope everything turns out alright. When your loved one is taking a dialysis treatment, you hope that they don't crash (when blood pressure drops rapidly with the rapid takeoff of fluid during dialysis) and if it does happen, that the nurses get there in time to give them normal saline to keep from going into shock.