Before and after dialysis and transplant, I can notice a number of changes within me physically. Although these changes are normal, still I wonder how it’s possible.

I had chills and temperature during the days of diagnosis. Due to that my body was involuntarily shivering but very slightly, so that no one can notice me. This shivering  was present till the beginning of my first dialysis in Guest Hospital. But when dialysis was started in CMC, after I got used to it well, and have to go to dialysis everyday at 6:30AM, I absolutely did not feel any chillness or fever in the morning. But the people I see around me or in the road wear protective covering around them to protect them from chill weather. They say the weather in Vellore is extreme hotness and extreme cold. So my body temperature started to change right away from my dialysis.

Also, I felt some sort of roaring always in my ears till dialysis and this too disappeared during dialysis.

For the past 2 to 3 years, I was having nausea, and we did not take it seriously. Cannot even eat food in the morning. Once dialysis was started, even though nausea was present; it was not due actual kidney failure, but due to the effects of dialysis.

AV Fistula is done in my left hand. During my whole dialysis, in the night, before going to sleep, I could hear some sound coming from the fistula and that too only in my left ear alone, without keeping it near my ears. It is heard throughout my left hand and till my heart. But after transplant, the sound miraculously disappeared. Also, when the fistula is kept over my heart, I feel some sort of vibration in my heart. Normally fistula stops immediately after transplant, but for me, it is still running.

Normally, before dialysis I was allowed to drink only 800ml of water a day. During my stay in Renal Transplant Unit, I was infused with about 8000ml of fluid a day for 3 days. I think it’s because of this, that when I came home, for a month, I was not able to drink water even 3 litres a day. Now I am drinking water alone, more than 5 litres a day.