This past weekend I ran into an old classmate of mine from Biola. We hadn't seen eachother in about a year so naturally we asked the all encompassing question, "Hey man, how have you been?" Unfortunately for him, I let him answer first. He had no clue what I was about to say. When he finished telling me about his recent marriage and job change, he asked about me. And this is what I said...

"Well I have had a pretty interesting year so far. I started the year working at Starbucks and looking forward to going back to school when things got turned upside down. I told him that in February I started having a hard time breathing. My chest was really tight and with every breath pain shot all throughout my rib cage. This pain increased so much that on Sunday Feb. 19, my girlfriend called the ambulance and I was rushed to the hospital. It was there that I was diagnosed with having acute renal failure. Basically my kidney had failed! Not only that, but it was found that I was only born with one kidney. Talk about a wake-up call!! I had absolutely no idea."

I must say, the first few days in the hospital were very eye opening. First of all, I have never liked hospitals. I hate the smell, I hate the feeling of depression whenever I walk into one, and now I was the patient. Every doctor that came in and saw me continued to pour on new information that would have to be understood at a later time. Honestly, a lot of it simply passed through one ear and out the other. So after a week in the hospital I was ready to leave.

So where am I now?
This new chapter that I was beginning was going to be a hard one. I am currently attending dialysis four times a week for four hours intermixed with doctors appointments. Since leaving the hospital in Feb. my hemoglobin (red blood cells) count has been low. So much so that the doctors are baffled at the cause of this problem. Two weeks ago my doctor admitted me into the hospital where I received another blood transfusion. I was also the beneficiary of a bone marrow biopsy. The reason for this fun adventure was to see if I was actually producing new red blood cells and to see if it was cancerous. I am happy to announce that the findings were very good. I do not have cancer!! However, for some reason the mature red blood cells are not exiting the bone marrow.
So now I am patiently waiting the results of additional blood tests to find out what is really going on with my body.