El Toro

SACRAMENTO » NANCY

I hate dialysis. Over the two hours of a session I go from onehundred-percent down to no energy at all. I am lucky even, others like Mark do almost twice as long. I don’t know how he seems so unaffected… it is almost like he gets stronger from the treatment.

I had a liver transplant last summer, but my kidneys never came back. They said they should: the transplant went well, and I recovered from surgery in a couple months. But the old kidneys don’t seem to like the new liver… why can’t they just get along? Why didn’t the doctors add a kidney at the same time they swapped in the new liver? Now I have to wait again. And go through surgery again. And recover again.

I can only hope other senators don’t notice my second absence.

I come to dialysis — as late as possible in my afternoon session, so I can stay in the office or on the senate floor as long as possible. I know I have hurried a lot of work and bills through as 3pm approached, but I hope it is just a good kick in the pants to keep things moving. People just think I am very impatient, which is true… but now more than ever.

Because I come so late, I finish a bit after Mark. His session is longer, but he seems to arrive a bit after noon. His needles are pulled and he is dressed before my catheter is recapped. The first week he showed up, he was just another masked man. We never talked during dialysis. We are even in different sections because I need an RN for my catheter. I don’t think the needles are worth it, but at least he doesn’t have to protect his chest all the time. He can even take showers… sigh, that would be nice.

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It was a strange coincidence — that turned a masked man into the living person named Mark. I take Lyft or Uber to and from dialysis. I can’t drive after a session: both medically prescribed and I know realistically I would be a danger on the road. The catheter isn’t likely to open like the access hole could, but I have passed out on the trip home or back to the hill. I can’t risk plowing my convertible into whatever is on the road when I head for an abrupt exit or crash.

Last Monday, I launched Lyft and inside the app a driver immediately offered to take me home. ETA: zero minutes. How can it be zero minutes? A Lyft is waiting for passengers right next to a Satellite clinic?

No, a Lyft driver was waiting for passengers in the satellite parking lot

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