What's happening medically ... and on the road with dialysis

I had dialysis in Columbus, Ohio, on Thursday, June 16th, while at the Annual AEU National Assembly where I was a delegate from Ethical Culture Society of Essex County.

My medical insurance—Medicare plus Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield Medigap—allows me to travel throughout the United States and receive dialysis wherever it is available. My social worker at my "home" clinic arranges it for me. The company operating the clinic—Fresenius—also provides a travel service to help arrange trips for the patients using its clinics.

Before I went on dialysis I thought it would be more than I wanted to handle. Now it's a routine event in my life ... with ups and downs, of course ... but it's no where near as bad as I imagined it might be. And I am not tied down because of it. My ability to travel anywhere in the United States that has a dialysis clinic provides more than enough options for me.

I am now more limited by my afib with my heart than by my dialysis. And I have been to the hospital often enough that I am making friends with the staff at St. Barnabas in Livingston, NJ ... and most of my hospital trips are because of my heart ... and it has happened often enough that I no longer am afraid, I get irritated with the interruption ... and I have such an excellent set of doctors with great staffs that I actually look forward to visiting with them ...