My wife has begged me to go back to my blog. She says regardless of what doubt and cynicism I may have about its impact on other dialysis and kidney patients, (or any others for that matter), it is important to show that life with a chronic life altering disease can be an enriching experience. It has been about eight months since my last post, and I realize that there are a couple of milestones in my life to to report. This has been the longest period in the nine years of my dialysis life without any serious illness requiring the obligatory hospital stay. In fact, it has, as of this date been over 13 months of uninterrupted strong health. It sure makes things easier, not having to be starting from scratch every three or six months after some sort of infection or other malady. By scratch I mean just normal activity as well as my running. This year has been an utter joy on the running front, in that I have, without deviation, run a strong and steady 120-130 miles every month this year, with six day a week training schedule. Even with a couple of blips with my hemoglobin dipping, the runs overall have been terrific, and satisfying, physically and mentally. I'm on target for a 1400 mile year. I strongly believe that the decision to increase my dialysis run time to four hours has had a good deal to do with as not only have I stayed infection free, but my monthly lab numbers, and my blood pressure have been very good, and consistent for the past two years. In fact my blood pressure has been such that I'm on less than half the medication from even a year ago.

Personally, while I still struggle with some of the inconvenient aspects of dialysis and the time and financial constraints that entails, overall my life, and the life of my wife and kids is very good. Our middle daughter received a full Lacrosse and academic scholarship to attend college, and our youngest son continues to excel and all sports, and school. It is our hope with his talent to one day see him putting on a college hat in front of the cameras as he makes a public commitment to college, like his sister had the privilege to do, to the incredible pride and joy of my wife and I.

I wish all the best.

Austin