Growing Up (The Early Years Part 3)

Growing up in a small town in South Jersey, in a town called Folsom It's not a very big town, It's right next to Collings Lakes, which was cool having the lakes so close to my house! I had alot of fun on those lakes and still do to this day. I use to go swimming there all the time, plus there was "the dam", which was a big attraction for our neighborhood. *laughs* It was fun to jump off of into the lake! I can't go swimming in the lake any more because I do Peritoneal dialysis or PD for short.

What is Peritoneal dialysis? "a soft tube called a catheter is used to fill your abdomen with a cleansing liquid called dialysis solution. The walls of your abdominal cavity are lined with a membrane called the peritoneum, which allows waste products and extra fluid to pass from your blood into the dialysis solution. The solution contains a sugar called dextrose that will pull wastes and extra fluid into the abdominal cavity. These wastes and fluid then leave your body when the dialysis solution is drained. The used solution, containing wastes and extra fluid, is then thrown away. The process of draining and filling is called an exchange and takes about 30 to 40 minutes. The period the dialysis solution is in your abdomen is called the dwell time. A typical schedule calls for four exchanges a day, each with a dwell time of 4 to 6 hours. Different types of PD have different schedules of daily exchanges." [Peritoneal dialysis]

I don't want to get an infection in my peritoneum so I stay away from swimming in the lake. I can go swimming in private, chlorinated pools but I haven't taken the chance yet. I rather go in the ocean to swim in order to avoid an exit site infection. In fact, the ocean water has been said to be beneficial to the exit site. who knew? Fishing, Canoeing, and simply the beauty of the lake made it worthwhile growing up in this area!

Another cool thing about where I live is it's right by the Pine Barrens. Lots of woods and behind my house was swampy because of the lake that was close by, so you can imagine it was a lot of fun growing up in my area, at least it was for a young boy. A couple of my friends had Quads, they were a lot of fun to ride in the woods around my house! So the point of this post is, even when I was growing up with different health problems like cataracts, heart failure, kidney failure and not to mention vertically challenged *laughs*, I still lived my life!

"But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold." Job 23:10

Like Job I have faced some hardships, but I don't know if I could of dealt with what he went through. He lost everything from his family, his wealth, and his health. Like Job I will persevere and praise God for the rest of my days! In the end Job was rewarded, I pray that I can be as strong as Job!

I know that people are dealing with hardships, and God knows there are a whole bunch that plague this world today. I know that it can become over whelming sometimes and it just feels like we can't take it any more! My advice to you is to stay strong, keep fighting, keep living, one day God will take all the pain away! How do I know? God has never broken a promise he had made!



Found picture from the Net using Google