Comparison Shopping

Like most of us, I love to read reviews and check several websites before buying anything. Like, anything. I spent 30 minutes today researching can openers. If you're interested, I went with the three dollar/three star one from Target (review to come later). So I've had to be careful with this mentality where kidney health is concerned because, like your mom probably told you: Everybody is different.

There's a lot of kidney support groups and pages online. There are even books where people talk about their transplant journey. One thing that people always talk is an almost immediate burst of energy. Angela Bacita (author of Moonface) describes having so much energy after transplant that she single-handedly pulled up the carpet in her bedroom. On Facebook people talk about being ready to go on walks right away. I did not feel this way. During my initial recovery, I was bummed. Am I doing this wrong? Are these people lying?? It took a while for me to comfortable even going for short walks. At three months, I'm still a little nervous about certain activity levels. However during the four years I was on dialysis, I performed in shows, parades, and parties with hardly an issues. So again, everybody is different.

I feel like this is something we should constantly remind ourselves of. With blogs (yup, even this one) and social media it is really easy to comparison shop our lives with his or hers. Take the information as just that. Information. Information about someone else's experiences. To my CKD people: While I hope my written experiences with kidney disease have been helpful and encouraging. It is possible that some things may go differently for you. You may get up and dance right after you get your new kidney. I hope you do :)