Rough Draft
Ok, I chose the kidney disease\transplant idea for my subject. It was pretty easy to come up with information. I ended up going well over the 500 words and getting closer to 650.
It still needs some work, and the last paragraph sucks at the moment, but without further ado, I present my rough draft:
When I was a baby, I had a lot of health problems. I was often sick, but despite consulting various doctors, the reason wasn't quickly identified. It wasn't until I was a year and a half old that an urologist was able to figure out that I had kidney disease.
My father worked as a chemical handler before I was born. Just prior to me being conceived, he was exposed to acrylamide, a known carcinogen, and doctors believe that that occurrence affected the pregnancy. When I was born, my right kidney had been diseased and had begun to damage the left one as well. Surgeons quickly removed the bad one, but damage had already been done. The left kidney worked sufficiently on its own for the next 22 years.
When I started getting sick, I thought I had the flu. I had an upset stomach and been running a fever; Normal symptoms for the flu or a stomach bug I figured. After three days and still no progress in my health, I went to the doctor. At first glance, he agreed that it was possibly the flu, but because my blood pressure was raised, he drew some blood as well. I took the prescription he wrote for me and went home.
The next day I received a call from my doctor's receptionist. She told me that I needed to go to the emergency room immediately and that the doctor would meet me there. She wasn't able to give me any more information, so naturally I had all kinds of terrible ideas running through my head.
When I got to the hospital, I was placed in on of the rooms and waited for close to an hour for the doctor to arrive. When he finally walked in, he sat down and broke the news to me: My sole kidney's function had dropped below the level it needed to maintain to keep me healthy. He let me know that I was going to need to begin dialysis immediately. At that point, my life changed a great deal.
Over the course of the next two days, I made two visits to the operating room. One surgery was to create a fistula in my left arm. A fistula allows for more blood to be cleaned at quicker speeds, but it takes four months before it is ready to be used. The other operation was to place a temporary catheter into my neck in order to do the dialysis while the fistula healed. I began dialyzing three times a week at four hours per session. I would continue this for three years.
Shortly before I began actively pursuing a transplant, the dialysis began taking its toll on me. My body wasn’t tolerating it as well as it used to. It wasn’t uncommon for me to pass out after a treatment due to a drop in blood pressure and I began getting migraines following sessions as well. It was at that point I agreed to let my mother be tested as a match.
For the next two months the both of us were given a battery of tests to check our health and compatibility. When the results came back we were stunned to find that out of 6 possible matches, she was a perfect match on all six, something that doesn’t often happen. On September 24, 2001, we went through with the surgery. It was a complete success. I was up and around very quickly and for the first time in three years, I was no longer tied to the troubles of dialysis. Once again, it was a change that greatly affected my life.
Living with kidney disease is tough, but it’s not unbearable. I know that I could lose my kidney at any time, but I may also have it for the next 20 years. Looking back, the changes that I have gone through because of it have taught me to appreciate what I have a little more now, because I realize things can change very easily.
It still needs some work, and the last paragraph sucks at the moment, but without further ado, I present my rough draft:
When I was a baby, I had a lot of health problems. I was often sick, but despite consulting various doctors, the reason wasn't quickly identified. It wasn't until I was a year and a half old that an urologist was able to figure out that I had kidney disease.
My father worked as a chemical handler before I was born. Just prior to me being conceived, he was exposed to acrylamide, a known carcinogen, and doctors believe that that occurrence affected the pregnancy. When I was born, my right kidney had been diseased and had begun to damage the left one as well. Surgeons quickly removed the bad one, but damage had already been done. The left kidney worked sufficiently on its own for the next 22 years.
When I started getting sick, I thought I had the flu. I had an upset stomach and been running a fever; Normal symptoms for the flu or a stomach bug I figured. After three days and still no progress in my health, I went to the doctor. At first glance, he agreed that it was possibly the flu, but because my blood pressure was raised, he drew some blood as well. I took the prescription he wrote for me and went home.
The next day I received a call from my doctor's receptionist. She told me that I needed to go to the emergency room immediately and that the doctor would meet me there. She wasn't able to give me any more information, so naturally I had all kinds of terrible ideas running through my head.
When I got to the hospital, I was placed in on of the rooms and waited for close to an hour for the doctor to arrive. When he finally walked in, he sat down and broke the news to me: My sole kidney's function had dropped below the level it needed to maintain to keep me healthy. He let me know that I was going to need to begin dialysis immediately. At that point, my life changed a great deal.
Over the course of the next two days, I made two visits to the operating room. One surgery was to create a fistula in my left arm. A fistula allows for more blood to be cleaned at quicker speeds, but it takes four months before it is ready to be used. The other operation was to place a temporary catheter into my neck in order to do the dialysis while the fistula healed. I began dialyzing three times a week at four hours per session. I would continue this for three years.
Shortly before I began actively pursuing a transplant, the dialysis began taking its toll on me. My body wasn’t tolerating it as well as it used to. It wasn’t uncommon for me to pass out after a treatment due to a drop in blood pressure and I began getting migraines following sessions as well. It was at that point I agreed to let my mother be tested as a match.
For the next two months the both of us were given a battery of tests to check our health and compatibility. When the results came back we were stunned to find that out of 6 possible matches, she was a perfect match on all six, something that doesn’t often happen. On September 24, 2001, we went through with the surgery. It was a complete success. I was up and around very quickly and for the first time in three years, I was no longer tied to the troubles of dialysis. Once again, it was a change that greatly affected my life.
Living with kidney disease is tough, but it’s not unbearable. I know that I could lose my kidney at any time, but I may also have it for the next 20 years. Looking back, the changes that I have gone through because of it have taught me to appreciate what I have a little more now, because I realize things can change very easily.