Goodbye January - Hello February!

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It’s the last day of January 2025, dear reader, and I’m trying to sum up what this month has been like. Truth been told, this has been a really uneventful few weeks. After Christmas, I just kinda laid down on the couch in my infrared sauna blanket on low, and watched TV.

What January was like

The weather has been terrible, with a lot of snow and rain. The winter days are too short up here in Norway to get anything done. The sun rises around 9am, and sets behind the hill at 2pm. Yes. That is a whole of four hours of sun, providing you can actually see it for the thick grey clouds.

So you could just say that I’ve been wintering, and just going with the seasons here. Slow living, soft routines, and no stress – none, whatsoever.

What I’ve been watching? CNN, mostly. The presidential election and inauguration in the US intriges me. I’ve also watched the Netflix mini series La Palma (nothing like good a volcano eruption when you’re freezing), and kept up to date with Grey’s Anatomy.

During my dialysis treatments, I’ve been on a Marvel marathon, intending to see every superhero live action movie they have. My favorite is Thor (with Ironman as the runner-up), and I do think Wanda is my spirit animal.

And I’ve been reading. I’ve been surfing this whole wave of healing and mindbody theories, and I kind of fell into a rabbit hole of quantum fields and vibrations and perception. Consequentially, I have also meditated every single night for the last three weeks. That is a new personal record for me.

Health-wise, I’m still in limbo. My kidneys seem to be losing functionality every month, and now we’ve started to remove fluid from my blood every time I go to the clinic for dialysis. This adds 30 minutes to the treatment, so in total I spend one and a half hour more hooked up to the machine compared to last month.

I’m still not OK’d for the transplant list, dear reader, and I’m still waiting for the hospital to start training me for home hemodialysis. Hopefully, both projects will see some progress next month. I know plans were made today for the latter.

The only thing that really did go well, was my appointment with the lung doctor yesterday. There were no negative findings, and I don’t have asthma. So there’s that, at least. My GP tried scaring me into daily medication by saying that I risked ruining my lungs if I didn’t take them, and that it would be a shame if one day I got a new kidney and then my lungs were gone. Thankfully, she was wrong, like I knew she was. The tests showed normal lung capacity, and the medication they had me take, had no effect on me whatsoever. It’s nice to have it confirmed from the specialists.

I haven’t been completely idle, dear reader. I’ve rebooted this blog again, after a year in hiatus. I’ve come to enjoy sitting down to write again, and I’ve been trying to figure out what blog traffic anno 2025 looks like. So I’ve revamped my Pinterest profile, and I’ve joined Threads. I also made an attempt to start anew on Instagram, but that is going thoroughly to shits. I’m getting spammed by Arab accounts with no content, and I just think the whole poor thing is broken.

Other than that, I’ve been mainly focused on my health this month. I’ve been doing Yin Yoga, I’ve tried a few new supplements (hello, NAD+!), and I’ve been earthing as well. I have invested in a system that allows me to just plug it into the socket and strap the other end round my naked feet. In theory, that will recharge me and replace a sorely missed contact with nature during these dark and cold winter days.

What’s up in February?

The only thing I’m fairly certain of, is that I’ll be spending time in the clinic getting my blood dialyzed while drinking black tea and watching superheros do their thing.

If everything goes according to plan, I’m starting self-cannulation soon and thus taking my first steps toward home hemodialysis. They say it’s a long and intense training, maybe 6 months, but at the end of that, there is hopefully summer freedom. Home hemo means I get do decide when I plug myself in, and I no longer have to get up early or wait for the nurses to do the job.

Home hemodialysis also means that I can have shorter treatments, but every day, which will give me a more natural detoxing process. Healthy kidneys filter the blood continuously, so three times a week is just enough to keep me fairly alive. Daily sessions will be a level-up, and will hopefully provide a bit more energy.

With any luck, I get a NxStage system, which is both portable and light-weight. Then, I get to travel. I can just bring it with me in the caravan when I go down to the sea. That would be ideal, if I’m still on dialysis when summer arrives.

There will be more health exams in February. I’m up for a combined gastro- and colonoscopy next week, and then it looks like we’re finally starting the process of getting me on that transplant list. If I’m OK’d, I have a few family members who want to see if they’re a donor match. If they are, this whole thing might be over soon. But until then, I’m focusing on the upcoming home hemo training.

Other than that, I have learned to not have any plans. I just go with the flow and decide every day what needs to be done. But I will try to sit down to work on this blog every day. I really, really want it to provide some income, to be honest. I do love writing, and I would write anyway, but if it can bring in some money, it would be fantastic.

I’m seriously considering becoming a naturopath when this kidney chaos is over, and I will have to finance it myself somehow. What better way to do that, than sitting here writing?