OK.
So I took the last eight posts to describe the major part of my PKD Odyssey.
Perhaps, as was my intention, that it helped to “humanize” the process. It’s one thing to hear someone telling you about hemodialysis, it’s another to listen to someone describing the process.
But above and beyond that, I learned a number of concepts, practices, and, what I like to call “mind games” that I used to cope with the…challenges…that I faced.
1. I learned to stay in the present, as best I can. I learned NOT to project what may or may not happen in the future. I can’t control the future. All I can do is make the best choice NOW based on the best available information that I have NOW.
2. I learned to look at my situation from the higher elevation. The world is bigger than me. Polycystic Kidney Disease may be unique to me, but it is not unique to the medical professionals. They know what they’re doing, provided you co-operate, and respectfully ask for THEIR co-operation! Also, if I had a bad day, pain, cramps, nausea, I realized that this one day is not the totality of my life.
3. I learned to “turn off” my emotions when I had to experience something that was a bit undesirable, like, for instance, injecting myself with “epo” to control anemia. I basically became like a robot, and, shutting off the negative, protesting “voices in my head,” I proceeded, mechanically, robotically, to do what I had to do.
4. I learned the judicious use of the facility of “comparing.” I DID compare myself to those who I considered worse off than I was, and offered a silent blessing to them, and a silent word of gratitude that I was where I was. I DID NOT compare myself to those who ate and drank normally. My thoughts were,”Well, this is where I am right now. Envy for healthy people doesn’t do me any good, while full acceptance does.” I also figured that I was someone else’s “negative comparison!”
5. After my transplant, I certainly went through a stage of great appreciation for the human and technological advance that made my transplant, (and by extension, all “medical miracles.”)
6. I developed a great compassion for people whose health is less than optimum. As a result, I use my training as a Life Coach and a Neuro-Linguistic Programmer to assist PKD patients through their Odysseys.
If you feel that some aspects of your PKD Odyssey is somewhat more challenging than you would like it to be, I invite you to visit “My Coaching Services” page at
http://innergameofpkd.com/my-coaching-services/
and contact me at:
to set up a complimentary “PKD Odyssey Strategy” session. My training and experience may lighten your burden as you travel down your own “PKD Odyssey!”
May your Odyssey be an easy one!
Peace and Blessings!
Coach Richie Perl
Certified Professional Coach
Certified Trainer of Neuro_linguistic Programming
