- She said, "It's time for you to have dialysis."
And I said, "No."
(chuckles) "I don't want it."
(light music)
My name is Gustavo Guzman
and I'm here to tell you
about what it's like to be on dialysis.
Read it?
- [Woman] Yup.
- What led to you to be on dialysis?
Well, I had testicular cancer,
and they did aggressive treatments,
and that ended up taking a hit on my kidneys,
so they referred to an nephrologist,
and I started their treatment,
so that's why I ended up here.
How often do you need treatments?
Well, the treatments are three times a week,
four hours treatment.
And that's just going there and they clean your blood.
Tell us about your first time you went
to the dialysis treatment.
The doctor, they called me in,
and she said, "It's time for you to have dialysis."
And I said, "No."
(chuckles) "I don't want it."
And then...
(Gustavo inhales)
They came in,
I told him I didn't want it.
And then she told me,
"I'm gonna show you numbers."
They showed me the numbers,
and the thing went all the way down
and I still was saying no.
They then brought in the psychologist.
They started talking and that's what made it.
(Gustavo exhales)
I'm getting hot.
- [Woman] Okay.
Walk us through a dialysis treatment?
Okay.
When you get hooked up, the first thing you do
is you get weighted.
They weigh you and then after that,
the nurses start calculating your weight on the machine,
and then after they do that,
the technician hooks you up.
It means that you insert the needles on your arm
so they can start doing the treatment.
Right here is...
This one, they put both of them.
One's the in, and then that one's the out.
The blood goes in on one side,
and then the blood comes out on the other one.
And it goes right through the machine.
Here's a machine,
but my machine is on this side.
On the left side.
But this is another one right here.
And after that, people were saying
that you'd be weak after dialysis.
Yeah, it happened a little bit,
but you find ways to cope with that.
Do you have to get treatments?
Yes.
For the rest of your life, yes.
And that is something that you cannot avoid.
Are you a candidate for a kidney transplant?
Yes, I am.
I'm on the waiting list.
I think it's five to seven years for a waiting list,
so I'm still on the early stages.
I'm on my second year on dialysis.
They call me a baby 'cause I'm brand new
on the dialysis.
How have you experienced side effects from dialysis?
Sometimes I get the dizzy spells, you know?
You feel weak,
but I noticed that when you get dizzy,
it's because you're not having a good diet.
I noticed that because I was not having a good diet.
I was getting dizzy during the day
and because I was not eating right.
And after I started eating breakfast,
that took care of it.
I don't feel those dizzy spells.
Is there a special diet that you have to follow
to ensure dialysis is effective?
Yes, you just eat less,
and there's gotta be, you know, less potassium, less salt.
Potassium.
You gotta have a good diet.
And they give you all the stuff so you can follow that.
And then, water.
Don't drink that much water.
32 ounces.
You're not supposed to drink 32 ounces a day of water.
And I try not to drink that much water.
After receiving treatments are you able to work?
Yes, my normal life.
Yes, yes, I am.
Before dialysis, I couldn't even walk.
I couldn't walk from like the door to you.
I couldn't even walk, I had to stop
'cause I couldn't breathe.
My breathe was...
Now, I do more than,
I do triple of what I did before.
I wasn't that active before.
Like I'm now, I'm trying to do more.
Do more than.
You know, trying to take care of this.
This body.
What do you do when you go on vacations?
I went to Las Vegas and they have a lot of dialysis centers
over there, so all you gotta do, you just call them
and it's like you call them,
and you go over there.
They have everything.
Your everything, your information.
You just go there,
and go in and out.
That's it and there's no hiccups.
All you gotta do is you just go to dialysis.
There's no...
You can still have fun.
Don't go camping (chuckles).
Don't go camping
or go to the desert for a whole week
'cause you'll gotta go get it.
Is there anything you would like to say to your kidneys?
Yeah, get better.
(chuckles) I always asked before I started dialysis.
I always asked the doctor, "Hey, could you have a pill
so you don't have to go to dialysis?"
I would ask her always that.
"Do you have a pill?"
I still ask her that.
"Do you have a pill to..."
But there's no other way,
once your kidneys go down, you'll never fix them,
so you just gotta go through what you have
or what they give you.
What's better to 'em.
But other than that, you gotta baby 'em
till you meet your maker (chuckles).
How has UCSD Health helped you?
Yeah.
If you have no treatment, you'd not be walking.
If I had no transfer, I would probably be gone already,
so what can I say about that?
I'm here talking to you guys.
Yes, it has helped me a lot.
(light music)