ABOUT ME
I crossed the Atlantic solo as a patient under peritoneal dialysis.
I’ve always been sailing; in a summer camp when I was very young on the Annecy Lake then on the Biscarrosse’s pond. We used to spend our family summer holidays in Greece and Turkey on rented sailing ships. During winter friends and I faced seas a little harder.
In 1997, I purchased an old 15 meters’ Ketch dated 1969. I spent 9 years to do it up to sail solo.
In 2006, launching, shipping around Corsica and Balearic Islands.
In 2007, during seven months from May to late November, I shipped around Mediterranean, mainly solo, to Corsica, Italy, Corfou, Croatia, Montenegro, Cyclades, Dodécanèse then in Turkey before returning thru the Peak, Malta and Tunisia. The book “Harmattan, passion to achieve” followed.
My dream was then to sail to Patagonia and pass the Horn Cap. I started to get the boat ready. Unfortunately the disease caught up with me. I thought I had two more years left before dialysis but I was told it was time. I got the boat out of water and stored it, as I thought I would not see it before at least three years.
Where is my renal failure coming from? I am a twin born with a malformation of the urethra which made the micturition very difficult and increased pressure in the kidneys.
I used to suffer from urinary infections and, more serious, prostatitis. I was diagnosed of this malformation only when I was 28 years old with. A first then a second surgery temporarily stopped the infections and allowed me to recover.
Before turning on 50, one diagnosed a renal failure. I have been treated for many years.
As my blood creatinin level increased regularly, a new surgery to protect the kidneys was tried but prostatitis came back. A parisian professor tried surgery once more without succeeding. All these attempts were made thru the urinary tract. A scraping of the prostate made during the last operation revealed a cancer.
In October 2008, a radical prostatectomy and a surgery of the urethral sténosis were made, successfully but too late. I reached the late stage of renal failure during the summer 2009 and it has been decided to perform dialysis.
During many years, I have been thinking that my life would stop on the day of the dialysis.
Whereas we knew since many years that I should be dialysed, it is only at the final stage that I was addressed - too late - to the unit of pre-dialysis information. In urgency, I nearly misleaded catching that peritoneal dialysis would hold me during 30 to 45 minutes 4 times a day whereas hemodialysis would leave me free one day out of two. I choosed peritoneal dialysis. What a chance!
This method of dialysis is formidable. It enables me to normally live my life. Some sharper details.
The catheter: it frightens me but one is accustomed very quickly, one forgets it and it is absolutely not awkward. It does not prevent me from going up in top of my chechmate!
Dialysis sessions come down to few minutes to connect. Afterwards, of course, I can’t run for a ball but I can do a lot of things: cooking, deal with the barbecue, eat, look at the TV, read, consult my emails, surf on the web, deal with the boat, play tarot with my friends, etc.
I can dialyse myself about everywhere: at home but also at the office, in an hotel room, with friends… It just needs organization. Drip stand is not essential; I use “S” hooks.
Shape as it is a soft dialysis, I am always in great shape . Dialysis does not make me tired.
Effectiveness: astonishing! Before beginning dialysis, I was 90 years old, unable to walk 100 meters without needing to sit. After only eight days of dialysis, I had recovered my former shape.
Regimen: I am always thirsty! With this method of dialysis, I still urinate and the drinking restriction is not important. Regarding food, constraint is not either hudge. It is necessary to reduce foods containing too much potassium as chocolate, banana, avocado, fruits…
Risk of peritonitis: it is tiny if I observe the hygienic rules of connections and disconnections. For the crossing, I had been learnt with biology in order to make me able to identify the responsible germ and to make the antibiogram. I also learned how to inject antibiotic.
This method of dialysis allows me to have a total autonomy and to live normally with very few constraints. A question came to me since the beginning of dialysis: is it possible to be dialysed on a boat? A nurse hardly helped me. She said to me: “I have a patient, he is commercial, he must work to live, he dialyses himself in his car.”
The things went very quick after choosing DP. I immediately thought of crossing the Atlantic as I always dreamed on. It is an easy course and doing a dialysis on board, immobilizing itself during 30 to 45 minutes in the middle of nowhere, leads less consequence than in coastal cruising. I spoke with my nephrologist, a specialist in peritoneal dialysis, then to a second nephrologist specialist in the DP and sailing teacher. We achieved this first crossing as a team.
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