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Arch Surg. 2004;139:1019-1021.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

I had 23 years to prepare for February 4, 2002, my first day as a patient on chronic hemodialysis, yet I was completely unprepared for it. I was diagnosed as having polycystic kidney disease in 1979, while a transplant immunology fellow at the University of Minnesota, and had 20 years of advice and guidance from some of the world's best nephrologists and transplant surgeons on how to preserve kidney function and do well on dialysis. But I quickly found that the view from the shore of the river is much different than it is when swimming in the swift-flowing current.

Like most patients with severe, life-threatening, chronic illness, as I tried to learn about my illness and plan my life, I became more afraid of disability than death. As a group, patients with polycystic kidney disease do quite well, as they do not have the comorbidities of so many other . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Marvin A. McMillen, MD

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