One of my favorite shows is HBO’s “Getting On”, a passive-aggressive comedy about life in the women’s long-term care unit of a California hospital. The cast includes comedy veterans Laurie Metcalf (“Roseanne”, “Desperate Housewives”, and “The Big Bang Theory”), Alex Borstein (“Mad TV”, “Family Guy”), and Niecy Nash (“Reno 911”). The show gets good reviews, so I was surprised and disappointed when I learned that the show’s third season would be its last. My disappointment turned into excitement when Season Three’s first episode revealed that Dawn Fourchette’s (Ms. Borstein’s character) kidneys were only functioning at 10 percent, which meant that she needed to start dialysis immediately - just like I did.
“Excitement” is a weird word to use because I wouldn’t wish kidney failure on my worst enemy. But if dialysis and kidney disease get more exposure because of this and other shows, they will get discussed more by everyone, and that gets me excited.
Season Three’s second episode shows Dawn getting dialysis at work; I thought “Wow, they’re showing a real dialysis machine on TV!” Seeing it also brought my dialysis days right back to me for a moment - and that did not feel good.
I’m looking forward to watching the series’ final four episodes to see how dialysis changes Dawn’s life, and how accurately the experience of being a hemodialysis patient is portrayed.
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