There was a very special buzz in the Hervey Bay Renal Unit last week as staff and fellow patients came together to celebrate a milestone few get to witness firsthand, the 90th birthday of one of our long-standing dialysis patients.
Surrounded by nurses, fellow patients, and a group of friends who travelled all the way from Lismore, the morning turned into a heartfelt celebration of a life well lived.
The team pulled out all the stops with not one but three birthday cakes, laughter, stories, and plenty of smiles.
“It was overwhelming,” Jim Parker said.
“It made coming here today really worthwhile.”
Born in Tasmania and beginning his working life in pathology in 1953, he spent decades working across Hobart, Darwin and Lismore, eventually becoming the head of a microbiology unit.
His stories stretched from the days of small, multi-tasking labs to tropical disease work in Darwin and a long career in public hospital laboratories.
After moving to the Fraser Coast about ten years ago, he has become a familiar face in our dialysis chair three days a week.
Like many in the renal community, his journey to dialysis was gradual, a decline in kidney function, a rapid turn in his health, and eventually the urgent start to treatment.
But in true resilient fashion, he embraced the new routine, quickly finding comfort in the familiar faces around him.
“It’s a bit like a day out,” he said,
“The people around me, the nurses, they’re truly wonderful and they really look after us.”
His advice for anyone feeling anxious about starting dialysis?
“Go for it. It gets easier. You get to know everyone. They make you feel at home.”
His visitors from Lismore spent the morning by his side before heading off to join him and his son for a dinner celebration at home.
When asked about the secret to reaching ninety, his answer was simple and wonderfully old-fashioned: avoid processed foods, grow your own vegetables and eat fresh fish.