A dialysis clinic is the grimmest vision of hell that I’ve ever seen. There is no more hopeless place that I have ever walked into. Even the intensive care unit has some hope that someday they will leave. Senior centers are not really that bad; they’re full of old people, hangin’ out with old people. But dialysis clinics are pure misery. These people have to go and sit in a cold room and suffer every other day for all the good times that they used to have. All the beers, all the sodas, all the parties. They all ended up there, with a needle in your arm and a sour stomach that never quite goes away.

And it can last for years. And they know it.

Treasure your kidneys, folks. You don’t want to know what it’s like to live without them.