I guess its time for an update on the ESRD or dialysis treatments. A lot of my friends have been asking and Sandy and I have been pretty much up front with everyone, Im doing good. Which is about as good as a person can expect. My kidneys dont work very much or very well any more. All that means is I really dont have to deal with one of the physical bodily functions that the majority of the rest of you do. But 3 days a week, I get up at 0345 cleanup, do some knee time, and drive to DaVita in AF where I weigh in to get what is called a wet weight which is around 258.5#, I then wash and sterilize my left forearm, where my fistula is located. I go to my station, where my dialyzer is set up, I then set up my IPad, my headset, my MIFI, then glove up and canulate my left arm with 15 gauge buttonhole needles. These needles are not the standard sharps you see but are quite a bit larger, and the buttonhole procedure just means that I use the same hole every time so that I dont establish a line of needle tracks, but I do create a spot like hole similar to a pierced earring hole. We call the needles nails, it brings a bit of humor into the station. I dont want to give the impression Im all alone, Im not. I have two techs and an RN on my side of the unit and the other side of the block has two more techs for the other three early clients, and people start coming more as it gets later. By the time Im plugged in and the pumps running its around 0600 and Ive got Pandora going, some good tunes from the 60s and 70s and Ill read the Priesthood or Sunday School lesson and usually drift off to sleep for about three hours. I have a set of noise reducing headphones, they block everything but the music or book or whatever youre listening to. There is so much beeping and dinging on the machines, some people wear earplugs, each station has a small TV, which usually works best for one of the game shows, thats on about 0900 but I read. When the machine has removed the toxins in my system, or taken me down to what is considered my dry weight which takes about four hours and twenty to thirty minutes. The needles are pulled, I get my dry weight and depending on the day it gos from 253.5 to 245.0. Thats the reason I have to be so very careful with my fluid intake, no more than 2 quarts total fluid per day. Muscle cramps are a side effect, no fun, dialysis cant tell the difference between potassium and sodium, so it pulls it all off, thats where the cramps come from the sodium is bad for you and the potassium is bad for you also. Your kidneys do so much, it was hard for me to comprehend how important they were till mine were shot. I have my initial appointment with the Transplant Team on November 20. It will be interesting,
Posted on: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 05:06:52 +0000
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