Monday was truly an "Adventure in Dialysis". I go into the treatment area. Nod and smile and greet my fellow patients, nurses and techs. I run a gauntlet past 2 modules to get to mine. Everyone in my mod is hooked up. We greet each other. I notice my tech isn't there. I ask the tech that's there where is "our tech". She's off. Well, if she is off, she really is not feeling well. I feeling aces because I have the buttonholes. Even though no on has used my buttonholes since they started, they've matured enough that I felt comfortable with someone else to stick me. The venous stick went fine. She did the stick (cannulation) on ther arterial. Nothing. What do I mean by nothing? She stuck a needle in my arm and no blood came out. I watched her adjust the needle, wiggle it around in the hole in my arm. Up, down, left, right....nothing. She went and got a more experienced tech.
He wiggled and adjusted the needle. More nothing. She got the charge nurse. Nurse took the needle out and started again.. More nothing. She took the needle out. Got another needle and just passed on the buttonhole. Got a good stick. About 15 minutes later my machine started beeping. I was clotting. No blood was glowing through the tube. Pull the needle, call one of the stick team over. Another stick. Song break. "All Day a Music", War. For my class of '74 peeps, this came out our freshman year. Nice smooth and mellow, relaxing song. Anyway, by 8 AM, I'd had 5 needles in me. The first successful stick was at 6:40. :-/ The head honcho nurse got in at 8. Asked how many times I'd been stuck. Apparently 5 was.....excessive. Lol. I didn't know better, and the idea was to get me dialyzed and deal with the issue after treatment. Part of the problem was excessive clotting of my blood and that was gunking up the works. Big ole clots just couldn't flow through the tubing. TMI? Suck it up. You're reading "Adventures in Dialysis". Lol. For the record, my buddy in the chair next to me told me not to let them go past 2 needles. And chuckled because he was having issues, also
Head honcho nurse said enough. Send her(me) to her vascular surgeon. The center called my doc. I called Brian to pick me up. I did my walk of shame through the treatment area (not really a walk of shame, bit I clearly left quite early- lol), said my goodbyes and went to the waiting area to wait for confirmation of an appointment with the vascular surgeon and Brian. I was in at 6:15 AM. Out by 8:30AM. Only 1 kilo off after a weekend. :-(
Brian picked me up. We went straight to doc's office. For my Detroiters, my dialysis center is at Outer Drive and Southfield (NW Detroit). The docs office is at Hoover and 12 mile in Warren. Doc says the acces vein has narrowed. He needs to do an angioplasty to widen the veins. He sends me to a vascular surgical center in Dearborn, near Fairlane Mall, Southfield and Ford Road. Lots of driving, eh? Anyway, procedure was done and over by 3:30 PM. And I'm all good and back to dialyzin' this morning. :-). Tavares, "Remember What I Told You to Forget". The album cover screams '80s. Lol. I'll just overlook that and concentrate on the song. Heh. My arm was numbed and I got "mild" sedation. What's that? I was awake the entire time having a conversation with doc and the nurses...cracking jokes. Lol. Well, what did you expect I'd do? Lol.
My tech is back, the technical guy upgraded our flat screens, I got my labs (blood test results) back. I'm good. Phosphorus, potassium, sodium and calcium numbers are good. :) lol. Dietician gave me the labs as I had 3 people working on the arm. So many people at my chair. I felt the love. ;-/ Roflmao. Social worker in charge of the mentoring project gave me a questionaire. Lol. That was a busy hour and a half.
Well that's quite enough. Have a great Wednesday. Stay room. I broke out the serious winter coat. *sigh*. Signing off with, "I'll Be Around", The Spinners. Summer of '72. Great memories. ;-)
Lol. I need an editor. I try, I swear I try.
ReplyDeletePat, You are a great writer. Thank you for sharing. I had a medical procedure last week and it took 3 pokes and I was not as good natured as you over it. Hope you never have another Monday like that again!
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