The "I See You Staring At My Arm", edition.

 iPad shuffled to The Main Ingreditnt, "Everybody Plays the Fool".  When I finish treatment, my arm is bandaged.  It's an impressive piece of work. The bandaging is the end of the treatment process. And I've found that at each clinic I've been treated, the bandaging is different. Let's start with when I first started dialysis. I had a chest catheter. The catheter was an appendage I carried around for the first 7 months of dialysis. It did not come off. Ever. It was highly susceptible to infection. There wasn't a bandage, per se.  The catheter was inserted with a piece of gauze between the catheter and my skin and a transparent adhesive was taped over where the catheter was inserted into my chest. About a 3" by 3" area.   That got cleaned and changed every treatment. For the record, my skin became sensitive to the entire works. During the changing process, the tech/nurse had to put a healing cream on the area in addition to sterilizing and changing.  I didn't mind wearing shirts that showed the catheter. It was a huge part of me. Like it kept me alive!  Nevertheless, I was glad to see it go. ;-)

Shirley Bassey, "Diamonds Are Forever".   Then came the fistula. A vascular surgeon opened up my left arm above the elbow and fiddled around with my veins and created some Frankenstein dodad so the dialysis needles  could be inserted into my arm to pull out blood, clean it and the return it to my body.  Cool. Needles in. But the needles need to come out. And we're removing 2 needles that are  moving a lot of blood. The blood isn't going to stop flowing once the needles are removed. Ok. I got "Killer Joe" from Q's Jook Joint. Volume cranked up. Love it!  I've gone off a tangent........  So the removal of the needles goes like this.  Me and tech are all sterilized up. They put on their gloves. I get a glove, which the tech puts on me. The tech removes a needle and immediately covers the hole with folded up gauze. As easy as it sounds, it's quite the operation. They take that gauze and cover the hole wher the needle was and apply pressure.  Then my gloved hand changes position with their gloved hand and then I apply the pressure.  Of course there can be missteps at this juncture. The gauze and pressure need to be directly on the hole where the needle was removed from. 

The Spinners, "It's a Shame". What happens if you miss that little hole?  Prepare for a blood bath. Literally. You'd be surprise how much and fast the blood comes out that little needle pricked hole. I've had puddles of blood on the floor beneath me. And as I've mentioned before, sometimes it spurts up like a little Yellowstone geyser. That's always fun. You have no idea how fast you can disassociate your arm from you when it starts bleeding like that. Hey. I don't want to get blood on my clothes!!  Lol.  Anyway. In Detroit the process was to pull out one needle at time. Here, it's both needles so I'm holding both holes with 2 fingers. My 2 fingers get a little tired applying pressure to the holes...about 6-10 minutes. You try it. Anyway.  Once the blood stops flowing, the tech places fresh gauze over the holes and places tape over it. The choices in Detroit were paper tape, silk tape, cloth tape or band aids. I liked band aids until my skin rebelled. Here it's paper or silk. Well my skin rebelled against the paper. Now I'm down to cloth.  Regarding the bandais. You have no idea how many grown folks still love band aids. Lol. And we could just stack 'em on our arms. Lol. 

Young MC, "Young MC".   The tech uses a sifgnicant amount of tape to hold the gauze. You know. We don't want a blood fountain or any surprises. Now my upper arm looks like it's bandaged up like someone  took a hole out of my arm. Yeah, I leave it on for at least 4 hours. Anyway, if I go out with the bandage people stare and comment. "What's that?", "Wow!!!", "Are you OK?" , "You've been to the doctor?"  Sometimes I'll say I've just finished dialysis. Some people know what that is and will tell me about their mother, father, sister, friend, etc. If I get with the doctor question, I just say yes. Lol. Much easier.  That being said, it is an opportunity to educate. But some days I don't feel like it.  And no, the stares, comments and questions don't bother me at all. :). And if I know you, I'll ask you to fell the throbbing and buzzing in my arm.  My lifeline. I get a little thrill watching to see if people recoil when they feel it.  lol. I feel it to make sure the fistula us working. If it's not buzzing, I'm in big trouble. 

Signing off with Ramsay Lewis, Earth Wind and Fire, "Sun Goddess". Did you know Maurice White had been in Ramsay Lewis's band. I think I knew and just forgot. Lol. That happens. :-)  There's a huge music festival  in downtown Vegas this weekend. It's call the Life Is Beautiful Festival.  Acts that caught my eye were Kanye, Outkast and Lionel Ritchie.  And no, we're not going anywhere near it. Lol. Besides. Dads church is having their lobster festival this weekend.  We've already reserved out lobster! Have a great weekend. And yeah, life really is beautiful. :)