The "We're Being Kicked Out of Home Dialysis Training Tomorrow!", edition.

Yeah, the bulk of the training is over. We start doing dialysis at home on Friday.  Lol, I've changed my pronouns, haven't I. Dialysis is now a 2 person operation. We.  Us. Not just "I" anymore. I know I've gone over this before, but I just basically sit there and have dialysis. Brian does the bulk of the work. But first, let me explain where we are. 

The cycler and Pureflow were delivered last week. Cycler?  That's the actual dialysis machine..the kidney. Pureflow?  That's the machine that holds and creates the dialysate (fluid) that flushes out the toxins. The Pureflow needs to a water source.  Way back when, you needed to have a plumber come in and do a hook up...Medicare would pay for it. Now all we need is a water source. A device to use the nearest sink, via the faucet or the pipes or a washing machine is used for water input.  You hook up the tubing when it's time to dialyze. There is also tubing used to discard the waste. This goes to and down the shower drain. And when the treatment is over, all tubing is put away. Brian had to set this all up. We did have a hiccup with the water input. Dad and the condo plumber got it working. So as of last night, my cycler is ready to go!  

Brian is also responsible to set up the cycler for every treatment. This includes inserting the cartridge which is the heart of treatment, attaching all of the tubing, attaching the saline solution, making sure all of the tubing is free of air bubbles (snap and tap) , doing all the checks and tests, recording the numbers and adjusting the settings after I've been connected. He also administers all medications through the tubing and tapes my needles. He also has to deal with alarms and how to solve the issues.  Whew!!  What do I do?  I take my blood pressures, temperature, set up the syringes with the medications, set up my station to do the stick (cannulate), and finally, I stick myself. At the end of treatment, he removes my needles, clears and cleans the machine, discards the medical wastes and prepares the cycler and/or Pureflow for the next day. Whew, again!  And yeah, we were tested on all of this stuff. The total time is less than 4 hours and getting shorter as we do it even more. 

So back to Friday. We will finally do this at home. But don't panic. Our nurse will be at home with us on Friday. We are pretty much set up. I still need a little rolly cart for my medical supplies. The photos are the chair and cycler and Pureflow, and storage of the items.  

Well it's time to get ready. We start our watercolor class this evening. I'm looking forward  to it and am also looking forward to getting our lives back. Lol this past month has been pretty intense, but we're  ready to move on to yet another new phase in our lives!  I should be back to blogging on a regular schedule next week. You know in spite of the training, life has been going on and I got stories to tell!!! Have a great day. Stay warm.  Hire some kids to shovel the snow, if you got snow!!