Ok, DH and I had our first day of training today. I am very glad it's behind us.
We were both a little nervous, and neither of us slept very well last night, so we were trying not to snap at each other...
He had to be terrified, poor dear. His eight-month-old fistula has only ever been stuck a few times, and most of those ended with horrible damage, and he would have to go back to cath. But we got the most recent "ok to try again" from his surgeon last Weds, so we had our fingers crossed. We expected the stick to go much better because we were getting personal attention from our own nurse, and not some tech who was in a hurry to jab a bunch of people and then go on break. He had me go next door to the clinic and borrow a can of Pain-Ease spray, as they had none at the home hemo place. He used...lots.
But the stick went well.
We are both long-time engineers, and so find the machine dead simple. Programming it is nothing, and setup (which I certainly wasn't allowed to do, though I did break it down after) seems very intuitive. I did the entire flow sheet, also not a problem.
We obviously did a lot of chatting with the nurses, and while asking about the exact definition of "swelling" on the flow sheet, she started a long explanation and I interrupted her with "Pitting edema?" She looked at me for a second and said "Oh, you guys are gonna be back home in a week."
The other nurse also said that at some point, but I don't remember what we were talking about.
But as is frequent in Florida, the clinic was pretty much refrigerated and we had forgotten his blanket. He started out cold (pre temp was 96-something) and I spread some light jackets from the car over him. After an hour he was almost sobbing he was so cold. I suspected fever and so I put the thermometer in his mouth, then the other nurse walked in and said "He's on bags. If he's cold check the warmer temperature." We did and - the warmer was off. Oops. One thing I always know to check now...then the thermometer beeped and his body temp was 93-something. Yikes!! Poor thing.
I asked for the manual to read during his treatment, and got through most of it. Oh, now I remember what I said to the other nurse. I had been checking his fluid draw. The machine beeped with about an hour left for treatment. The other nurse was nearby, so I waved her over and said "Ok, he's got an alarm 5, so that means ultrafiltration is done, right? So I press mute?" That's when she commented we would likely be trained quickly.
And she showed me to increase the dialysate flow at that point.
The nurse pulled the first needle, but advised me to always get sitting and standing with a needle in, in case he needed a push. So he held the first site for 15 minutes, then we checked, he was closed, and we bandaged and did sitting and standing. So that went well, and the nurse was still out of the room, so we pulled the second needle ourselves. We were both nervous and fumbled that a bit, so there was a bit more blood leakage involved. But no Monty Python jets across the room.
Overall, a very good treatment and a tremendous relief to finally be into it. Here's hoping the buttonholing goes quickly...
Sorry to ramble on and on but, man. What a relief.
- rocker
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