Dialysis on Friday the 13th

Let me start with the fact I'm not superstitious and the (long) back story...

I use the NxStage cycler for my dialysis treatments 5 days a week. On Monday I had no issues with my run. Tuesday we took off per our schedule. However, on Wednesday, we couldn't get the Arterial needle in. We ended up skipping a second night in a row because it got too late. Also I was miserable and exhausted from a stomach bug. Thursday, we discovered I had been infiltrated and was quite bruised. After multiple needles, arm positions, tourniquet on/off/tight/loose, and in tears, we stopped trying and went to bed.

Which brings us to Friday the 13th... I was desperate for a treatment since it had been 3 days without. I contacted my home dialysis team as soon as they were in. They were quite busy, but found time for me. A new buttonhole was started with a sharp and they taped it in place very securely. My husband then drove me carefully home to start dialysis. After a terrible time getting the venous in (different position of my arm), we finally got started and ran very smoothly.

We had just started rinseback when I freaked out. Due to the needle issues, the arterial clamp was white (supposed to be green) and the venous clamp was green (supposed to be yellow). I WRONGLY thought we had connected the wrong line and yelled at my husband to stop the machine. In his haste, he bumped the end of the open arterial line which didn't yet have a syringe on it. Blood droplets went flying! My arm, laptop screen, and my husband's leg got splattered. It looked like a horror movie!

Thankfully, all of the mess came be remedied with alcohol swabs as James wasn't wearing any pants!

Other than a very sore arm and feeling rather drained, I survived the whole experience very well. The dialysate volume was increased to 30 L instead of my normal 20, so I got a huge 111 BLP instead of an average 74.