Hey friends how's your dialysis going lately?

[Neo]

Glad you are doing well and studying.  I think this is my "off" week. Fri I got shorted an hour due to tech problems so Mon I went in overloaded and seriously feeling it.  Hadn't slept for 3 days so finally fell asleep in the chair and my tech starts yelling...are you ok, ANN, ARE YOU OK....you never sleep...so much for the first time, LOL.  Then Dr comes and says my clearance is so good and other numbers as well so he is reducing my time to 3.5 hours instead of 4, I told him "My butt thanks you" and off he went. My BP took a serious nose dive, cramps, and migraine, I crawled to my car, drove home behind a city bus so I could stop a lot and breathe, crawled in the house, grabbed the phone, crawled under the covers and called my kids to check in..I asked them not to breathe so loud on the phone as I could feel my hair growing..Saul called and I asked him to only call if he could do it without the phone ringing...migraine was gone this morning but dizzy was alive and well...good thing I have furniture to hang onto..I'm now drinking some hot tea and I think I'm finally balancing out....sorry to write a book but you asked.  Have a great day.  It's all good.   

Dialysis is so hard to sleep at i wear a sleep mask and earplugs..lol I loof hilarious. I feel like that as well when i get off the machine. Congrats on getting your time shorted. Im glad you wrote so much I DID ask..

[Neo]

Dialysis and its associated pain have really dwindled since I started using my new fistula.  They tried to use it at Week 5 and it blew up into a "fistulatoma."  We're progressing to bigger needles eventually, but right now I'm using two 17 gauges.  Next week we move to 16 and finally 15 the week after.  Then I'm allowed to say goodbye to my chest catheter.

If I stop having pain and difficulty at Dialsysis, does that mean I'll stop being a sarcastic curmudgeon?

Probably not.

LoL... Well I at least you can get that catheter out. I had a catheter like the first 3 months I started dialysis 5 years back and I hated every minute of having it in.

[Neo]

Wow! Ok I think I answered all the posts..LoL I did ask for it didn't I... I love hearing from and reading all your posts.A lot of you said your bored on dialysis, and if you are try bringing your laptop like I do to your treatment and read the posts on this board. We are pure entertainment here.. 

[Wallyz]

dialysis is good. Getting my supplies here in time, that's another issue.  Nxstage logistics suck.  I can't wait fort he Baxter/ Fresinius home machine comes out, just to see if the Baxter Logistics side works better than the NxStage people.

[kitkatz]

The tech hit a nerve last night. EIght hours of a needle on a nerve can rattle my cage sometimes.  I agree with you about Benadryl and Tylenol, without it I would have had a miserable night, as it was I woke up at three sweating and hot, blood pressure crashing.  Saline and turned me off, and I was good to go in a half an hour. The last hour the nerve decided to object to having the needle in it.  The entire elbow was aching. This does not happen often luckily. The tech who sticks me regularly is getting to know the arm and the nerve areas.

[G-Ma]

wow owieeeeee....I know they would have had to scrape me off the ceiling.

[Lucinda]

Hi Neo

Glad to hear you are feeling better!!!  Been on dialysis three months now and all going well now that I am home.  Did it for the first time yesterday without anyone at home and it was all fine.  No probs.  I am sure you could manage yourself really well at home if you have that choice.  Gives you a lot more freedom time wise and while I am not doing nocturnal yet, when I need the extra hours I will definitely start doing it during the night.  I have started playing golf.  Having a few lessons a week.  I use to play a lot of tennis but don't feel quite up to all the running around the court but I am loving the golf!!  I started to help strengthen up my graft and bring it closer to the surface but I am getting hooked.  Frustrated....but hooked none the less!!!

[Hanify]

I didn't know you could do haemo at home by yourself.  How do you get the needles in one handed?  My pd is going fantastically well by the way.  Yay.