Starting on NXStage training on Monday

[dkerr]

I visited the training clinic for the NXStage machine  a week ago and was told it would be the end of August before I could start training.  This past Monday I got a call from the nurse wanting to come and checkout my house.  She asked if I would be ready to start this Monday.  I didn't even skip a heartbeat and said "YES!"   I gave her a big hug, said my goodbyes at my clinic this morning since its through another clinic and am prepared for this new "stage" of my life.

[Hanify]

Yay.

[jbeany]

dkerr, you're going to love it! 

[willieandwinnie]

  dkerr. You are going to feel so much better. Good luck to you and keep us posted. 

[okarol]

  Great - I hope you keep posting and let us see how you're doing!

[willowtreewren]

Wonderful news! 

If you are like us, you are going to love this new "stage" of life. And feel better to boot! 

[Bill Peckham]

Great news. Will look forward to updates.

[dkerr]

Day two of training.  Went well.  No problems.  Hope I can learn how to connect all those tubes in the right place.  Feels a little scary right now.

[Bill Peckham]

Day two of training.  Went well.  No problems.  Hope I can learn how to connect all those tubes in the right place.  Feels a little scary right now.

I think it helps to have your own checklist with brief notes to remind you of the order of things. If you make your own check list the notes don't have to make sense to others - they just have to make sense to you. As you go through training any time you forget something - and you will forget something - then it goes on your checklist.

In a couple weeks it'll all seem like second nature.

[petey]

Bill's right -- make your own checklist with things that make sense to you (or ways you can remember all the things, connections, procedures, etc.).  When we were training on NxStage, the first time the nurse explained the waste line to me, I associated it with "pee pee."  Hey, the clamp on the line is yellow, Marvin doesn't urinate anymore, and when he's on the machine, that's where his would-be urine would go.  Hence, it was the "pee pee line" to us.  After two years, we still call it that.

And, Bill's right again.  Soon it will be second nature.  I made lists (little checklists on paper that I laminated to hang on the cabinet ... big lists that I spent hours printing on poster board to hang on the wall ... here a list... there a list...). After a couple of weeks of doing it at home, I rarely looked at the lists anymore.  I still have some of them up, but I don't know why.  Marvin and I could set up, run, and then break down his machine in our sleep.

You should be getting training manuals and books with your machine.  Use a highlighter in them (they're going home with you).  Put little Post-it tabs on the pages you think you'll use most often.  Write in the books -- reminders, notes, etc.  While all of the info and the whole procedure may seem overwhelming right now, the more you do it, the easier it gets to do.  And, besides, there are quite a few NxStage users here at IHD to help you, too.

Like some of the others who have posted in this thread, we love NxStage!  I'm sure you will, too!

[dkerr]

Thanks!  I've started week 2 today.  I am feeling a difference already in my energy level.  I just keep making dumb errors.  We used the dialysate bags this morning instead of the PF, I got so enthusiastic I bent the little things in the bottom before I hooked up the green lines.  Sigh .... water everywhere.

[willowtreewren]

Yep! That's a mistake you won't make again. Like when I unhooked the line at the needle without clamping it off. Blood everywhere.

 

But those errors really help you learn. Another couple at our clinic forgot to disconnect the waste line from the saline bag so all the effluent was pumping into that poor little saline bag... while they slept blissfully on.

It exploded all over them. We learned from THAT mistake, too. Won't do that! 

Believe me, it really does become just another routine.

Best wishes.
Aleta

[dkerr]

Thanks, its been a week of mistakes.  I keep hoping I'll comein one day and do it perfect.  Hope. .. hope.

[silverhead]

I can safely say that I believe we all had a first week just like that, even after 2 years at home, I have brain Farts all the time, just step back take a deep breath and then proceed......