Baby Steps

[LoneHighway]

The journey begins. I met with the vascular surgeon on June 29. He admitted that I do have really good veins, but the ones in my forearm are not the right kind, and he's going to use the big sexy one that runs along my bicep above the elbow. I was a little disappointed with that until I watched the NxStage DVD I got and saw a guy with one there and it looked okay. The surgery will be July 27.

Also on June 29  I visited the FMC center where I will be training for NxStage. The staff was extremely nice and enthusiastic and gave me a tour of where they do the training. There are only 8 people in the program currently, and they train one at a time, one on one. They said there is a waiting list into September at this point. Everyone is wanting to get into the program it seems. They gave me several booklets and the DVD, which I watched with my training partner-to-be.

I need to try to hold out until November before starting the big D. It seems harder and harder to get going in the mornings, with the long hours I work, and I wonder sometimes how much of that is psychological, but my dispatcher knows the score and is being extremely helpful in getting me extra time to do things at work.

[Dianejt]

Well good luck to you with your fistulla surgery. We too are going to be trained on Nxstage.

[kitkatz]

I have fistula surgery this Wednesday in my upper left arm.

[LoneHighway]

Please let us know how it goes.

[MooseMom]

The day I got my fistula was the worst day of my life because I knew that it was the first major step toward dialysis.  But anyone here on IHD will tell you that I am a whingeing weenie, and if I can get through it, believe me, anyone can.  I'll tell you a secret...once the surgery was done, I felt relieved.  I had gotten over that hurdle, and now I know that once I need D, I'm ready for it.

I'm planning to do NxStage, too.  Saw the video, read the pamphlet.  My neph told me that it gives good clinical results, and that's all I care about.  He told me that it was challenging and took real commitment, but that's OK; I'd rather be responsible for my own care as much as possible.  So, good luck to you and let us know how it all goes.  I'd be really interested to hear all about your training.

I KNOW from experience that fatigue can be psychological in nature.  When I get lab results that tell me I'm not yet at death's door, I feel energized.  But when I stub my toe and convince myself that the resulting pain is really due to CKD, I hurt a lot more.  It's so stupid, I know.