One week down!!!

[Lucinda]

One week down on dialysis so I celebrated by having a crack at doing my own needles today.  Not quite so easy as it looks, is it??  Well, I can now manage settling up my machine and it actually feels quite good to have some control.  My clinic is very anti having someone help me at all.  They want their patients to take total control and be able to do it all.  I have moved up to doing four hours and next week I will go up to six.  I am still getting the headache but today I drank quite a bit of water while I was on and it wasn't as bad.  The other lady I was training with has decided to do clinic dialysis.  She wasn't coping at all with the training.  I am getting my head around it but it certainly isn't easy but it will probably be second nature in no time at all. Really tired tonight.  The trainer has a very strong French accent so it is hard to concentrate on her accent and learn at the same time.  That said, it is a challenge but I am quite enjoying learning about how it all works.  The technical side of the whole process is taking over from the emotional aspect so keeping me in a fairly positive frame of mind which is good.  So basically it is not too overwhelming and coping pretty well at this stage.  xx 

[Zach]

 

[charee]

Thats great , i will try and ring you soon been thinking about you xxx

[Joe Paul]

Good to hear it Lucinda, I'm glad of your positive outlook. Keep on keeping on  

[Sluff]

Glad the first week wasn't bad.   

[G-Ma]

   You are doing great.

[jbeany]

 

[pelagia]

I am thinking of you everyday and it is great to hear that it is going reasonable well.  I am hoping that before long you'll have the hang of it, life will settle into a routine and you'll feel better than you have in a long time. 

[okarol]

  You are amazing!

[silverhead]

Often when I pull extra from Sharon and she starts to get the dreaded headache I give her a cup of coffee and it stops the pain in it's tracks, at least it works for her.........
Tom

[paul.karen]

Good to hear such positive news Lucinda. 

Hope the needle sticking will get easier for you in no time.
P&K

[Slywalker]

Congratulations on getting through the first week - And now that you started the fear of the unknown can go away - and as you mentioned concentrating on the technical aspect does shift the focus - and gives you some power too.

Sandyb

 

[Chris]

Glad your doing alright Lucinda. Hope you get to even feeling more better soon.

[del]

  Lucinda you are right in a few months things will just be second nature in a little while. When we were training I thought we would never be ready to do it alone.  2 1/2 years later it is just a routine to hook up to the machine and most times you do a lot of the stuff automatically because you have done it so often!!

[RichardMEL]

great news Lucinda!!!! 

[David13]

You seem to be adjusting very well, Lucinda.  I think you will be glad you are taking control of your treatments. 

Keep us updated! 

[glitter]

You just finished your first week and you tried to stick yourself? You must be very brave     I hope you do wonderfully   I'm glad you're  being pro-active, your mind is being kept nice and busy with facts -so you dont have to think about things you dont want to.

[Wattle]

   Yay Cindy!!

[monrein]

Oh Cindy, I can't begin to tell you how glad I am that you're getting your head around the whole business and I have zero doubt about how well you'll manage everything in the end.  The sticking is of course the trickiest bit, but perseverance is the key, IMO, and let's face it, you have that in spades.  I'll be thinking of you very often and in fact I'll be sitting on your shoulder, whispering encouragement with those needles.  I'll also be coaching your trainer on her pronunciation in (Canadian, I'm afraid) English so you don't have to concentrate so hard on that bit.   

[paddbear0000]

Go Lucinda!!    For my first few weeks, I was getting massive headaches too, but they have since disappeared now that I am 1 month in. My nurses told me it was probably because my blood-brain barrier was not used to the dialysis. As time went by, my body adjusted.   

[Lucinda]

Thanks guys.  I am managing quite well except for the headaches.  The centre told me today that my own kidney function seems to have kicked back in and they took bloods before and after dialysis today to see by how much.  They told me that in the whole time they have been there that only one person has started dialysis and then come off because their own function kicked back in.  The head of the clinic told me not to get my hopes up but there is a chance I may be able to come back off for a while because my creatinine and urea were so good on very short stints on the machine.  I'll believe that when it happens!!

[okarol]

I know a patient who only did D once a week - it was enough for a long time.

Hope those headaches go away! Jenna seemed to get them if too much fluid was removed (she was still urinating but they wanted to take off as much as a patient who wasn't!) It helped her to have fluids at the end of her run.

[pelagia]

I am just stopping in to check on you  I'm really happy to hear that it's going okay.  I know that you knew what to expect, having learned from your family and IHD, but still it's a big life transition for someone like you who lives life to its fullest.  Are you able to continue working during this phase?  Weren't you going to post a property site for us to visit? 

[RichardMEL]

Cindy knowing you and the 10 types of awesome that you are I could definitely see you as being one of those rare few who could get a respite. Don't know why but it just wouldn't surprise me at all... and hey that's fantastic IF ti happens... but for now the important thing is that you are going ok on D. Do they have *ANY* ideas about the headaches??? That isn't right. Wonder if you're overall a bit dry perhaps. Hey they done the special weight thingy where they test your actual water percentage in your body? The staff did that once for me a couple of years ago and figured I was a little bit dry so upped my D weight (I think) to actually get a bit more fluid into me.

[idahospud]

I'm so glad your first week went well . you give me Craig that I will be Abel to pout my self on when the time comes Carol