It's been a little while since I posted last. A lot has happened!
I went through home hemodialysis training to do treatments in my house. Training went great. It lasted four weeks. My mom trained with me the last two and a half weeks so she can assist with putting me on the machine and taking me off. I need someone to do that part because with a central line in my neck, I'm very susceptible to infections. If I do it myself, I could breath directly on the port and cause problems. We all wear masks whenever dealing with that.
I finished training on Friday 8/12 and had the weekend off. Then Monday, my nurses came to my house for my first treatment at home. Things went perfectly and they left. We are completely on our own now!
Tuesday 8/16, I had surgery to get the fistula in my left wrist. The surgeon attached a vein to an artery. The vein will grow and in about 2-3 months, I'll be using that port for dialysis instead of the central line. The central line will come out (thank you God), but then I'll go back for training to learn how to stick myself with two needles in the fistula. I'm actually getting very anxious about this part. I joined a few online support groups recently and hopefully I can connect with some people that can make me feel more comfortable about doing it. I can have someone else do it, but 'they' recommend doing it myself because the needles will need to go in the exact same way every time and it's easier if the patient does it. I'll be doing a technique called a button hole. I'll go in the same hole with a sharp needle for a certain amount of time and build up scar tissue. It's supposed to not hurt as much after the tissue builds up and then once the button hole is there, I'll switch to a more dull needle.
Things have been going very smoothly since I've been home, except for one day this week. The tubes attached to the central line have a little connector on them that are supposed to keep the lines from coming off accidentally. I was almost finished with dialysis when me, my mom, and Victor were getting everything ready to come off of the machine. I started to undo the connector and the tube broke!! Blood was going everywhere. All over me, my chair, the floor. We scrambled for just a few seconds to sort of gather our thoughts. I clamped the tube that was connected to the central line so no more blood would come out of me. My mom and Victor worked together to get the other blood cleaned up and I walked them through what to do. I lost the blood that was in the tubes and of course what was all over the place, but we handled it and were all ok! We had great nurses/trainers that taught us what to do in an emergency.
So now, my family and I are adjusting to dialysis at home. Between set up, treatment, and clean up, it takes about 4 hours and I do this 4 times a week. The treatment itself is 3 hours. Because I get to do this at home, I can rearrange my schedule some, and I don't have any driving time added. I'm scheduled for treatments on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, but if something comes up one of those days, I can always do it on an off day to make up as long as I do 4 days a week. It's really very convenient and I'm so glad that it is an option for me. It's not an option for every patient.
So keep the prayers coming! Now just pray specifically that finances don't become an issue. I'm having some insurance issues and changes and I'm not sure how everything is going to play out. I've only been on dialysis/kidney failure since May, and you would not believe the cost of everything so far. There will be help from the American Kidney Fund and with the social worker at my clinic to get everything I need, but it's not enough. I need a secondary insurance to cover what the primary doesn't and I need to get that ASAP.
So....prayers are needed and welcome please!!
