The specialist from the Access Center was there and she was able to get the needles in on the first try for each, but the venous line was still uncomfortable. It was pulling and pushing fine though, so they left it in and away we went.
When I weighed in, according to the scale, even though I hadn't been run for 5 days, I had only gained 2 pounds. I questioned this, but they waved it off saying that since I still make urine, that would account for it. My blood pressure was fine but my heart rate was up again. Gee, isn't stress fun?
Anyway, the needles went in and dialysis started with no problems. The venous line was still a little uncomfortable, but it was probably due to the bruising and trauma left over from Tuesday's epic failure.
I was onboard for about 2 hours when I again began to feel short of breath and the panic started to set in. I got the attention of one of the nurses and sure enough, my blood pressure was really low. On went the oxygen and the nurse fiddled with the machine for a minute. The next time they took my BP, it was back up to where it should have been and I could breathe easier. I kept the oxygen on the rest of my run though, just in case.
My alarms were going off every few minutes, but the nurses kept telling me it was just my arterial flow being finicky. I had a feeling that they were just glossing over a bigger problem, but kept my mouth shut. Sure enough though, with just over 30 minutes to go, they finally told me that I had clotted off the machine again. I told them to just pull me off and call it a day rather than put a whole new set up on the machine.
When I weighed afterwards, I weighed exactly the same as when I had arrived. That's when they told me that the scale was obviously wrong because not only had they pulled more than 3 pounds of fluid off of me, but other folks who had dialized that day had actually left weighing MORE than when they arrived. lol Yeah, so much for an accurate weight that day.
I need to invest in a scale here at the house so I can better keep track of my fluid gain from day to day. I just hate the idea of weighing myself every day. bleh.
Tomorrow is Saturday and I don't know if the person from Access is going to come in to stick me or not. If not, then I don't forsee having a successful run.
I'll try to remember to post when I get home. Depending upon how things go, it may or may not happen.
Oh, and for those of you that read the comments on the previous entry, here is more information than you really want on Hemodialysis Catheters.
Like I said, I REALLY don't want to have to go this route... :(
No comments:
Post a Comment