Technology was both bad and good today...I guess! Things changed a little yesterday for Woody's dialysis supplies. The company has switched us from 5 liter bags of solution to 6 liter. Along with changing the weight of the bags, they also changed the packaging that they are in...from the boxes they are now shipped in and the protective wrapping they are in and the design of the bag. I'm sure that I will get used to all the changes, but at the present I am not all that happy with them. It's a struggle to get the boxes open and then just adding 1 liter of liquid weight to each bag makes that much more of a struggle for me to get them moved from the two times that I have to carry them while they are full. I did remember to change the number of liters on the machine when I set up yesterday and was pleased to see that the machine "remembered" today the new amount so I didn't have to change the amount today. I got the first step completed today and headed into the kitchen to get us something for lunch while the soution bag heated up. I really didn't read the last screen that came up on the machine. It takes 20-30 minutes for the solution to warm up. The top of the machine is a heater and one of the bags lays on the top and the solution gets warmed that way and somehow it is set up to pull solution from the othe bag and heat it also. While I was getting out lunch...oh, and finishing up making a pot of potato soup, the phone rang and it was my doctor. She was calling in response to my email that I sent her on Friday. She did want to see the pictures of my arm and told me to send them to her phone rather than her email as they don't view email as secure. Well, I told her that I wasn't sure if I could send to her phone from my iPad...and, I googled and and never found a way. I told her that it might come from Kathy or Nathan's phone if I couldn't figure it out. By the time that I figured out that I couldn't send to her phone from my iPad, it was time to finish getting Woody's dialysis set up and get him connected and the machine running. I headed in and went through all the steps for this particular part of getting the dialysis going...or so I thought. I hit the button to get the dialysis started and it started the set-up process all over again! I couldn't get it to respond to any of the buttons to make it stop. I got my cell phone (flip-phone style) and called our nurse at Fresenius. He said that he had never heard of it doing that before and said the only way to stop it was to flip the off switch, disconnecting Woody, and begin all over again. That meant throwing the cassette and full solution bags away and getting new ones. Oh, boy...got to open two boxes of solution and lug two bags of solution back into the family room...and begin all over again. To stop a long story from getting longer...the 2nd time the correct screen was the start treatment screen and he was underway with today's dialysis treatment...the treatment that I had planned to get started at noon didn't get started till 1:45! But it got started and is still going...so all is well to this point in his treatment anyway. We will have a later night tonight since it got started almost two hours late. Once I got the dialysis started, I went back to finish my lunch and text Kathy to see if I could email the photos of my arm to her and then she send them to our doctor's phone. She said that she could if I gave her the phone number which I did. I sent them to Kathy. She sent them on to our doctor. And, not too long after that the doctor called me back. She said that she didn't think that the reaction was something that should keep me from taking the 2nd Covid vaccine...which is what I thought she would say. She did say to premedicate before taking the shot...she said to take my daily allergy medication and benadryl prior to getting the shot. So I will do that and we will see what happens with the 2nd vaccine. I still have a week and a half before we get them. She did say to expect the reaction to be worse with the 2nd. I can hardly wait!?! So technology has treated us in both a good way and a bad way...bad = made the setting up of Woody's treatment a pain and good way = I was able to communicate with my doctor via phone and photos without having to make a trip to her office. All the above wore me out and I took a nap after I got everything figured out and running smoothly! Woody just sits and endures whatever comes along...he doesn't have much choice when he is hooked up to dialysis for 9-10 hours a day! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious! I hope that technology is treating you mostly well these days!
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