Happy Birthday, Esther!

Look who will be 15 officially in a few hours. Everyone except for Abigail stopped by a little while ago. Her official birth tume is a little after 11pm...sounds like a bunch of them are planning to stay up late tonight to wish her a happy birthday when she is officially 15. She is planning on getting her driver's permit soon. Joy has been their reluctant driver...I was figuring that Esther would not be reluctant! And, it looks like I was right. Woody was a bit disappointed with the outcome of his appointment to get his PD catheter out. It can't be done in the office. He has to have it as an outpatient at the hospital. We got a day pinned down...next Thursday...but won't know time till we hear from the hospital the first of next week. Woody was looking forward to getting it out as it itches...due to the tape that holds the dressing on. Because we thought he was going to have this procedure done today, we withheld his heparin during dialysis. We gave him bolises of saline every 30 minutes to help keep his blood from clotting. But we discovered that it was starting to clot towards the end of his treatment so we had to force stop the machine. I guess it was a lesson learned! I think that the nurse is planning to come a couple of days next week since I am still a little confused about the take off process called "rinse back." It is making more sense, but still a little confusing. I did a blood draw today to check his hemoglobin. I still can't do all the blood work as I still don't have a centrifuge. Yesterday I ordered a rolling stool and also another light for the back of the family room near the dialysis machine...it is in a bit of a dark corner. This light is one that I have had my eye on to use for cross stitch and reading...so if it doesn't do its job in our "clinic" I have another use for it! Woody is settled onto his couch/bed for the evening. I think that our extra jaunt to the doctor today tired him out a bit...plus the disappointment of not getting the catheter out today. One of our friend stopped by today with some fresh peaches and a canteloupe. Woody said that canteloupe sounded good. At this point in his dialysis he is not being limited on foods. He was told that if something sounds good that he can have it. They would like for him to put on a little weight. And, at the moment he us not retaining fluids, which can be a problem for some dialysis patients. But so far that has never been a problem for him. We finished early today because we started early and then had to force stop 40 minutes early. I was reading one of the MANY books thst come with the various machines. And, I asked a question and the nurse said that we could do it and not bother the treatmrnt. We did it and never got it back to how it was and we realized that it probably was having a problem due to clotting...so we quickly got him off. Not too big of a problem...so I have stopped the machine early a couple of times now...one just to practicr and thrn today when there was a problem. Tomorrow the nurse comes at 8:30 and I am to get as far as I can before she gets here. I have to decide how long before she gets here that I will start grtting set up. I'm pretty tired tonight. I think that we will both sleep well tonight. Tomorrow is another day...with dialysis and whatever else comes our way! it was nice to be finished before 11am today. There's probably something that I could do tonight to make things little eSier in the morning...but I'm too tired...all can wait till tomorrow. We're watching Master Chef at the moment. Be safe! Be well! Be cautious.