It may be Valentine's Day on the calendar, but Nathan, Kathy, Graham, Abigail, Joy, Esther, Elijah, Isaac, Joseph and Woody and I plan to celebrate Christmas tomorrow at long last! Today has been an interesting day...rather discouraging when it comes to dialysis. Once again, I got everything set up and got him cannulated (2 needle sticks) and got the machine going, but immediately got a warning that the arterial pressure was running too high...which may mean that the needle is up against the wall. I did check as Davida showed me how to yesterday, and, it seemed to push and pull ok, but when I started the pump going again, I got the same warning. Which meant that the needle needed repositioning and Davida couldn't come and she was afraid that it would take me too long to reposition the needle, as the pump can't be off very lon. So she told me to do a rinse back and we would decide what to do when we talked later. The next problem we had was getting the needle stick place to stop bleeding for the venous needle. But Davida reminded me that I had given him heparin just minutes before as we do every day before we start. Finally we were successful and got it taped tightly and we took the artereal needle out with no problem...just the normal 5 minutes holding time. I talked to Davida later and she plans to come early in the morning so he can have his treatment finished before he has to go to TN Oncology to see the Oncologist and get Keytruda. After he comes home from Keytruda, we plan to have our belated Christmas celebration. Davida is discussing things with Dr. O, but we may be changing course for at least a while. She feels like I am struggling because there is so much going on...home health:nurse, PT, OT; Wound care; dialysis nurse, appointments: this week: Oncology/Keytruda, Dr. O, and personal care physician. All the comings and goings can get one's head spinning...especialy coordinating a time when home health can come to the house when Woody isn't on dialysis. Our dialysis nurse is going to recommend to Dr. O that we take a break till some of these appointments go away and see if I can get focused on doing dialysis at home. If he agrees, then she will look into getting him into in-center dialysis for a while. I thought that I would feel releaved at this suggestion...but I really don't. We'll see how things play out. To be continued. Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!
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