One more week!

   The last week of home dialysis training is here at last! Brogan and I have been traveling every other day for 8 weeks to learn how to dialysis at home. We are down to our last week of travel, and then we will start doing the treatments at home.
I didn't think we would ever finish, but one week from tomorrow we start doing treatments at home. It will certainly give new meaning to  the term "needle work".

Someone looking a little TOO eager to stick me

   
     We have made great progress in learning all the ins and outs of doing home dialysis, and have had a few laughs doing it. The nurse training us, Cindy, has enjoyed teaching us I think. We have been an "unusual" pair, that is for sure. I do believe she is planning on coming to visit us with a bottle of champagne in hand..and treats for the horses and pot bellied pigs.

Tools of the trade

The correct terminology is BIG HONKING NEEDLE

     We have mastered the machinery, the dialysis machine as well as the water machine, which also will be adorning my living room. The water machine purifies the water, which is mixed with an "acid" and "bicarbonate" which then runs through the artificial kidney, and that mixture is what "cleans" my blood before it is sent back into my veins.

Feeling the fistula to find a "good spot"

     Once I am "cannulated", or in lay mans terms..stuck with two needles, I am then hooked up to the machine. My  treatment takes 4 hours, and then I am done for another day.

To quote my youngest.."BIG OW!"

Note close proximity of boob to lines..Boob is chief antagonist in setting off alarms..If you are doing dialysis, and are a female, be advised to keep boob OFF THE LINES..Alarms WILL SOUND if boob gets caught in tubing.

     

Hooked to machine..let the treatment begin! (It is, indeed the longest 4 hours of my day.)

        Tune in next week for photos from our first home session. I expect dogs and cats, and maybe a pot bellied pig to be in the fray. They can not send home TOO much disinfectant!  See ya in a week!