At last - it worked!!

By the time Tuesday came around, I was dreading going back to MRI, but I pulled up outside at 7.30am & made my slow way to the department, all the time thinking of turning round & going home.

There weren't too many people waiting, maybe 4 of them before me, I recognised them all from the other days.  A lot of the nurses who came in & out of the waiting room I recognised too.  I was weighed (76kg - a bit down from last time) and taken through.  I was put in the bed by the window in Bay 1 - the same bed I was in the first morning and hoped it was an omen as it had worked that first day.

I was told an expert needler was coming to do my needles - they said that last Wednesday and look at the state of my arm!!  I can't remember the ladies name but she really took her time, feeling & listening with the doppler scanner thing and when she was confident she'd found the right spot, the first needle went in and it worked!  Another nurse appeared and she held the doppler on my vein as the other nurse inserted the second needle which also worked - BONGO!  Relief!!

I let go of Danielle's hand (Danielle was the nurse I'd had the most contact with at this unit and was very lovely) and relaxed into my 3 hours session.  Danielle said this time they were going to take some fluid off today.  I'd read about this on the Renal Support Group so vaguely knew what it was about.  They only take a bit off at first and increase it as you go along.

I was sleepy but can never sleep in hospital as there's too much going on.  The alarm on my machine went off at one point when one of my levels rose too high but the expert-needler-nurse just pulled one of the needles out a teeny weeny bit and it went back to normal.  Another nurse appeared to give me some drug called Aranesp, which is used to treat anaemia & increase red blood cells.

A senior nurse came to have a chat with me, I remember she was called Rachel but I can't remember her job title.  She just again reassured me there was no rush to home train and if it didnt work out it wasnt the end of the world.

3 hours after I started, I was taken off the machine.  As I'd had to start taking Warfarin the day before this session (because of the Atrial Fibrilation) it took a little while and a change of dressing to stop one of the needle sites bleeding.  The nurses put the dressings on so tightly, obviously to apply pressure to stop the bleeding, but the dressings hurt more than the needles!!

I was weighed on the way out today - 75.6kg, that's .4kg lost in fluid.  As a diet though I wouldn't recommend it!
I managed to walk extra specially slowly back to the car, trying not to let the walker roll over anything bumpy as the vibrations went up my arm and really hurt, which was ok in the smooth hospital corridors but as soon as I went over the pavement it was a bit tricky.

Later in the day after a doze, an awful lot of wind, and eating lots (dialysis seems to give me an appetite) I got very emotional and teary.  Not sure why.