Dialysis was progressing well needle wise. I had a few weeks of no problems what-so-ever. Then it started getting harder to get the venous needle in (thats the top needle). I've not had any more blows and severe bruising but I have got some bruising. One of the problems is that the needle site that was working is verrrrry close to a nerve and pushing the needle in sometimes hits the nerve and the pain is..... indescribable, it proper fucking hurts :( So the nurses have been trying new sites, a little lower down my arm in the 'juicy' bit as Diane called it when she got the arterial needle in no problem one day. Because new sites have been tried I have new bruises. WHY I ever worried about my fistula ruining my arm I will never know.... look at the state of it and this seems to be the norm!!
Anyway, I have been trying to 'man-up' a bit with regard to needles and having them stuck in me on a 3 times a week basis. I no longer have a lovely nurse hold my hand. First large hurdle jumped.
Next was to look at my arm while the needles were in, which I found tricky as the puckering of skin with the needle going through it makes me squeam!
I decided to take a photo of my arm (without looking!) and I have been glancing at it regularly til I became de-sensitised. Now I can look at my arm with the needles in with no problems. Second MASSIVE hurdle jumped.
Its just as well I jumped that one as one of the failed needle sites started bleeding half way through my session the other day. When I looked down there was blood pooling between the 2 needles on my skin and the nurse gave me gauze to 'soak it all up' while she donned plastic apron & gloves to sort it out! Luckily I'm not bothered by the site of blood!
I have begun my training good and proper. I watch the nurses all the time, watching what they do and how they go about things.
Now when I get to the unit I first wash my hands, then turn the machine on and once it is ready check when it was last cleaned then connect the BiBag and Concentrate then put it in to Test mode.
While its running it's test I do my obs - weight, 2 readings of blood pressure - sitting & standing, temperature & pulse & record all these in my file. Then I line the machine myself which I really enjoy doing. Everything has to be date checked, everything is sterile and must be kept so so there is lots of hand washing & using alco-gel. It took me a few attempts to get the lining right but the machine shows you a diagram so you can see where they go and it soon alarms if something is wrong. I have to put all the info into the machine that it needs to give me the correct treatment, doses of stuff and such, size of kidney (the artificial kidney which attachs to the machine).
I've spent the last week watching the next stage which is setting up the table for going on the machine. Cleaning the table with a sterile wipe, opening the dressing pack without touching anything with hands, opening syringes & putting needles on them as caps, priming the dialysis needes. Its all very organised and there is a definate routine to it. Next week I'll start doing that myself.
When I started dialysis I didn't really pay much attention to Saturdays being one of my days. But then I realised..... dun dun DUUUUNNNN - Strictly Come Dancing, my most favourite TV programme is on on a Saturday night! And to make it worse, I am usually just coming off the machine when its on which is an involved process which means I can't watch the TV and then I drive home. By the time I get home, its finished. Two weeks ago we spent an entire Sunday shopping for a Freeview box which records so I don't have to miss it. I do miss watching it 'live' though, but hey ho, you can't have everything.
Watching Strictly It Takes Two at the unit one evening one week
The dialysis machine
The view from the window when I'm in the end bed, although I seem to alternate between 3 beds, I don't have my own as some patients have.
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