Monday Brings Changes

Hey everybody. Thanks for coming by to read the blog today. As I am sure you have noticed, I have been playing with my settings. Most noticeably, I got a new site template today. I was tired of the brownish-colored page, so I went with a nice blue page. I also noticed that the sidebar was not displaying correctly in Firefox, but that has been corrected. And, finally, I got a new hit counter (since my old one was not displaying at all in Firefox).

My dialysis treatment on Saturday went really well. They were able to use the usual places to stick the needles, instead of having to move the output needle like they did on Thursday. I guess the vein has healed enough to use that area for the sticks. I still have a small amount of swelling on my arm where the vein was infiltrated on Thursday, but it has not started bruising yet, and I am thankful for that. I am maintaining my weight at 68 kilograms (almost 150 pounds). At each dialysis treatment, they try and remove any excess fluid weight that you have gained since your last treatment. I am averaging about 2 liters (2 kilograms) of fluid gain between treatments, which is great. The most fluid that can be removed in a four-hour treatment is 4 liters, so as long as I stay at 2 liters, there should not be any problems.

I have another treatment Tuesday evening. It is the beginning of the month, so they are going to draw blood to perform lab work on. Apparently, they will draw blood at the beginning of every month to check and see how you are doing. They will check my hemoglobin to see how anemic I am. They will also be checking my phosphorus levels, which will tell me how well I am doing on my new diet. I am hoping that my levels will be much lower than necessary and that I will not have to watch my diet quite as closely as I did all through August. But, if not, I will keep on limiting myself to three servings of dairy a week and filling up on the white bread.

Thanks for coming by to read. Here are some prayer requests that I have for this week:

• Pray that my lab work will go well on Tuesday and that they will not find any significant problems.
• Pray for me as I continue to work full-time and go to dialysis. I notice that I am sleeping very well all week long. I would like to continue at this energy level or better. I do not want to start feeling my anemia again. They treat it at dialysis, but it could still become a problem.
• Pray for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. I live in Dallas, and our church is now sixth on the list of area churches that have volunteered to take in refugees. This is a terrible tragedy that has hit these people. If you are able to get involved through your church or the Red Cross, please do.

Matthew 25:35-36
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'