Dialysis Continues to go Well

I realized this weekend that I have not updated my blog in about one week, so I apologize for the delay in updates. I have been working pretty hard at my new job at MCI, so I did not have the time last week to send out a new post. I had to fill out lots of new hire paperwork and take several new hire web-based training courses, of which I still have one to complete.

I received my “treatment plan summary” for August and September on Thursday. These summaries are basically a list of everything that they want for me to gain from dialysis and how I am doing in those areas. There is a page from the doctor, a page from the dietitian, and a page from the social worker. Based on the doctor’s report, I did pretty well, especially since I come to every treatment and I stay for the entire four hours each time. Apparently, this is not the case for everyone that has dialysis, so some people tend to score lower. It doesn’t seem too difficult (for me, at this time) to make it to dialysis for all of my treatments, and I certainly haven’t ever run in to the need to leave early. The social worker’s report says that I am coping well with my dialysis and that I have a good support system at home. The dietitian said that my phosphorus was a little higher than it should be, but I already knew that from my lab reports.

I have an appointment with my vascular surgeon on October 27. He is supposed to do an ultrasound of my fistula and see if there are any physical problems that may be causing me to have a lower “access flow” rate. I am also supposed to set up an appointment with a gastroenterology specialist to find out what is causing me to feel nauseated almost every morning of the week. I am waiting to get an insurance card (or at least a temporary card) so that I will be able to give them all of my information over the phone when I set up the appointment.

Please pray for the following:

• Continue to pray that my transplant paperwork will be approved soon and that I will be able to move ahead in the process of getting tested and put on “the list.”


• Pray that my nausea and stomach aches will not be as severe and that God will use the gastroenterologist to help me understand what is wrong and possibly clear up the problem


• Pray for Jenny as she is my support system here and I need her to be strong.

God bless and thanks for coming by today. I’ll try to make more regular updates from work now that I have my schedule figured out a little better. Also, I downloaded the “Blogger for Word” plug-in and that should help with my publishing. I tried to publish from e-mail, and that only caused problems. This plug-in allows me to use MS Word as to compose my posts in (so I don’t end up with too many spelling mistakes).