Monday, October 31, 2005

More Information

I have been e-mailing with one of my friends (a nurse) who knows quite a bit about kidney disease and dialysis patients. I asked her about the fistula gram procedure that I am scheduled to have on Wednesday morning. She said it is likely that the radiologist will be looking for problems with my fistula and that if anything is found, the surgeon can come right in and fix it (if it is a surgical problem).

I had quite an adventure trying to reschedule last Saturday’s dialysis treatment. Our ABF class at church was having a party Saturday night that we wanted to attend. So, I asked on Tuesday if I could move my appointment up to the morning shift (which is the one that is typically open). To my surprise, they said that the morning shift was full and that they wouldn’t be able to fit me in until the 11:00 shift. That’s a lot better than getting there at 6:00 in the morning, so I did not complain (the party wasn’t until 7:00 Saturday evening, anyway). On Thursday, they told me that there wasn’t a space available to move me on Saturday. I had them check, and they said that they had misread. It seems that my open spot was only available because someone from that shift was in the hospital. I got a call at 6:30 am Friday from the dialysis clinic. They said that they hospital guy had called in and that he was planning to be back on Saturday, so our plans for attending the party were shot. The clinic did not call back until 10:50 am on Saturday to let me know that they had an empty seat and they could take me! I was very excited and then headed over to the clinic to receive my treatment.

The lesson that we learned from this weekend is that we will always sign up with the word MAYBE written beside our name for any event that will be taking place on a Saturday evening. I would have to have someone depend on me being somewhere if I cannot guarantee that I will be going.

Dialysis is still going well. I was underweight on Saturday when I went in. My dry weight is supposed to be 68 kilograms. I weighed in at 67.5 kg when I went in (which was a little low). This led to questions about how much I was eating or whether or not I was sick. I had been eating fine, and was not feeling sick the last couple of days. So, they took off 1 kg at that treatment. Luckily, Jenny brought me lunch, so when I left, I weighed 67.2 kg (which wasn’t too awfully low). We went out to eat for lunch on Sunday, so I am hoping that my weight will be back up above 68 kg when I go in on Tuesday.

Prayer requests for this week:
  • Pray that the fistula gram will go well on Wednesday and that any problems that might be going on will be fixed quickly and easily

  • Pray that dialysis will continue to go well and that my transplant paperwork will be processed quickly and efficiently.

Thanks for coming by!

2 comments:

Jonathan Finger said...

Hello Nathan,
I just sent you an email introducing myself, but also wanted to leave you a comment here. I don't know your situation, but your fistula-gram should go pretty well. Usually they send you in for one when they suspect a problem with flow. Usually though, even if something is found it can be dealt with quickly and painlessly right there (as you were told).
I will pray for your continued health on dialysis.
Hang in there.

Unknown said...

Yeah, it turns out that the fistulagram procedure was quick and easy (though not painless). The radiologist found that my upper arm has a blocked vein, but he did not do anything to it. I guess the next step will be for the vascular surgeon. Well, when I know more, I will post more on the blog.