Home for the Weekend

Today is Friday, July 07, 2006. Let me tell you about my dialysis treatment last night. I went in to dialysis, hoping for a normal treatment. I weighed in, and got into my seat. The needles were placed in the normal up/down fashion (as they should be) and I was set to go. The machine ran at 270 ml / min (remember that 300 is good for this size of needle). My treatment went great, and when it was time to go, I only weighed 70.0 kg. My dry weight is supposed to be 70.5 kg at this time. Now, a half of a kilogram may not sound like anything to you (in fact, it probably doesn’t sound like anything, it’s a little over a pound), but in terms of your body’s fluid level, it is kind of a lot. Basically, they dehydrated me.

I went home, and was okay for about 30 minutes. But, about 9:45, I began to feel nauseated. I had uncontrolled vomiting for the next two hours, so we decided to go to the emergency room. Sadly, uncontrolled vomiting is not that bad of an ailment, so we sat in the waiting room for an hour. I think by that time I had gotten rid of EVERYTHING from my stomach, so I did not throw up any more. When we went back, the doctor gave me some Zofran for my nausea, and then hooked me up to a bag of saline to get me re-hydrated. I slept for about an hour, and then they gave me one more shot of Zofran and sent me home. I did not go in to work this morning, because I needed the sleep.

Today, Jenny and I are traveling to Fort Smith for my 10-year high school reunion. On the way, we are going to stop in Poteau, OK, for my dialysis treatment tonight. I normally dialyze on Saturday nights, but I could not find a clinic in the area that would treat me Saturday night. So, I am going to experience “traveling dialysis.” I don’t know if this is a good thing, or a bad thing, but I am going to try it out.

Please pray for me that this treatment will go well. Pray that we have safe travel to and from my reunion. And, pray that I get to feel better as the weekend goes on so that I can enjoy seeing my old classmates.

Thanks for coming by!