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.'

It Takes Three

I had a slightly troubled dialysis treatment last night. My regular technician was not there, so I had someone new. Either my arm is still not quite used to 16-guage needles, or the technician was not familiar with my arm, but I did not get a good stick. The tech was able to put in the return needle (arterial side), but she infiltrated the output side of the vein. It swelled up last night, and they ended up having to use a different spot on my arm. This was a new area, and they had to use the smallest needle on it. The treatment worked fairly well, but they had some problems with the pressure (I think due to having infiltrated the vein). This morning, I have a nice bruise and some swelling where they had the bad stick. It should go down in a few days.

Other than having a new bruise, things are going well. My first week back to work has gone nicely. My job is in a 24x7 internet data center. Since they have to have someone here at all times, they have the week divided in half. One set of people works the first half of the week, and the second set of people works the second half. Before my surgery, I was on one of these teams. Now, with my dialysis, I am no longer able to work 12-hour shifts. So, they are letting me work from Monday – Friday from 7 am – 4 pm (which is good since dialysis starts at 4:30 pm). I had thought that this week was going to make me very tired, but it really hasn’t. I’ve enjoyed getting back to work (which is better than sitting around at home all day).

Please continue to pray that dialysis will go well as they are using these larger needles. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

New, Larger Needles

For my dialysis on Tuesday, the technician decided to move me up to using 16-gauge needles. Previously, I had been using 17-guage needles, which are the smallest needles that are used for dialysis. Since my fistula has been developing and working properly on the 17G needles, it is time for me to get moved up. Most of the dialysis patients at this clinic are using 15-guage needles. It seems that it was unusual for me to get started with 17-guage needles, as most of the patients were using the larger sizes.

Work continues to go well. I am writing this at work today on my fourth day this week. I am still basically doing “light duty” right now, but I am working a 40-hour week. Luckily, there isn’t too much heavy work that needs to be done with my job, and if there is, I can get someone to help me.

We’ve been quite busy at work this week helping out one of our customers. They are based in Covington, LA, and are using our data center as a disaster recovery site. They normally have a cage full of equipment here in Dallas, but during this disaster, they have added two new cabinets worth of equipment. They are doing a lot of work to keep their company up and running during this disaster.

I have another dialysis scheduled for tonight. I think they are going to start increasing my blood-flow rate tonight.