Actually, it was more like 7 hours and 20 minutes. I had about 35 minutes left or so and I really had to go to the washroom so I just decided to retransfuse. I had already used the recirculator that I had out earlier in the night.
Last night, I was all set up and ready for dialysis. I had been on for about 20 minutes when I kept getting arterial pressure alarms. Great…JUST GREAT. This was the same needle/buttonhole that was giving me problems a few days ago. I knew I couldn’t be lucky enough to have a hitch-free first dialysis…
Luckily, as instructed by Rose, I had my recirculator and my saline syringes set and ready for action!
Tada! My Recirculator!
I recirculated my lines and removed the offending needle. It was so close to the tape of the venous needle that I couldn’t hold my gauze against it properly at first so I had some dripping.
After that, I recannulated. I reattached my lines and away I went. Much to my surprise, the rest of the night was pretty uneventful. No alarms, no beeping, no changing of any bicart or acid….nadda.
Below are some of the pictures from my first day. I was happy to receive a phone call froo Rose this morning. She called me (on her day off, might I add) to check up on me. How lovely! 🙂
Dang you, arterial! (arterial – the needle on the right)
This is my machine
My Screen. It’s “self testing” right now 😛
Hopefully tonight goes even smoother…and hopefully I remember to give myself my aranesp! I forgot yesterday. And friday night is my day off! 🙂
When I woke up, as I mentioned, I had to go to the washroom so I came off early. I wasn’t feeling great. My stomach hurt a little bit, but not nearly the same as during conventional in-centre dialysis, so I’m happy about that. I’ll remain confident that it’ll slowly go away as my body gets used to regular dialysis!
Stay tuned