With the set back of needing another catheter surgery, and needing an electrician to put in a ground for the cycler machine for dialysis. I thought for sure we would be all set. Finally the first night to try out dialysis. Two months of training.
The two nurses came to my house about 6PM to get me set up. They were confident that I had a handle on everything. We got the fluids on the cycler, the cassette in the cycler, the fluids connected to the cassette, all that was left was for me to connect to my catheter. I kept washing my hands between steps as I was trained and connected to the machine. Then the moment to press "Go" and start the dialysis process.
The first thing the cycler will do is drain. It drains any fluids that is within side my peritoneal cavity. All of a sudden a sharp pain in my groin area happened. I flinched. I haven't felt any pain with this much intensity since the surgeon took my first catheter to the surface and flushed it out. As I looked down at my transfer set, I saw blood. Crap! Not the first time! Inside me said, you better turn the machine off, but instead, i called the on-call nurse. I told her what happened and while we were talking the cycler was putting 1,000ml in my peritoneal cavity. The nurse said to stop the machine. I did. Fortunately i didn't have to worry about draining the fluids that went in because I still pee. My body would pee this all out, and last night, yep, about 1,000ml peed out of my body! If I had zero kidney function and did not pee, I would have had to drain myself manually.
Because I was a little frazzled with the blood, I had a hard time disconnecting. As I disconnected, my cap fell on the floor. I can't use it because it is contaminated. Fortunately my nurse trained me well to have a second cap on the table, but I had my catheter open. i was nervous having it exposed to the air that long in one hand, trying to open the sterile package of the cap in the other. Oh gosh, please don't contaminate anything, especially my transfer set! got the mini-cup (cap) package open and put it on my open transfer set that is connected to my body. Whew. Ok. got that done. Now lie on my bed for a few minutes to get collected.I cried, mostly from the stress.
So, why was there blood? Three reasons for blood. 1. Menstruation. which I wasn't. 2. picking up heavy objects or rigorously cleaning house (which I was), and 3. Constipation. The nurse considers not going number 2 for one day is constipation. That area down there needs to be cleared out. Possibly I had a mixture of the latter two. I don't know. I already take stool softeners to keep this regular, but tonight I took some Miralax to make sure. Being on dialysis, this is all really touchy!!!! fortunately, the Miralax worked today, so I'm back to business.
My nurse wasn't in today, she is on her day off, but one of her co-nurses said I should try again tonight. Tomorrow is a holiday and I don't have any obligations tomorrow morning so no rush to be anywhere. I can take my time to disconnect from the machine. I think I like this option better.
We will try again tonight.
I was upset last night so when I realized I wasn't "on the machine" or "connected" I let Divine and Duffy come in my bedroom. Oh having their comfort was just wonderful. But if I get connected tonight, They will be locked out of my bedroom. My bedroom is closed now to keep the fur and dander down.
Another try, a few steps further, we will do this again tonight. Let's hope no blood this time.
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