One of the things that I keep coming back to, especially during the holidays, is the importance of gratitude. Over the last few days, I've been aware of how I've been feeling lately, and I realized that it has been a very long time since I have felt this good.
I've noticed that I'm not as cold as I had been. It seemed like it wouldn't have to be very cold inside or out to get me to put on a long sleeved shirt. While at work the other day, I actually rolled up my sleeves, which I haven't done in a couple of years.
I also noticed that I'm not falling asleep at night after we eat dinner. This is something that has been a problem for me for several years. Sometimes, it's simply a matter of not getting enough quality sleep, but even when that wasn't an issue, I nod off without any warning. Lately, however, I'm staying up without falling asleep after dinner. It feels good to be more productive during the evening, and even if I don't actually do anything, it's nice to be there for Jeannie and not dozing off all night.
Both of these changes coincide with a recent up tick in my hemoglobin. Since dialysis began, my hemoglobin has been somewhere between 10-11. Good enough for dialysis, but I'm still kind of sluggish at that level. Since the middle of November or so, my hemoglobin has been hovering around 13.5, which is dynamite!
There's been only one downside to this, and I'm not sure yet that I can connect the two things, but I"m getting black and blue marks easier. We noticed the other day that I had black and blue marks in places that don't typically bruise. For example, I've got two bruise marks on my stomach. My stomach? It's the craziest thing. They just appear out of nowhere.
I mentioned this to a nurse at the dialysis clinic the other day, and she told me that it's probably time to drop the dosage of heparin I get during each session. Like I said, I don't know what, if any, relationship there is between the heparin, the increased hemoglobin, and the black and blue marks, but something's going on. And, it's nice to know that for now, the things that are going on are good things!
So, Merry Christmas to everyone out there in the blogosphere. Be sure to take some time to count your blessings today and everyday,
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Friday, December 23, 2011
Tis the Season
Sitting in the dialysis chair with antlers resting on my ball cap seems like the perfect time to do a little writing. The blood is moving effortlessly out of my arm, into the machine that filters it and returns it back to me. My fistula is working like a champ.
The catheter that had to go in after my fistula was worked on is gone. In other words, things are starting to get back to normal. Well, the new normal anyway.
This week the new normal included a maintenance treatment of Rituxan, so my CLL got a little attention. I also got to spend some quality time with my dentist. Add in my dialysis visits, and health care was almost a full time job this week.
All this health care is doing great things for me. Seriously, I don't think I've felt this good in a long time. All my blood work this month has been great. It's a great time to get started back to getting my body in shape. There's a transplant in my future, and I want to make sure I'm in shape to accept my new organ.
No, there's no donor in sight yet, but I feel like it's just a matter of time. So for now, it's time to enjoy the Christmas season, the beautiful weather that makes it possible for us to drive back and spend the holiday with Jeannie's family, and just let things unfold the way they are supposed to unfold. I'm open to all the possibilities.
All that's left to say is Merry Christmas to all!
The catheter that had to go in after my fistula was worked on is gone. In other words, things are starting to get back to normal. Well, the new normal anyway.
This week the new normal included a maintenance treatment of Rituxan, so my CLL got a little attention. I also got to spend some quality time with my dentist. Add in my dialysis visits, and health care was almost a full time job this week.
All this health care is doing great things for me. Seriously, I don't think I've felt this good in a long time. All my blood work this month has been great. It's a great time to get started back to getting my body in shape. There's a transplant in my future, and I want to make sure I'm in shape to accept my new organ.
No, there's no donor in sight yet, but I feel like it's just a matter of time. So for now, it's time to enjoy the Christmas season, the beautiful weather that makes it possible for us to drive back and spend the holiday with Jeannie's family, and just let things unfold the way they are supposed to unfold. I'm open to all the possibilities.
All that's left to say is Merry Christmas to all!
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Giving Thanks
It's been awhile since I've posted anything here. The last 60 days have been a tug of war between the positive attitude I've tried to maintain and the frustrating reality of dealing with the setbacks of using a fistula and just going through the whole dialysis process.
The frustrating part of all of this reared its head back in October when my fistula stopped working. I noticed that the fistula wasn't buzzing after a Saturday dialysis session. I thought it might have been caused by the tightly wrapped gauze covering the access spots on my arm. After I removed the tape and the gauze, I waited for the fistula to spring back to life. It didn't.
It felt a little more alive on Monday, so I held out hope that by Tuesday it would be fine. It wasn't. When I asked the nurses to listen to the fistula, there was nothing there. No swish. Since my catheter had already been removed, all they could do was draw some blood and check my potassium, and then send me home.
Hats off to Luanne, my nurse that day. She contacted Dr. Frock and explained what happened, and then she went to work to get me scheduled to get my fistula repaired. I went to work as if it was a non-dialysis day, not knowing if I would be working a full day or not.
Luanne called me later in the morning to let me know my potassium was normal. That meant I could go another day without dialysis. Dr. Feldhaus was out, so he wasn't available to see me to do anything with the fistula. The next call went to Dr. Gutta, the surgeon who put in my catheter last year.
He was available and could work on my fistula at 4pm that afternoon. So, Jeannie and I did what we seem to be getting better and better at. We dropped what we were doing, put in for time off of work, and headed to Bergan for another procedure.
When we got to the hospital around 2pm, I joked with the registration person that I'm here so often that they should give me a time card! When the nurse came out to get me, it was Molly, a nurse I've had before on my other visits, so this time around it was like old home week.
Dr. Gutta came in a little bit before 4 to explain what he would do, and to prepare me for the possibility that he may have to place another catheter. I was hoping to avoid that, but I was beginning to resign myself to the fact that I was leaving there with another catheter.
Dr. Gutta did a fine job opening up the upper part of my fistula which had narrowed. The graft section that Dr. Feldhaus placed was pretty well chewed up and Gutta was able to repair that too. He had to place a catheter again, since my fistula would need a couple weeks to heal.
The fistula healed just fine, and for a couple of weeks I got to use both hands while working at dialysis! But now I'm back to being a one-armed worker during dialysis. I don't really mind. The fistula is working great, and now thanks to a little map that Gutta drew on my arm, the dialysis staff has a better idea of where to stick me. The area around the graft is still swollen, so all the poking has been done in my upper arm, but I'm back to using the medium needles like I was last month, so I should be able to make an appointment to get the catheter removed in a couple of weeks.
Here's the deal about getting that catheter removed. Dr. Gutta says all I have to do is make an appointment to come into his office and he just yanks it out. I'm sure it's a little bit smoother of a process than just yanking it out, but it's not going to be a surgical procedure. That sounds like a recipe for pain. I heard a story of someone who asked to keep their catheter as a souvenir. I hadn't thought about that before, but it sounds like a good idea now. Hopefully, he will let me keep this one.
So now, on Thanksgiving weekend, with a possible kidney donor from work, I'm trying to be positive and look forward to getting a new kidney in January. At the same time I must admit I'm feeling pretty resigned to being a dialysis patient for awhile. That isn't a particularly pleasing thought, especially after this latest drama.
After being in dialysis for a little over a year, I can say that it is a pain. Forget the fact that I can't go more than three days without dialysis, which is limiting enough, but there's the pain and frustration of going through these surgeries to repair the fistula and the recovery time associated with each occurrence.
It seems like just when I get my head around the routine, and I start to return to a normal routine of exercise and good eating, something happens to throw me off the track. This is the part of the grind that is wearing me down. I want the transplant. I need a donor. I don't know how much more plainly I can put it.
I know there's a feeling among my family that Jeannie should get tested, so we can see if she's a donor. My position on this all along has been that going this way would prevent us from being there for each other during our procedures. Since the procedures to remove and transplant the kidney would happen at the same time, we would not be there to help the other get through each surgery.
Then, there's taking care of us when we get home. We would need someone with us to help us with meals, cleaning, and the other day to day things we take for granted. We would probably need help for about a month or so. To their credit, my nieces have all offered to help us get back on our feet during the recovery time.
Finally, even if we had enough help to get the care we needed when we got home. And, we could go into this knowing that we would see each other in our room, after the transplant. Even with all of that covered, there's still an 80% likelihood that she is not going to be a match.
So, there's still a lot to get worked out. The donor question doesn't come up during family visits any longer. I don't ask, and I don't get asked. It feels like I'm at a dead end.
Yet, despite that, there's plenty to be thankful for. Even though I'm not crazy about dialysis, it's keeping me alive and able to do most of the things I want to do. My leukemia is in remission and by next September, I will be finished with the maintenance treatments.
I'm doing work I enjoy, despite working for a boss I don't enjoy. All in all, I continue to be a work in progress. Maybe in a way, we all are a work in progress. If we weren't working on getting better or just evolving, we wouldn't be living.
Happy Thanksgiving!
The frustrating part of all of this reared its head back in October when my fistula stopped working. I noticed that the fistula wasn't buzzing after a Saturday dialysis session. I thought it might have been caused by the tightly wrapped gauze covering the access spots on my arm. After I removed the tape and the gauze, I waited for the fistula to spring back to life. It didn't.
It felt a little more alive on Monday, so I held out hope that by Tuesday it would be fine. It wasn't. When I asked the nurses to listen to the fistula, there was nothing there. No swish. Since my catheter had already been removed, all they could do was draw some blood and check my potassium, and then send me home.
Hats off to Luanne, my nurse that day. She contacted Dr. Frock and explained what happened, and then she went to work to get me scheduled to get my fistula repaired. I went to work as if it was a non-dialysis day, not knowing if I would be working a full day or not.
Luanne called me later in the morning to let me know my potassium was normal. That meant I could go another day without dialysis. Dr. Feldhaus was out, so he wasn't available to see me to do anything with the fistula. The next call went to Dr. Gutta, the surgeon who put in my catheter last year.
He was available and could work on my fistula at 4pm that afternoon. So, Jeannie and I did what we seem to be getting better and better at. We dropped what we were doing, put in for time off of work, and headed to Bergan for another procedure.
When we got to the hospital around 2pm, I joked with the registration person that I'm here so often that they should give me a time card! When the nurse came out to get me, it was Molly, a nurse I've had before on my other visits, so this time around it was like old home week.
Dr. Gutta came in a little bit before 4 to explain what he would do, and to prepare me for the possibility that he may have to place another catheter. I was hoping to avoid that, but I was beginning to resign myself to the fact that I was leaving there with another catheter.
Dr. Gutta did a fine job opening up the upper part of my fistula which had narrowed. The graft section that Dr. Feldhaus placed was pretty well chewed up and Gutta was able to repair that too. He had to place a catheter again, since my fistula would need a couple weeks to heal.
The fistula healed just fine, and for a couple of weeks I got to use both hands while working at dialysis! But now I'm back to being a one-armed worker during dialysis. I don't really mind. The fistula is working great, and now thanks to a little map that Gutta drew on my arm, the dialysis staff has a better idea of where to stick me. The area around the graft is still swollen, so all the poking has been done in my upper arm, but I'm back to using the medium needles like I was last month, so I should be able to make an appointment to get the catheter removed in a couple of weeks.
Here's the deal about getting that catheter removed. Dr. Gutta says all I have to do is make an appointment to come into his office and he just yanks it out. I'm sure it's a little bit smoother of a process than just yanking it out, but it's not going to be a surgical procedure. That sounds like a recipe for pain. I heard a story of someone who asked to keep their catheter as a souvenir. I hadn't thought about that before, but it sounds like a good idea now. Hopefully, he will let me keep this one.
So now, on Thanksgiving weekend, with a possible kidney donor from work, I'm trying to be positive and look forward to getting a new kidney in January. At the same time I must admit I'm feeling pretty resigned to being a dialysis patient for awhile. That isn't a particularly pleasing thought, especially after this latest drama.
After being in dialysis for a little over a year, I can say that it is a pain. Forget the fact that I can't go more than three days without dialysis, which is limiting enough, but there's the pain and frustration of going through these surgeries to repair the fistula and the recovery time associated with each occurrence.
It seems like just when I get my head around the routine, and I start to return to a normal routine of exercise and good eating, something happens to throw me off the track. This is the part of the grind that is wearing me down. I want the transplant. I need a donor. I don't know how much more plainly I can put it.
I know there's a feeling among my family that Jeannie should get tested, so we can see if she's a donor. My position on this all along has been that going this way would prevent us from being there for each other during our procedures. Since the procedures to remove and transplant the kidney would happen at the same time, we would not be there to help the other get through each surgery.
Then, there's taking care of us when we get home. We would need someone with us to help us with meals, cleaning, and the other day to day things we take for granted. We would probably need help for about a month or so. To their credit, my nieces have all offered to help us get back on our feet during the recovery time.
Finally, even if we had enough help to get the care we needed when we got home. And, we could go into this knowing that we would see each other in our room, after the transplant. Even with all of that covered, there's still an 80% likelihood that she is not going to be a match.
So, there's still a lot to get worked out. The donor question doesn't come up during family visits any longer. I don't ask, and I don't get asked. It feels like I'm at a dead end.
Yet, despite that, there's plenty to be thankful for. Even though I'm not crazy about dialysis, it's keeping me alive and able to do most of the things I want to do. My leukemia is in remission and by next September, I will be finished with the maintenance treatments.
I'm doing work I enjoy, despite working for a boss I don't enjoy. All in all, I continue to be a work in progress. Maybe in a way, we all are a work in progress. If we weren't working on getting better or just evolving, we wouldn't be living.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Who Was I Kidding?
I was young and foolish when I wrote my last post! It would've been so great to run or work out, or do anything. But, since that last post I have been consumed by pain caused by the Cipro. I've discovered another drug that I am allergic to.
Everything seemed fine with the Cipro, at first. The UTI cleared up within a few days, so I really thought my routine would start returning to normal.
On Wednesday, August 31, I went with a co-worker out to visit a customer. I dressed up for the visit, wearing a pair of dress shoes I wear once or twice a month. Usually I wear these shoes at work, where I'm walking on carpet. When we got to the customer's office, we walked a lot of sidewalks, moving between a couple different buildings. I didn't think anything of it at the time.
The next day my left foot was sore, which I attributed to the shoes. During the afternoon at work, my foot got so sore that I took my shoe off. My foot had swollen up pretty big, so I left my shoe off for the afternoon.
At the same time, I noticed my right shoulder was sore too. Thursday was a dialysis day, and I had my right arm resting on a pillow for four hours. My right arm was pointed in a 45 degree angle, so I wasn't surprised that it was stiff after dialysis was finished. What surprised me was how much it hurt a couple hours after dialysis was over.
By mid-afternoon I was limping around with a bum left foot and my right shoulder was sore to the touch. It seemed like I was falling apart.
Thursday night I soaked my foot and iced my shoulder, both of which provided some temporary relief. By the next morning my foot and shoulder were still sore. I had to wear my sandals to work, because I couldn't fit into any of my shoes. I kept icing my shoulder and I did my best to keep my foot elevated. Nothing seemed to be helping.
In a clear-headed moment, I wondered if there was a connection between the joint pain I was feeling and the Cipro. I did some searching and found some information that would support that. I know, using the internet for medical advice isn't the best way to go, but I wasn't looking for medical advice, as much as I was looking for anyone who had the same experiences.
I called Dr. Konigsberg to see if I could stop taking the Cipro. I spoke with a nurse, and she told me that what I was experiencing was not a typical reaction to the Cipro, but she said it was okay for me to stop taking it.
I made it through the day at work, but my foot was in a lot of pain by the time I got home. Jeannie suggested we got to the ER just to make sure there wasn't something else going on. Great, I thought. Friday night in the ER on Labor Day weekend. It should be an experience!
We got there around 7:45pm, and there was no one waiting ahead of me. In fact, the nurse was out to get me before we were done getting checked in. We went to Bergan which has become a bit of a second home for me, considering all the procedures and visits I've made there in the last year.
Once all my vitals were taken, a nurse practitioner came in to look at my foot. She ordered X-rays and a blood draw. The initial thought was gout. So, we hung out in the ER room. and I got my blood drawn and I got my foot X-rayed. While checking out my foot, the NP wasn't sure about the gout, because I only had pain in one part of my foot, and not the whole foot.
Since there wasn't going to be any magical cures coming from this visit, and since it didn't appear to be broken, the next step was to help me with the pain. I got a shot of morphine and Vicodin, which definitely took the edge off. Did I mention that I wasn't sleeping during the week? I was waking up after about four hours with a lower back pain that kept me awake the rest of the night. The morphine and Vicodin was going to get me some sleep that I dearly needed.
I was also given a prescription for Prednisone, which was supposed to help clear up whatever was trying to happen with my foot. All in all, it wasn't a terrible visit to the ER.
I took it easy over the long weekend, but the pain in my foot and my shoulder were still present. I only had to take the Prednisone for four days, and it was a relatively small dose. The only thing taking my mind off the pain was looking forward to getting my catheters out on Wednesday morning.
That event was the highlight of a very painful past few weeks. The catheters came out just fine, so that chapter in my dialysis treatment is closed.
Since Labor Day, I did some more searching on the internet and found that the pain I was experiencing was something that many other Cipro users experienced. In the posts I read, people were writing that the joint pain stuck around for months before clearing up.Yikes! Months sounded like a long time.
My pain has rotated between my knees and my calves. My foot pain has started to subside, to the point that I wore real shoes to work yesterday for the first time in several weeks. My shoulder is still sore, but some days it feels normal.
Dr. Frock said this wasn't an uncommon reaction and that it should pass. In the meantime, my white blood count rose up to 9, which is in the normal range, but higher than it's been since treatment. I called Dr. Tarantolo just to make sure this wasn't something we needed to react to. I talked to Darcy, one of the cancer nurses and she spoke with Dr. T. He wasn't concerned, and told Darcy to let me know that my body may take some time to get readjusted after taking the Cipro.
So, as I write this lengthy post, today's pain is in my calves. They are a little stiff, but not too bad. Considering I haven't been able to work out for over a month hasn't helped my body either. Jeannie and I resumed our walking this week, and even though it's slow going for me, I think it's helping.
For those of you following this blog, have you had any negative experience with Cipro? I don't wish this on anyone, but if you're willing to share, please leave a comment.
All of this serves as a reminder to me that I've got to find a living kidney donor!
Everything seemed fine with the Cipro, at first. The UTI cleared up within a few days, so I really thought my routine would start returning to normal.
On Wednesday, August 31, I went with a co-worker out to visit a customer. I dressed up for the visit, wearing a pair of dress shoes I wear once or twice a month. Usually I wear these shoes at work, where I'm walking on carpet. When we got to the customer's office, we walked a lot of sidewalks, moving between a couple different buildings. I didn't think anything of it at the time.
The next day my left foot was sore, which I attributed to the shoes. During the afternoon at work, my foot got so sore that I took my shoe off. My foot had swollen up pretty big, so I left my shoe off for the afternoon.
At the same time, I noticed my right shoulder was sore too. Thursday was a dialysis day, and I had my right arm resting on a pillow for four hours. My right arm was pointed in a 45 degree angle, so I wasn't surprised that it was stiff after dialysis was finished. What surprised me was how much it hurt a couple hours after dialysis was over.
By mid-afternoon I was limping around with a bum left foot and my right shoulder was sore to the touch. It seemed like I was falling apart.
Thursday night I soaked my foot and iced my shoulder, both of which provided some temporary relief. By the next morning my foot and shoulder were still sore. I had to wear my sandals to work, because I couldn't fit into any of my shoes. I kept icing my shoulder and I did my best to keep my foot elevated. Nothing seemed to be helping.
In a clear-headed moment, I wondered if there was a connection between the joint pain I was feeling and the Cipro. I did some searching and found some information that would support that. I know, using the internet for medical advice isn't the best way to go, but I wasn't looking for medical advice, as much as I was looking for anyone who had the same experiences.
I called Dr. Konigsberg to see if I could stop taking the Cipro. I spoke with a nurse, and she told me that what I was experiencing was not a typical reaction to the Cipro, but she said it was okay for me to stop taking it.
I made it through the day at work, but my foot was in a lot of pain by the time I got home. Jeannie suggested we got to the ER just to make sure there wasn't something else going on. Great, I thought. Friday night in the ER on Labor Day weekend. It should be an experience!
We got there around 7:45pm, and there was no one waiting ahead of me. In fact, the nurse was out to get me before we were done getting checked in. We went to Bergan which has become a bit of a second home for me, considering all the procedures and visits I've made there in the last year.
Once all my vitals were taken, a nurse practitioner came in to look at my foot. She ordered X-rays and a blood draw. The initial thought was gout. So, we hung out in the ER room. and I got my blood drawn and I got my foot X-rayed. While checking out my foot, the NP wasn't sure about the gout, because I only had pain in one part of my foot, and not the whole foot.
Since there wasn't going to be any magical cures coming from this visit, and since it didn't appear to be broken, the next step was to help me with the pain. I got a shot of morphine and Vicodin, which definitely took the edge off. Did I mention that I wasn't sleeping during the week? I was waking up after about four hours with a lower back pain that kept me awake the rest of the night. The morphine and Vicodin was going to get me some sleep that I dearly needed.
I was also given a prescription for Prednisone, which was supposed to help clear up whatever was trying to happen with my foot. All in all, it wasn't a terrible visit to the ER.
I took it easy over the long weekend, but the pain in my foot and my shoulder were still present. I only had to take the Prednisone for four days, and it was a relatively small dose. The only thing taking my mind off the pain was looking forward to getting my catheters out on Wednesday morning.
That event was the highlight of a very painful past few weeks. The catheters came out just fine, so that chapter in my dialysis treatment is closed.
Since Labor Day, I did some more searching on the internet and found that the pain I was experiencing was something that many other Cipro users experienced. In the posts I read, people were writing that the joint pain stuck around for months before clearing up.Yikes! Months sounded like a long time.
My pain has rotated between my knees and my calves. My foot pain has started to subside, to the point that I wore real shoes to work yesterday for the first time in several weeks. My shoulder is still sore, but some days it feels normal.
Dr. Frock said this wasn't an uncommon reaction and that it should pass. In the meantime, my white blood count rose up to 9, which is in the normal range, but higher than it's been since treatment. I called Dr. Tarantolo just to make sure this wasn't something we needed to react to. I talked to Darcy, one of the cancer nurses and she spoke with Dr. T. He wasn't concerned, and told Darcy to let me know that my body may take some time to get readjusted after taking the Cipro.
So, as I write this lengthy post, today's pain is in my calves. They are a little stiff, but not too bad. Considering I haven't been able to work out for over a month hasn't helped my body either. Jeannie and I resumed our walking this week, and even though it's slow going for me, I think it's helping.
For those of you following this blog, have you had any negative experience with Cipro? I don't wish this on anyone, but if you're willing to share, please leave a comment.
All of this serves as a reminder to me that I've got to find a living kidney donor!
Monday, August 29, 2011
Try This
As I've written several time in this blog, we have a pretty steady routine going with the thrice-weekly dialysis treatments and the every two-month leukemia maintenance treatments. Throw work in to the mix and the once a month trip back to the Quad Cities area to visit family, and we have a pretty full life.
But, just when you think you're dealing with all you can deal with at one time, up pops another little gift. A gift that serves to remind us that we have the capacity to handle much more than we do in our day to day lives.
My reminder was a UTI, and no, that's not the University of Texas International! Okay, there's probably not such a place, but we're only a few days from the start of another college football season.
It's easier to joke about the UTI (seriously, it's a urinary tract infection) today, because I'm taking medicine to get it taken care of. I don't think I could've written with as much jocularity a couple of weeks ago.
I first became acquainted with the UTI on August 14. I was running in the morning, and it seemed like the more I ran, the more it felt like I needed to go to the bathroom. I ended up walking for most of my outing that morning. I hit the bathroom as soon as I got home, and that's when I noticed the lovely burning sensation and a hint of blood in my urine.
Naturally, I did what everyone does in these situations. I went to the internet to get my medical advice. From what I could tell, I didn't have the symptoms for kidney stones, so I went with the UTI. I wasn't freaking out about it, although I didn't care much for the pain I felt each time I used the bathroom. I figured I would call Dr. Frock the next morning and he would be able to prescribe something for me.
What I didn't count on was that Dr. Frock was in Red Oak, Iowa seeing patients. Surely, if I asked the girl that answered the phone in his office to get a message to him, he would call me back, right? Wrong. I didn't hear from him Monday, so when I went to dialysis Tuesday, I asked Angie, my nurse, to give him a call. She reached him right away, and he prescribed Bactrim, once a day for five days. If that didn't do the trick, he wanted me to call a urologist.
I picked up my Bactrim Tuesday and took it as prescribed. The only thing that seemed to get better was that the blood in my urine went away. Otherwise, I still had as much, if not more, pain. So, on Monday, I called the urologist. The soonest I could get an appointment was Friday, so this was going to be a long week of pain.
On Friday I journeyed to the urologist's office, where I got blood drawn from my arm by the nurse, and a surprise prostate exam from the doctor! Dr. Konigsberg prescribed Cipro, twice a day for 10 days. Since starting on this Friday evening, I'm just about pain free.
To be on the safe side, I need to go back in a couple weeks for a follow-up visit, which is going to include a couple procedures. One test will be a CT scan, but the other one is going to be a cystoscopy. He didn't call it that. No, Dr. Konigsberg just told me that they were going to look inside my bladder to make sure everything was okay. Again, using the internet as my source, it sounds like this involves needles going in through places that have never been stuck before. Bogus!
Dr. Frock had tipped me off to this in his monthly visit last week. He said it hurts, but he reassured me I've had worse pain. I'm not sure I buy that!
I'm waiting now for the scheduler to call me to set up the appointment for this day of fun. I expect I'll hear from them today to get a date.
The moral of this story? Don't think it can never get worse, because it always can. At the same time, we're never given anything we can't handle, so like everything that's come before this latest adventure, we make the adjustments and get it taken care of.
The pain associated with the UTI, and the discomfort that follows once you're out of the bathroom, has kept me on the sidelines with my exercise. This afternoon, I'm going to try and work out. If that goes well, I'll run this evening while Jeannie walks. It will feel good to get back to moving again.
But, just when you think you're dealing with all you can deal with at one time, up pops another little gift. A gift that serves to remind us that we have the capacity to handle much more than we do in our day to day lives.
My reminder was a UTI, and no, that's not the University of Texas International! Okay, there's probably not such a place, but we're only a few days from the start of another college football season.
It's easier to joke about the UTI (seriously, it's a urinary tract infection) today, because I'm taking medicine to get it taken care of. I don't think I could've written with as much jocularity a couple of weeks ago.
I first became acquainted with the UTI on August 14. I was running in the morning, and it seemed like the more I ran, the more it felt like I needed to go to the bathroom. I ended up walking for most of my outing that morning. I hit the bathroom as soon as I got home, and that's when I noticed the lovely burning sensation and a hint of blood in my urine.
Naturally, I did what everyone does in these situations. I went to the internet to get my medical advice. From what I could tell, I didn't have the symptoms for kidney stones, so I went with the UTI. I wasn't freaking out about it, although I didn't care much for the pain I felt each time I used the bathroom. I figured I would call Dr. Frock the next morning and he would be able to prescribe something for me.
What I didn't count on was that Dr. Frock was in Red Oak, Iowa seeing patients. Surely, if I asked the girl that answered the phone in his office to get a message to him, he would call me back, right? Wrong. I didn't hear from him Monday, so when I went to dialysis Tuesday, I asked Angie, my nurse, to give him a call. She reached him right away, and he prescribed Bactrim, once a day for five days. If that didn't do the trick, he wanted me to call a urologist.
I picked up my Bactrim Tuesday and took it as prescribed. The only thing that seemed to get better was that the blood in my urine went away. Otherwise, I still had as much, if not more, pain. So, on Monday, I called the urologist. The soonest I could get an appointment was Friday, so this was going to be a long week of pain.
On Friday I journeyed to the urologist's office, where I got blood drawn from my arm by the nurse, and a surprise prostate exam from the doctor! Dr. Konigsberg prescribed Cipro, twice a day for 10 days. Since starting on this Friday evening, I'm just about pain free.
To be on the safe side, I need to go back in a couple weeks for a follow-up visit, which is going to include a couple procedures. One test will be a CT scan, but the other one is going to be a cystoscopy. He didn't call it that. No, Dr. Konigsberg just told me that they were going to look inside my bladder to make sure everything was okay. Again, using the internet as my source, it sounds like this involves needles going in through places that have never been stuck before. Bogus!
Dr. Frock had tipped me off to this in his monthly visit last week. He said it hurts, but he reassured me I've had worse pain. I'm not sure I buy that!
I'm waiting now for the scheduler to call me to set up the appointment for this day of fun. I expect I'll hear from them today to get a date.
The moral of this story? Don't think it can never get worse, because it always can. At the same time, we're never given anything we can't handle, so like everything that's come before this latest adventure, we make the adjustments and get it taken care of.
The pain associated with the UTI, and the discomfort that follows once you're out of the bathroom, has kept me on the sidelines with my exercise. This afternoon, I'm going to try and work out. If that goes well, I'll run this evening while Jeannie walks. It will feel good to get back to moving again.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
If it's Saturday, it Must Be a Dialysis Day
I'm one of nine people sitting in a chair with tubes running into a catheter or a fistula. I'm the only one who is awake, which I blame on being a morning person. I generally don't do any work on Saturday's, so I spend my computer getting caught up on some of the other blogs I read.
Before they started tapping into my fistula I would write pretty consistently. With the fistula I'm limited to typing with my left hand. It's not a problem, but it does make for slow writing.
I can finally say that going to dialysis three times a week is starting to get old. I'm glad enough for the results I get, but I want to feel like this without spending four hours connected to something that looks like a second cousin to R2D2. To that end, there's been a little movement on the transplant front.
A co-worker has decided that she wants to get tested to see if we're a match. One of my sisters is also giving donation some serious consideration. My sister actually gave me a good picture of what the transplant question looks like from the perspective of a potential donor.
No surprise, the idea of having an organ removed and given over to someone else is a big thing. Generally not something one does on impulse. As she explained it to us, wanting to do this for her brother isn't a huge leap. Of all the factors that make up the decision, that's the easiest one to get behind.
The challenging part is getting behind being off work for 2-3 weeks. My sister is self-employed, so she gets paid when she works and she doesn't when she doesn't. She says that's manageable, which it is, but that's another reason donation isn't done on impulse.
The other factor, the one that I don't know a person will ever get an answer for, is the emotional aspect of giving up a part of your body's infrastructure. Sure, we're more than the parts that make up our physical being, but from a practical standpoint, it's surgery to remove an organ. Science bumping up against the spiritual.
So, we'll see how this turn out. I want my sister (anyone, actually) to be at peace with their decision. I've made the intellectual case with my sister. She's seen the videos that explain the process for both the donor and the recipient, so while she may have more questions down the road, she's seen enough to start the process of processing.
Before they started tapping into my fistula I would write pretty consistently. With the fistula I'm limited to typing with my left hand. It's not a problem, but it does make for slow writing.
I can finally say that going to dialysis three times a week is starting to get old. I'm glad enough for the results I get, but I want to feel like this without spending four hours connected to something that looks like a second cousin to R2D2. To that end, there's been a little movement on the transplant front.
A co-worker has decided that she wants to get tested to see if we're a match. One of my sisters is also giving donation some serious consideration. My sister actually gave me a good picture of what the transplant question looks like from the perspective of a potential donor.
No surprise, the idea of having an organ removed and given over to someone else is a big thing. Generally not something one does on impulse. As she explained it to us, wanting to do this for her brother isn't a huge leap. Of all the factors that make up the decision, that's the easiest one to get behind.
The challenging part is getting behind being off work for 2-3 weeks. My sister is self-employed, so she gets paid when she works and she doesn't when she doesn't. She says that's manageable, which it is, but that's another reason donation isn't done on impulse.
The other factor, the one that I don't know a person will ever get an answer for, is the emotional aspect of giving up a part of your body's infrastructure. Sure, we're more than the parts that make up our physical being, but from a practical standpoint, it's surgery to remove an organ. Science bumping up against the spiritual.
So, we'll see how this turn out. I want my sister (anyone, actually) to be at peace with their decision. I've made the intellectual case with my sister. She's seen the videos that explain the process for both the donor and the recipient, so while she may have more questions down the road, she's seen enough to start the process of processing.
Monday, August 15, 2011
Fistula Progress
Since coming off the DL, the fistula is doing great. I'm using the medium size needles now with no troubles. The only question now is whether or not we move up to the big boy needles again. All indications are that I can dialyze with the medium needles and do just fine as far as the quality of the dialysis goes.
That's good news for me, because I got the okay to make another appointment to have the catheter removed from my chest. I'm going to make that call later today.
Since the last infiltration of my fistula, all the nurses and techs have been treating me with kid gloves. They are careful about moving me along too quickly again. Of course, that statement makes the assumption that they moved me along too quickly the first time around. I would say that they didn't.
I say that because I learned the other day that my fistula is shallow. That means that when faced with a challenge of drawing blood out of the fistula, the person doing the sticking needs to consider a different location or try to move the needle further up the fistula, as opposed to trying to stick the needle deeper into it. That was the foundation for the last infiltration.
The needle was in fine, but when the tech got distracted, she lost her focus and pushed the needle in further than it needed to go. Had she been paying attention, she would've seen that she had hit the bulls-eye. It's water under the bridge now, but I'm going to keep reminding everyone about my shallow fistula.
I learned something else during Saturday's dialysis session. Apparently, the dialysis machines can be programmed to pull fluid gradually instead of pulling an equal amount of fluid each hour. I think most people set the machine up for the latter scenario.
The last two times that Pam has put me on, however, she told me that she set the machine up to pull a lesser amount of fluid in the beginning, more in the middle of my time, and then less during the last hour. Both times she ran this profile on me, I was able to make it through the entire session without cramping, which results in me asking to have the machine turned off. As a result, I don't always get the fluid off that we set out to remove for the day.
So, I'm sure this will be another opportunity for me to endear myself to the staff at the clinic. Asking for this profile to be run on me will probably make a couple of the staff mad at me. Too bad!
That's good news for me, because I got the okay to make another appointment to have the catheter removed from my chest. I'm going to make that call later today.
Since the last infiltration of my fistula, all the nurses and techs have been treating me with kid gloves. They are careful about moving me along too quickly again. Of course, that statement makes the assumption that they moved me along too quickly the first time around. I would say that they didn't.
I say that because I learned the other day that my fistula is shallow. That means that when faced with a challenge of drawing blood out of the fistula, the person doing the sticking needs to consider a different location or try to move the needle further up the fistula, as opposed to trying to stick the needle deeper into it. That was the foundation for the last infiltration.
The needle was in fine, but when the tech got distracted, she lost her focus and pushed the needle in further than it needed to go. Had she been paying attention, she would've seen that she had hit the bulls-eye. It's water under the bridge now, but I'm going to keep reminding everyone about my shallow fistula.
I learned something else during Saturday's dialysis session. Apparently, the dialysis machines can be programmed to pull fluid gradually instead of pulling an equal amount of fluid each hour. I think most people set the machine up for the latter scenario.
The last two times that Pam has put me on, however, she told me that she set the machine up to pull a lesser amount of fluid in the beginning, more in the middle of my time, and then less during the last hour. Both times she ran this profile on me, I was able to make it through the entire session without cramping, which results in me asking to have the machine turned off. As a result, I don't always get the fluid off that we set out to remove for the day.
So, I'm sure this will be another opportunity for me to endear myself to the staff at the clinic. Asking for this profile to be run on me will probably make a couple of the staff mad at me. Too bad!
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