I accidentally changed some log-in settings on my blog, my Brother-in-law fixed it for me. I’m a total techno turd. Thank God for for my Brother-in-law!
Anyway, today I’m introducing my Ball and chain. The machine I hook up to every night. It’s so much better than doing heamo dialysis, I feel better and I also only connect once, so the risk of infection is minmal. I used to Hand dialyse 4x a day. Every 4 hours. That was awful. My hands were so dry from all the washing and spraying of alcohol. I wasn’t allowed to touch anything while I was dialysing, So I started wearing latex gloves in between touching all the equipment. Now things are easier. I was my hands once, spray once with alcohol and hook myself up. Easy. I’m so thankful that we have the technology we have today. Otherwise there would be no renal failure patients. We would all be dead.
This is my ball and chain, my trusty APD machine.
My APD machine.
AKA my artificial kidney. I’m attached to this baby for 12 hours straight. I start the process at 18:00 in the evening, I put 2x 5lt bags ontop so that the heater can warm the solution. Which in winter is awesome, because the solution gets very cold. And 10lt of cold fluid in your abdomen in winter is no joke. Then at about 19:30 I attach myself. Then I can walk around and do my thing, dragging the trolley behind me. Not the quietest piece of furniture in the house, but it will do.
My Catheter.
The Catheter is a long pipe that is inserted into my stomach. It’s all coiled up in my abdomen, I can feel most of the time, and it can be quite painful. I’m looking forward to that being removed from me. And it’s very sexy, all the rage in Europe. Hahahahahahaha! If only hey!
my lil trolley.
And my trolley. The machine sits on top of the trolley. I have the grear I need on my trolley. My green clams, my blue clamps and my mini caps. The machine buzzes and hisses all night long. It’s not very loud, and I’m used to it now, but in the beginning it was annoying. It still wakes Pete up some nights.
So although I get seriously tired of the whole dialysis deal sometimes, most of the time I handle pretty well. It’s just tedious, nothing ever changes. It’s the same night after night. I suppose it’s better than battling all the time like some patients do. But a girl needs variety in life. Pete and I often discus what it would be like without all the dialysis paraphanalia. Life would be just a little bit easier.
Effervesce. 