My regular schedule is a 3 PM PST on time and roughly a 6 PM PST finishing time every Monday, Wednesday, Friday. I need to get there around 2:40 to make sure I'm hooked up and ready to go by 3.
Two hours to an hour and a half before hand, I put lidocaine numbing cream over my fistula access in my right arm so I won't have to feel the needles that badly. I drive myself there and walk into a small lobby with my Davita (The biggest/best kidney care and dialysis company) bag with my blanket, since it's usually cold in there, along with whatever entertainment I've chosen for that day. There's an assortment of chairs, a standard receptionist window, a tv, landline phone, and an electronically locked door that leads to the main room. I take a seat, and wait until someone comes out into the lobby to tell me they're ready for me.
Inside, there's a large room with something like 24 reclining chairs with dialysis machines beside each one. I put my things down for a moment while I stand on a walk on scale to check my weight so they can know what to adjust on the machines. I grab my stuff, walk over to whichever chair they tell me I'll be in for today treatment. Depending on what form of entertainment I chose to bring that day, I plug in the charger for the netbook or dvd player if I'm using those. The tech that is working to set me up puts a blood pressure cuff on my left arm. (Since the fistula is in the right arm, no blood pressure cuff or blood work can be done on that arm) Standing and sitting blood pressure is taken. There's a short discussion on whether to take off fluid or not. Most of the time, I have no fluid gain at all, which is good.
The tech wipes off the lidocaine cream, and prepares their gauze and such. I always look away at this point because no matter how many times I go, I just don't like needles lol. I have to get poked twice, one for the venous (vein) and one for the arterial (artery). I'll explain more in depth how all of this works in a later post. Sometimes I can feel the needles, sometimes I can't. I was sooooooooooooooo nervous the first time they were going to use the fistula. While I was in the hospital, one of the nurses that was running the dialysis machine showed me the needles used when using a fistula. (I was using a central line catheter while the fistula matured) Those things looked HUGE! It was so scary. A RN usually checks my lungs and heart, as well as whether I have fluid on my legs, while the tech is setting up. After inserting the needles, or cannulating as the medical term, tape is placed over them to make sure they don't come out. 2 small tubes are hooked up from the dialysis machine to the ports on the outer ends of the needles. One tube is where my blood flows out of my body and into the machine, the other is where the cleaned blood flows back into my arm. Besides the needles, I don't feel a thing during the entire process. It doesn't hurt or anything at all. The tech or nurse starts the machine and treatment begins.
I spend the next three hours however I chose, keeping my right arm up on the side of the chair. The blood pressure cuff checks my blood pressure at set times throughout treatment. Nurses and techs make various checks throughout the time.
At the end of the 3 hours, the machine starts all sorts of beeping, letting them know it's finished. The tubes are unhooked, tape removed, and the tech removes the needle, covering the insertion points with a small piece of gauze and tape. I apply pressure over both places for 10 to 15 minutes, making sure it's not going to bleed. This is probably the most boring part of the entire process since I have to sit there holding the access.
After the 10 to 15 minutes, someone puts a few more pieces of tape over the access. I pack my things up, check my weight on the walk on scale again, let one of the techs know what the weight is, and I'm good to go.
I know of a bunch of this is still very confusing without being able to see it, or without knowing what some of these words mean. I'll try to clarify some things in a post soon and also see if I can get some pictures up.
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