Day 1, sorta a dud.

So Day 1 wasn't nearly as useful as I would have liked.

Johns BP plummeted all nasty like the moment the machine started whirring, and we fought it for awhile before calling it quits for the day. So, he got about 50 minutes of dialysis. We were all comfortable with knocking off that way since we can still easily do some PD tonight. We won't run on the cycler, because that's probably partly why his BP was so wonky today, but really, when we got a reading of 65/30, it seemed time to say, 'Not Today'.

His blood pressure meds are being adjusted, so we shall hope for more success tomorrow.

For now, I can tell you that damn machine intimidated me. Today was not a day of learning about all it's pieces and parts, so our nurses were sorta sharing bits and pieces here and there, and I felt a little lost in the whirl. I know that'll go away, cause they are extremely thorough, I have a big ole book, and I'm a good learner once I get my hands on things. But damn. There are eleventy trillion tubes. For serious.

I'm also thrilled to announce that his fistula rocks. :) We used it last month to do his iron, because that's how we decided to see if the bugger worked, and by golly, it sure does. Didn't seem tooooo painful for him and our BEST NEEDLE NURSE EVER banged em both in first try, like butter. (So there, doctor who said he'd have to have another surgery to lift the veins).  We also have Emla cream for tomorrow, and the buttonholes are a work in progress. I'm tickled to death at the idea of moving to blunt needles, tickled, I tell ya.

Best yet, our nurses at Wellbound 'get me'. They teach me in the way that I learn. I often will have really random questions pop up, and they are always patient and answer em, even though they have absolutely nothing to do with whatever task we happen to be working on. Wellbound rocks, and I highly encourage ANYONE who wants to do home dialysis to go there, fast. Run, don't walk. Our unit is just the bomb. They literally put us back in control of our lives when failed beans sent it spiraling out of our control.

And so, tomorrow begins at the god awful hour of 8:30am.