So, Friday started out pretty good. They'd gotten the machine through the prime process, and I was able to use my handy flip chart to figure out where we were in the process, and what I needed to do to complete it. In short order, we were ready to attempt using blunts on both buttonholes.
Success on my first one. No success on my second. John was a trooper while I poked and prodded, but alas, no. The track is there, but the vein did not want to let me in, so the trapdoor just isn't formed enough yet, OR, I don't know the exact correct angle to hit it. It's a deep one, so perhaps shortly, with time, my angle will be correct.
We ran uneventfully until we were down to about a half hour left. He felt off, and his blood pressure told the story. It was 71/40, which just isn't healthy. I gave him a quick saline bolus (small infusion of saline) and took his pressure again, but no, still down. At that point, I got his nurse and she decided to teach me to do an emergency rinseback. All total, we gave him about 1000 mL of saline before his BP climbed back to where we felt comfortable pulling his needles. I did his take off, and we kept him lying down while we cleaned up the machine and got our final numbers.
We decided that this weekend, I'll poke a few blunt needles in his fistula, just to keep the paths open. Monday and Tuesday we'll go to Wellbound to dialyze, and then the hopeful plan is that Wed, our nurse will come to our house and we'll do our first home run. :) So, if it all looks good, Tuesday, when we get home from dialysis, I'll make a batch in the PureFlow!
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