First Home Dialysis Run…well, Not Really.

Today was my first home dialysis run. I did it at around 9am this morning when my nurse Rose got to my house. It was a short run: 2 hours. The point was mostly to make sure that the machine was working properly and that I had everything set up correctly.

Last night was a night of frantic organization. I’ve had these boxes of supplies sitting in my living room for almost a week if not more…and I hadn’t opened any of them. Since I was expecting Rose in the morning, I had to make sure that I had everything that I needed to dialyze ready at the very least.

My morning run went well and there weren’t any hitches. I had the oppourtunity to just sit and speak to Rose and that was great. I think back to a few years ago when I’d hide my face when Rose would walk by because I just knew she was going to ask me about home dialysis…and at the time I had absolutely no interest in it. I was so focused on getting my transplant. When I found out that the transplant would have to be on hold, I knew that the only option at this point would be home hemo because I certainly couldn’t even fathom doing in-centre dialysis any longer. Who knew that a few short years later Rose would be in my bedroom, sitting on the edge of my bed, chatting to me about a variety of things?

I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’m glad that I got Rose. Don’t get me wrong, the other nurses are great too….it’s just that I can’t imagine how different things would have been without her. At times I got mopey (is that how you’d spell it? Mopey?), frustrated, etc. I hated messing up/making mistakes. There were times when I thought “what am I doing here?” to myself. The funny thing is that these thoughts didn’t really cross my mind when I was learning how to use the dialysis machine itself. I had already psyched myself up when it came to the dialysis machine. I told myself that i’d be difficult and I wouldn’t get it right away…and I more or less accepted that in my own head. It wasn’t until I learned all of the other stuff that would go with it. By other stuff, I mean learning how to take care of my RO, doing all of these tests for the RO all the time, changing it’s filter, testing it for bacteria, counting colonies, etc. That was a whole new thing that I had no idea about. I’m glad that I didn’t know about it beforehand. I’m not quite sure/ confident that I would have made the same decision to do home hemo had I knew all of that extra stuff before.

After Rose left, I made myself some soup. I got ill in the middle of the night and I threw up. I was pretty hungry. After that, I fell asleep.

I was woken up by the sound of my doorbell. Who could that be? Perhaps a delivery of a package? When I got to the door, I remembered that I was expecting a visitor. It was Tosin. I met Tosin at the hospital. He’s one of the hemo assistants. We became friends when we met, especially due to the fact that we’re both Nigerian and we both speak Yoruba. Well…he speaks it. I speak just enought to get by 🙂 We had a chat for about an hour and then he was off to school.

So I’ve snapped a couple of pictures of my machine and my supplies in their storage containers. I’m hoping to take some more detailed pics and post them tomorrow.

Some of my Supplies!

My Bleach! 🙂

This is my machine. It’s a bellco

Wish me luck tonight….it’ll be my first real home 8 hour dialysis run…!

ahhhh!