Water Bug Wake Up Call

I never knew that I could go from being in a deep sleep to being up and on my feet in a span of about 2 seconds.

Last night, I went out to dinner with my friend Kerrie. We went for Greek food. Yumm.

I got home just before 9pm. I hadn’t disinfected my machine from when I dialyzed the night before as I was running out of time before I had to be on my way to work so I decided that I would disinfect it before dialyzing the next night which is what I did.

The first time around my machine did not disinfect properly. While my bottle of bleach still seems to be about 1/3 full, after the 8 minutes of disinfection, I get a “disinfection” alarm, basically telling me that the disinfectant has not been taken.

So, I went to get a new bottle of bleach and I disinfected all over again.

After an hour of disinfecting, I had my machine set up, my buttonhole needles in, and was ready to dialyze. I set my tv to turn off in an hour. I watched tv for a bit before I drifted off to sleep.

BEEEEEEEP
BEEEEEEEEEEEP!!
BEEEEEP

What the heck was that!! Before I could even figure out what I was listening to I quickly but carefully jumped out of bed.

That dreadful sound was my water bug. I’m sure I may have spoken about this before, but a waterbug is a device, about the size of a PDA, which is used to detect water. It’s quite handy as it detects spills and such before they get out of hand. It can be used in places where people feel like a leak, burst pipe, etc may occur. When the slightest bit of dampness is detected by the sensors on the bottom of the water bug, an ear piercing alarm will begin to sound. This is what I was hearing.

I was nervous as I struggled to find the correct water bug as I have one under my dialysis machine and another in a large bucket that has my R.O. in it. The waterbug in the bucket was the one that sounded. When I grabbed it, I rubbed the water bug against my pyjama bottom in an attempt to stop the alarm from sounding and subsequently waking up the neighbours. Nothing. Luckily I had a towel nearby which I used to wipe away the excess moisture.

Being careful of the needles in my arm and the tubing leading from the machine to my arm, I bent down and placed my fingers in the bucket. The bottom was in fact wet. It didn’t seem like it was flooding over or anything, but it was definitely wet. I didn’t know what to do. Should I disconnect myself? Is there actually a leak?

I went back to my bed and stared at the ceiling for about 10 minutes. I put my fingers back into the bucket and the amount of moisture felt the same. I looked at the screen of my dialysis machine and realized that I has just under 4 hours left. I went back to bed.

I tossed and turned for about 45 minutes. I was very apprehensive about falling asleep. I felt like I might be making a mistake. What if it did flood over?

I put the water bug just outside of the shallow bucket. If it did flood, water would fill the bucket, but if it got severe enough to overflow the bucket, then I know I have problems.

I woke up about 5 minutes before my machine was finished. I looked over at the R.O. and water was not overflowing. I was glad that I didn’t disconnect myself from the machine.

My dad walked in just as I gave my blood back and disconnected myself from the machine. I told him about the waterbug and the moisture. He said that it might be worth while to have a tech look at it, but in his opinion, because the machine was using cold water and it was so warm outside (and in the house…) that it was probably moisture caused by condensation. My mom came in after my dad left the room and I told her too…and she also said that she thought it might be condensation.

After removing my needles and fully disinfecting my machine, I looked down at my brown bed sheet and saw numerous beige/pink slotches. AH DAMN! I must have splashed bleach on my sheets while I was getting ready to disinfect my machine this morning. That sucks…but luckily these weren’t my expensive sheets. I’m still sad.

After removing my sheets and throwing them in the wash to remove any residual bleach, I went back to bed and slept for about an hour. It was much needed.

So that’s my water bug wake up call story.