Higher Stakes

I had the unfortunate experience of picking up one hell of a gastro-instentinatal virus over the weekend.  It probably would have taken a normal immune system a day or two to get over it - it took me four full days of a low grade fever and all of the fun stuff that comes with gastro viruses.  The biggest difference between me and the average person is for those four days I was put on hold on all transplant lists.  Even if they found that needle in a hay stack during those four days, I wouldn't have been notified because I was sick.  This is why I have such a strict policy on no illness at my studio and why I'm so crazy about lysol wipes, hand sanitizer and hand washing (just ask Wes).   As of this morning I have been added back on to all of the lists and am looking forward to getting back to normal.

On another note, I begin my training for (wait for it) HOME DIALYSIS on Tuesday.  Yes, that's correct I made the switch that I said I was never going to make.  A wonderful nurse practitioner opened up my mind to other possibilities with home dialysis and another wonderful nurse even got me thinking about night time dialysis.  The appeal of home dialysis is the freedom to do it whenever it fits into my schedule - the options are kind of endless.  As long as I get a minimum of 12 hours per week, I can do it whenever I want.  The appeal of doing it at night is it doesn't disrupt your schedule at all and if you do it every other night you can get up to 24 hours of dialysis per week instead of just 12.  Remember when I said that when you don't get dialysis the toxins just build up in your body until your next session to cleanse everything? So in this case consistency is better.  My biggest hesitation with doing it while I sleep is I am not a sound, quiet sleeper - I move around a LOT and I was concerned I would pull out my needles.  The nurse who did my orientation assured me that I can tape it up and wrap it up so that nothing is able to move.  I am starting with twice a week in the home dialysis clinic to lean how to do it myself and then will hopefully be able to take it home to do it myself in a few weeks.  We are starting a bit earlier than we had intended - I got clearance from fistula people that I heal very quickly and it was ready for use and I requested that we start as soon as possible - I'm exhausted and ready to feel a bit more like myself!