October 24, 2008
Friday
El Milagro: Since I am in SA tomorrow for my Board Retreat, I am in here again for my almost ridiculous final weekly dialysis, nine hours after my LAST dialysis! I actually get here at 5:50 am and have all my stuff for the board meeting in the truck: overnight bag, notes, supplies, camera, etc. I get seated by 6:10 in the corner, and Susie the Tech from Cloudcroft cannulates me. Yes, she lived in Cloudcroft, NM for a few years, operating a bed and breakfast. I share with her my love of Cloudcroft and we are just as happy as clams until she infiltrates* me. At first I think it is an infiltration and mumble it but as she is pushing pulling blood it seems like the setting is okay... but, then when she hooks me up to the machine and it shoves the blood in I yell, "OWwww! Infiltation!" and she quickly pulls the needle out to the point where it backs thru the back wall of the fistula and almost out of my arm completely. Then Rita the Nurse, floating in the background, rushes in to reset it. She marks my swelling arm with a ballpoint pen and sets the needle and both of them apologize emphatically, as several other techs and nurses come to see what the yelling is about. Carrie the Tech winces for me to show she gets that it hurt. We are all sorry for this event.
Susie the Tech continues to apologize for the next five minutes and I tell her something like, "Hey. Its okay. Your stories about Cloudcroft make up for it. I love Cloudcroft and you recognizing the aura of that village in the sky make you okay in my book." Rita the Tech brings me an ice bag that we balance on my arm and I pull my hat down over my eyes and turn on KUT's Morning Edition, low volume, and try to go back to sleep. Dozing in dialysis is possible: sleeping soundly, not. I doze until about 9:30 and then the noise of the increasingly busy center keep me from even dozing. I listen to the jumble and the radio until it is time to de-cannulate.
At some point Ann the Nurse comes by to ask about my meds... am I taking two still? She call s Dr. Venkatesh right then and gets her to approve my "new" prescription of taking two Ropiniroles at a time. I thank her for her immediate checking and she smiles.
I get outa here at about 10:30 and zip over to Kim's house to drive with her to San Antonio.
Notes: In at 75.2 and out at 74.8
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