August 28, 2008
Thursday
El Milagro: I am late today and yet Celeste the Nurse pokes her head out of the treatment room within about two minutes, calling me in to my chair. Today is my first class for the Fall semester and although it gets out at 4 if find it takes me about 20 to 30 minutes to drive over here from east Austin... so, I figure I'll be 20 to 30 minutes 'late' every Thursday. I report this finding to Rosie the Tech and she replies, "Just get here before 4:30 so we don't have to take you off early." Jo the Nurse is part of this conversation and she remarks that she worked at a facility that didn't close until 10 at night, specifically for those of us who work and have to come in after our jobs. Both of them seem okay with my coming in at 4:30 on Thursdays thru the fall, and that suits me just fine.
Today the person who set up my 'kit' for cannulation put size 14 needles in the kit and Rosie questioned that, asking if I knew anything about moving from size 15 to 14. I shrugged and nodded, "no". Jo didn't order the change. Usually the doc orders a change... the rationale being that I can get better clearance with larger needles. When I looked at the needle, I notice that it is so big I can see right down the hole... looks kinda like a shaved tailpipe. And, of course, sticking them into my fistula is a bit more prickly than usual, but really not too bad.
After I am hooked up and listening to NPR, Gordy the Dietician comes up with a scowl on her face and I immediatly know that my phosphorous must be up again... she says "What have you been eating? Your phosphorous is off the chart! It woulda been Sunday or Monday... do you remember what you ate? Cheese, beer, chips, beans... what was it this time?" Turns out my phosphorous is up to 7.4 (5 is the high end of normal and mine has been steadily going up: July 15 = 4.9 and August 12 = 5.9). I can't figure out what the culprit foods were last Sunday... that's ages ago... who knows what I was eating?
Dr. Rowder comes up for his last 'driveby' (he is transferring and Central Texas Kidney Assn. will again arbitrarily assign a new doc without considering the desires of the patients). At least this time Rowder is telling us that this will happen*. Rowder and I discuss my phosphorous high and I remind him I'm taking 1/2 a Fosrenol and 4 Phoslos at each meal. He suggests I try taking the Phoslos BEFORE I eat to see if that makes a difference... and, of course, make an effort to get back to my low phosphorous diet. I promise I will.
I spend the remainder of my session today copy editing the new Tex Net News for work, dozing, making notes about ideas for the class, and watching the Democratic Convention on PBS. Highlight of the convention for me tonight is hearing Al Gore talk... I wish he had had that passion when he was running against Shrub... although I think it was really in the cards that the Republicans were going to steal the election any way they could. I am afraid that they will pull all the plugs in this election season and we will have to watch them like hawks to ensure their usually illegal and nefarious activities are brought to light in time to stop them in their tracks before November 4th. "Don't get me started..." I say to myself, watching my BP raise just thinking about the possibilities of a negative campaign on both sides. I hope Obama has the integrity to stay out of the lambasting and stick to the positive reasons that the Dems can reconstruct our government. (Do you want to share your ideas here Albert?)
Notes: In at 76.6 and out at 74.3 kgs.
* See Post # 130, May 2007 about CTKA transferring patients without their permission.
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