June 4-5, 2008

It's not much, but I finished a couple more leaves on Stars and Stripes before I went to sleep Wednesday morning.

Today was not a good day at dialysis. When my technician put my first needle in there was no blood return. That only happens when there's a clot in the graft. I have an artificial tube connecting the artery and vein in my upper arm because my own veins weren't big enough to accommodate the large-guage needles used for dialysis treatments.

I've been told that my low blood pressure is a contributing factor to my graft clotting. It was 65/34 when I arrived for my treatment. The charge nurse immediately called the vascular surgeon to schedule surgery to de-clot the graft.

I was told to go home, eat a big dinner, have breakfast before 8am, and wait for a call to tell me when to go to the hospital for surgery. In order to avoid thinking about food all day, I slept until mid-afternoon Thursday. By 3:00pm I was starting to get dizzy when I stood up, so I called the doctor's office to let them know I was dehydrating. If they waited much longer to bring me in they wouldn't be able to find a vein for my IV.

Very shortly after I left the message with Dr. Martin's receptionist, I received word to go straight to the hospital. I was warned that they still didn't know what time I'd have my surgery, but they wanted to start an IV right away so I would stay hydrated.

I couldn't stitch with the IV in the back of my hand so I watched movies on the tv. I had planned on reading while I was waiting but forgot my book at home.

Half way through Family Stone on the FX Channel, Dr. Webb, the anesthesiologist came in to talk to me. I was taken into the operating room at 9:21 and woke up in recovery around 10:30pm. I was allowed to leave at 10:56 and we got home shortly after 11:00pm. Uncle Wes walked over to the hospital around 8:00pm so that he could drive me home in my truck. It was the only way both our vehicles could get home because I wasn't allowed to drive, but I need my truck to get to dialysis Friday afternoon.