February 4, 2009

I didn't accomplish much more stitching today than I did yesterday. The 'A' of "Album" is done. That's about it. I only stitched from 1:15 to 1:50am. I stopped when I got tired because I know better than to stitch once the yawning begins. That seems to be when the frogs are most likely to attack. Considering all the previous difficulties I've had on this page, I'm certainly not going to invite those blasted frogs in!

I was so upset when I left dialysis this afternoon! My machine alarmed, indicating a venous pressure problem. Fine. Fixed that.

Less than a minute later, without even moving my arm, the machine alarms again. This time it's arterial. Fine. Reset. Fixed that.

My arm still hasn't moved, the machine alarms for TMP. I look over into the next section and tell Greg there's definitely a problem because now it's TMP. He sends over the new tech. New tech messes with the machine, resetting it and it keeps alarming after just a few seconds. I look in one of the tubes and say "It's clotted!" He says "No it's not." I'm LOOKING AT THE CLOT! Don't tell me it's not clotted!

He keeps messing with the machine and now the air detector indicates because he took the tube out of the holder. He keeps messing with the machine. It won't reset now. *I* know he has to untwist the transducer, but he's been trained, so I thought he knew what to do. Finally, totally frustrated that he hasn't asked for help, I look behind me and tell Greg we need help over here.

He comes over and untwists the transducer, first thing. Resets the tube in the holder, and the machine starts up, but stops seconds later. About 10 minutes has passed and 600ml of my blood is in those tubes! The longer they take, the more chance everything will clot and my blood can't be returned.

So the arterial blood gets returned. Venous is a no-go. He messes with it for another 5-10 minutes before calling another tech over to help. By then it's too late. The blood has turned a dark red, almost black, so it is totally clotted.

I was so PISSED because if the tech had asked for help BEFORE messing with the machine for 20 minutes, it could have been returned to me! Instead, it had to be thrown away. I'm just wondering if it's nothing really to worry about, or if the loss will make a difference in my blood count. It's monitored weekly so that medication doses can be adjusted. Unfortunately, I'm anemic most of the time. This episode sure isn't going to help me!

I had tons of email when I got home, so I spent my evening reading that. I also got to chat with Debi and Kathy C, as well as Kim P for a while, which was nice. Carol BC called and we chatted for a while, too.

Barnes & Noble stitching group is tomorrow at 1pm, so I'm going to call it an early night so that I can be awake in time. If I get up early enough, I plan on taking Miss Kay Kay to Muddy Paw Wash for her monthly bath and new toy. I'll be sure to take the camera!