I survived my first day of hemo!!  I have to admit, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be… I was all puffing out my chest thinking that I had conquered the one thing I feared the most, but then again, I kind of skirted the part of hemo I fear the most… the needles and shunt, so I can’t be all THAT proud.  haha… Since I’m only having to do this temporarily, they placed a catheter in my chest (kind of looks like two tubes coming out of the right side of my chest), so all they have to do is hook up the tubes to the machine and the machine will do the work for me.  No needles at all!  Which I am totally TOTALLY happy about.  The story would be VERY different if I had to do this full time permanently.  So, yesterday, they placed the catheter in, and afterwards, they wheeled me into the dialysis center for my treatment.   Since I was drugged out for them to do put the catheter in, I pretty much slept through the majority of my dialysis.  Afterwards, I was a bit weak (which was not only due to the residual anesthesia, but also partly normal when they take that much fluid off in one sitting), but I can finally breathe!!  My sister also told me that my eyes are whiter and my stomach looks flatter again.  Yay!   What a difference a day makes!!  What’s nice is that I also don’t have to spend a half hour setting up my cycler getting ready for bed tonight…hahaha…

Today, I met with the surgeon to get my PD catheter fixed, so I’ll be going in for surgery to get that done on Tuesday.  It will be done laproscopically, so hopefully it won’t be a big deal.  Until then, I have to do the hemo tomorrow and Monday.  I’m not even sure if I’ll be able to use my PD catheter immediately after they fix it, so I might have to continue for the rest of the week… we’ll see.  I’ll just have to make sure I have plenty of reading material on hand in case I do.  🙂  I just feel more at peace knowing that things are being taken care of and I’m not having to suffer much while doing it.

I have to say, ya’ll really helped me yesterday.  When I was feeling so angry/upset that I couldn’t find things to be positive about, you pulled through and found them for me.  I truly have the most amazing friends!  🙂  Thank you soooooo much!

Have an amazing Easter weekend!

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What I’m thankful for today:

1.  I do not have to deal with hemo needles!!!

2.  I have a small chest… this catheter is preventing me from wearing a bra, so I’m glad I’m not accosting anyone with my bazookas!  😉

3.  Sister days!  They allow me to be as free, angry, lazy or inspired as I want to be under the safe wing of my sister, who will be following my example…making me laugh.

4.  My parents who have sat in nasty emergency rooms at all hours of the night, with all types of characters to make sure I get the help I need!  Love ya’ll!  😀

5.  Large waiting rooms… so you don’t have some random family who can’t speak English sitting in your lap (literally) while you try to quietly read your magazine in peace.