Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Dialysis and All that Jazz

I started this blog to show my friends what my dialysis was like, because they ask some questions about it (but most are big scardie cats and don't wanna come, you bums;) ). So I thought I'd take some pictures of a few things and tell what they do. 

This is my Dialysis Machine. The tubes cycle my blood through a filter that takes out toxins that are harmful to my body. Since my kidneys can't do that anymore, thats what the machine does for me.

These are the needles in my fistula. It's a vein and an artery that doctors connected in my left arm. It creates a natural artery that they can place needles in with an increased bloodflow.



My lovely T.V. Dialysis takes 3 hours and 45 minutes, so I sit in my chair and watch some cable TV. I can't move my arm because the needles may shift and affect the bloodflow to the machine. 

More Machine pictures :)

The light thats on my machine, if there is a problem it turns red and makes a beeping noise. Normally it's a happy green if the treatment is going perfectly.

The whole setup. (oh look it's me in my frumpy Dialysis clothes)

Marie was sneaky and got a picture of me all woozy (yay funny face). Sometimes my blood pressure drops very low at the end of my treatment or my muscles can cramp up, usually in my legs and back. It can happen because I took off too much fluids or went past my dry weight. That means they have to give me some saline to help bring back up my pressure. 

Kinda short I know but, if people have questions, feel free to ask in the comment section and I'll try to answer them the best I can.