Thursday, October 20, 2016

Ups and Downs

A couple of up and down days... Yesterday I had an appointment with my kidney doctor.  We went over a lot of stuff... my fatigue, my rising blood pressure, my susceptibility to colds and viruses.  The fatigue will gradually lessen, although yesterday was a really rough day.  She's having me go to dialysis an extra day for a couple of weeks (4 days total) until we get the extra fluids under control.  I normally have extremely low blood pressure, but the dialysis can mess with that, so I'm on blood pressure meds for awhile.

The being susceptible to junk in the air part... I am supposed to be very cautious about being around large groups of people, use the hand sanitizer and wipes on the grocery carts, and cut down on pet hair and dust inside.  Brad has been so good about coming up with solutions to a lot of this.  He ordered an air purifier that arrived yesterday, Budger now gets a brushing after his walks before they come back inside, and I think he swept and mopped and dusted and wiped down every surface with disinfectant wipes while I was at dialysis this morning.  I'm not supposed to do any of the sweeping, and absolutely can't change the litter box.  Poor Brad, this was not part of the deal, but he's been amazing, and thinks of things before I do.  He did start doing the dishes when we moved into the RV a year ago, but that's something I can do (on my good days) that doesn't stir up any dust, so I may steal that job back, since he's had to take on so many of mine

I feel pretty good today.  We even went for a (very slow) walk a bit ago.  Yesterday I was miserable, and had another pity party moment.  From having to give myself a 10 minute pep talk to get off the couch yesterday, to being able to set out everything we needed for sandwiches for lunch today.   Ups and downs, that's how it's going to be, but I'll take feeling (relatively) good today!

I thought I'd share my new dialysis port location.  You can see my neck was pretty torn up from the old one.  I'm not sure what's under the bandaid, but there is a lump, and it hurt for the first couple of days.... good today, though.  I'm thinking it's a couple of stitches.  They probably told me at the hospital, but I've forgotten.  I think I'll peek under it tomorrow.

The second pic shows what the port looks like when I'm out and about.  A little lumpy (they always clean and wrap the tubes so well at the clinic... so much gauze!).  But I don't think it'll be attracting attention like the one hanging out of my neck!



4 comments:

  1. What an extreme way to get out of the chores! Bless you.
    gosh, if the port is under that Bandaid it is very neat indeed.
    I do think a little pity party was in order,
    I've had 'em for far less . . Blunt drill bit last weekend!
    Brad is being a loving husband, is all 😊
    You're doing really well.
    Keep on keeping on!

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  2. It's good that you have a "tiny house" through this. Less space to clean and wipe down. Glad you are doing better.

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    Replies
    1. Yep... also means things get dirty quicker, but yeah, clean up is quick.

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