So the decision was made on Tuesday of this past week that it was time to start dialysis. I was scheduled for a 23 hour observation on Thursday into Friday. My day on Thursday started with a 1:00 arrival at Lahey Clinic and a 2:00 procedure to install a catheter into my upper right chest, just below the neck. This is my new port to my robotic kidneys... A.K.A. the dialysis machine.
I have no memory of the procedure... the drugs had me off in sleepy land. I awoke to the most incredibly itchy scalp... insatiably itchy... back and forth my hand traveled from one side to the other but nothing satisfied that itch. Turned out i'm allergic to one of the drugs they gave me. My head was covered in hives. Still in a semi state of hallucination I felt like what I imagine is how it feels to be a caterpillar exiting the cocoon. At first my entire body was covered in blankets. I think I asked the doctors if my head was under blankets... I couldn't quite grasp where I was or why or how... I only knew I was covered in blankets or at least suspected as much and knew that my head was itchy beyond the ability to scratch it to satisfaction.
I remember being asked not to do something that I was doing.... but I have no memory of what it was that I was doing. I noticed too that I had the most incredible case of jimmy leg I've ever had. There must have been something to that because they strapped what looked like inflatable swimming devices to my legs and then hooked them into a little machine that would blow them up and then release the air, essentially massaging my legs through a series of pressure applied in various chambers of the inflatable devices.
Eventually I returned to reality and was brought to a room where I would spend the night so I could receive my initial dialysis treatment in the morning. Having gone without food since dinner the night before I was incredibly hungry. I ordered up some dinner, ate, watched an episode or two of Arrested Development on my laptop and then attempted to sleep the night away. Unfortunately the nurses were in and out of my room all night... poking, prodding, inspecting, talking to me, changing my bandages and generally annoying the heck outta me.
Breakfast at 7:30 while watching another episode of Arrested Development, it wasn't long before they moved me down into the dialysis room for my first treatment. As they wheeled me down the aisle towards the room I could hear the faint cries of a person in distress as it rose in a crescendo of desperation before tapering off to a faint moan. This pattern repeated for the next two and half hours. My entire first dialysis session was played out to the sound of Mr. Flynn crying for help. I mostly tried to ignore it while I watched a few more episodes of Arrested Development.
Back in my room I had hoped to be released almost immediately. The nurse told me that was highly unlikely... so I ordered up some lunch and watched another episode of AD. while eating, the nurse came in and said "I lied, it looks like they're releasing you." Alas... this news came 15 minutes too late... Meg couldn't leave Newburyport and get to Burlington to get me and get back in time to get Annie at the bus stop... so it was decided I would have to wait until after Annie was out of school before I would be picked up.
Tired of all that AD I just closed my laptop and my eyes and slept the next couple of hours away. Meg arrived to pick me up around 4:30... just in time for the evening commute. So we trekked over to the Burlington Mall and had some dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.
And so goes the day in the life of a regular guy with kidney disease.
My name is Bil... and you know what I normally say here. (wink)
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