My day on Friday, June 17, 2011

When it rains it pours, i was just diagnosed with RA, and now Friday morning, I woke up with excruiating pain in my abdomen, the first thing i thought oh no! please don't let this be peritonitits, developing peritonitits three times during my ten year run with PD, this pain didn't feel like that, and it wasn't as unbearable as the PD infections that i have experienced in the past, but just to be on the safe side, after an hour of trying to tolerate this pain, i decided to seek attention at ER. When i got there, they went through the usual, take your kaiser card and your driver's license, and then they will call you in to be registered, i sat in the waiting area for about fifteen minutes, it didn't look like they were all that busy, because there was only two people sitting in the waiting area. I finally was called in, and the nurse reception, took my vitals, (you know the usual temp, b/p, and that bandage on the finger thing, where they check how well you are breathing the room air, you know!), and i am still at this time having very excruiating pain, the nurse then ask from a scale from 1 to 10, how would you rate your pain, and of course, i responded with 7 or 8. I was then instructed to sit back in the waiting area, until my name is called. By now, i had reached my breaking point, because i wasn't getting any relief for my pain, just sitting in the waiting area, agonizing with so much pain. Finally after another fifteen minutes, i am called in, and assigned to a room. The nurse must not look at my chart, because she ask me what i am there for, and of course, i am so aggravated by then, i think i may have a hernia issue, it want go back in, even when i lie down, so she says, it may need to be pushed back in place. Disrobe from the waist down, so i just took off my pants. Another ten minutes went by, and finally she comes back to give me an IV, (which IV are not very friendly to me), she had to try three times, before she could get the IV, because each time, when she thought she had it, it would blow, you see my veins tend to roll away and they also have the nerve to hide, plus they are very small veins, which is one reason why i had so much trouble with AV Grafts on Hemo for ten years. I had four grafts in all, having angioplasties of repairs of grafts several times, during my ten year run with Hemo. I am still this very day, a very hard stick, just to get blood drawn. Well, anyway, she finally got one on the third try, and she then administered morphine, and it wasn't long before i wasn't feeling the pain anymore, and feeling like i was on cloud nine, that is some great pain killer (lol). I don't get high, but that is a real awesome feeling, sometime i wonder if this is how drug addicts feel, when they get high, it is not a bad way to feel, a person could start to crave this drug, and then become a painkiller addict (lol). After the morphine began to take a affect about five minutes, the ER doctor comes back in, and ask me do i still feel any pain or discomfort in my abdomen, and i told him i don't feel a thing, so he told me to brace myself, so he begans to move my hernia around, until he felt it go back in place. To be honest with you, i truly don't know what that feels like, when it is back in place, but he did demonstrate to me, how to pop it back in place. He told me to walk around the room a few times, and then lie down, and check to see if the hernia flattens, and it did, and that was an indication that it was popped back in place. I tell ya, it is one thing or another with prolonged dialysis treatment, but all in all, i have learned a lot from all these experiences. I have had this hernia since 2006, but it wasn't giving me any pain or discomfort all that time. Now, i guess you say, why don't you have it repaired, well, it is not that simple for me, my case is very complicated, and that is mainly because of all the access and catherer issues i have had during my ten year hemo run. First, i can't have a catherer in the upper part of my body, because of potential severe edema issues, which because of this edema issue in the upper part of my body, i developed CHF (congestive heart failure). The edema issues occurred back in 1993, when i received the blessing of my first transplant, i had to have temporary hemo, because my lab results weren't in normal range, and they decided not to declot my graft, and attempted to give me a subclavian (catherer), which was a very blotched up procedure, causing my left side of my neck to swell, (i swear you would have thought, i had developed a very enormous tumor on the left side of neck, this experience is shared in my second book in full detail - My Twenty Year Journey with PKD in the Dialysis World), way to much to go into on this blog. Back to the story, I could only have a catherer placed in my right groin, and i truly despise dialyzing from my groin, it is very taxing on my body, to the point, that when i had to return to hemo back in 2006, because of the development of a fungus, in which my PD catherer had to be completely removed. I had the worst pressure - i could only get as high as 250, i had frequently clotting issues with this groin catherer, which i experienced a frost bite like feeling on hemo, it was to the point, that i couldn't tolerate my treatment, so the treatment was stopped for that day, but i had to return the following day, where if you had a normal functioning graft or fistula, you would only dialyzing three days a week, every other day, i hated having to go to treatment two days in a roll, now you know why it is not such a great idea for me to return to hemo, even temporary. I try my best to keep my hernia tamed, with a band and also a maternity band, that my sweet and long time friend, Veronica Ramsey, suggested. Hoping it can work, until i have my IVIG procedure at Cedar Sinai, and then i came be a candidate for the cadaver list once again, in hopes of receiving the blessing of a kidney real soon. Well, that is it for now, i am feeling better, and getting on with the business of living and staying as compliant as i can, with renal diet, and my medication regiment. Until next blog, all the best to all my blogging friends. Glo