Week in the hospital

I went in for the dialysis catheter on Tuesday, January 20th. I fasted since Monday night and they had me wait at the UCD hospital all day. The appointment was at 11 am and my catheter was placed at 5 pm, then I didn't feel like eating until the next morning. The catheter placement was so painful, they barely sedated me, if at all. I felt every needle prick, about 12. The shoving in of the catheter was the most painful. Afterward, they couldn't stop the bleeding, so the nurses took turns pressing their fingers onto the wounds many times for long periods, I wanted to cry. They didn't give me pain medication until my husband requested they give me some after all the pressing. We requested my bloodwork results and they gave them to us later, my platelets were 89 and my hemoglobin 8. They sent me home, still bleeding and told me to go to emergency if it didn't stop. A few hours later, Yarid took me to the Sutter emergency room, where they did some more pressing. An ambulance picked me up and took me to the Woodland Memorial at 1 am. That morning, I had a transfusion and my first dialysis session together. It made me nauseas and dizzy and raised my blood pressure. Afterwards, I couldn't breathe, and I felt like fainting, by the time the nurse believed me, it was night and they found that I only had about 50 % oxygen, instead of 100%. I was rushed to the ICU. They drugged me and placed a breathing mask on me. I woke up toward the end of my second (emergency) dialysis. I would have drowned without it. They told me I had fluid overload. The next morning, I had dialysis again, I had nausea and dizziness, then I almost vomited. My body became very hot and I went deaf for a while. I almost passed out but they stopped that part of the dialysis. Later they told me my heart had stopped beating for 6 seconds twice during th0se 15 seconds, when I almost passed out. Monday, I had another dialysis session, and I became nausea, dizzy and had very strong stomach pains, my session had to be limited. I was discharged and went home with a major headache. The highest my blood pressure went during the week was 240/130. They can't figure out why it's always high. Tomorrow, I'll have a new dialysis session in Dixon. I am afraid.

All day testing complete and dialysis starts Wed

Silvia finished her initial tests: cat scan, 24 hour urine, chest x-ray, transplant doctor evaluation, EKG, blood work, and interview. We don't have all the results yet though. The coordinator told us that the soonest surgery date that is open is mid-March. My newest symptoms are hot flashes that make me dizzy, and a very sweet taste (like artificial sweeteners) in my mouth. I am always tired, but I can't sleep. My edema is even worse than before. My blood pressure is still very high. I have bruises on my legs that are getting darker instead of healing. I also had a very bad leg cramp when I woke up yesterday, and a painful cramp on my chest today. My creatinine was over 11 last week, GFR 4, and my platelets are decreasing. My neck catheter is going in on Tuesday at 11 AM at UCDMC. And I will start dialysis Wednesday, the 21st at 6 AM.

Perfect Match

My sister Silvia's crossmatch results came back as a 100% match. Hector had only been a 50% match. The crossmatch took a long time because the transplant clinic is so slow, it took them 2 weeks to get the kit to her. She is coming up to visit on the 16th, for her all day evaluation and testing. I had a blood test Mon., saw my primary physician on Wed., and I called the dialysis clinic on Thursday to tell them I want to start dialysis. My ankles have become swollen, my ammonia breath is back, I can't sleep, my blood pressure is out of control (even with extra medication, usually 160/110), my potassium still gets too high sometimes, my phosphorous is very high (even with medication) and for 2 days, my fast heart beat would wake me and I would see red flashes when I opened my eyes. My doctor doesn't know what the flashes mean. The dialysis lady said she'd call me back in 1 1/2 weeks to schedule me. I thought she was joking. They've been begging me to do dialysis for months and now that I finally decided I need to do it, they are going to make me wait. I'll probably change my mind by the time they call me back. I called my doctor to tell her and she says she will try to find another place for me to do dialysis.