And another procedure...

They tried twice to use the fistula access after the last "de-clotting procedure."  These procedures are essentially surgery.  Done in a surgical setting, just no general anesthesia so I can drive home afterward.  But the prep and the recovery are done in the post-op area.  This one involved putting balloons through my veins and blowing them up so that they manually "mature" the vein, ie. force it to grow in size so that it'll handle more volume for the dialysis machine.  Had I known it were this hard, I might have given peritoneal dialysis (PD) another shot but the hemodialysis (HD) port they've been using has been a breeze.  And I honestly feel so much better since going on HD.

Edit 9/25/23- Last Friday, the nurse decided to give the arm a rest.  That was probably a good decision, I realize now it was still sore from blowing up balloons inside my vein.  But today was a success.  They found my vein and it was big enough to accommodate the volume needed for the machine. 

Sweet 3-day weekend

Getting alot of stuff done.  Getting alot of  self-care.  Unfortunately, I'm eating out too much.  I should cook something, eh?  Got the house cleaned yesterday, still need to get started on laundry.

I woke up with a back ache so I got a massage this afternoon.  That hit the spot.  Since I was near a beach, I went there for an hour.  It was very windy so the waves were higher than usual, was relaxing to watch.  We're in a heat wave, I thought it would be crowded, but this is a small local beach and it wasn't.  When you live this close to a beach like this, you don't need to make a day of it.  Now, why did I want to go to Santa Barbara to sit on the beach & get fish & chips? Wish I brought a sketchbook.  Then I got fish & chips a couple blocks away.  OMG, it was a pile of food.  I can make another 3 meals from the leftovers, even after throwing out the French fries.  I'm not supposed to eat potatoes, though I ate a few while it was hot & crunchy on the outside and creamy on the inside.

Tomorrow doesn't seem like a day off, even though I don't have to go to work.  There are no days off from dialysis.