We're Back to Quiet

Since returning from camp, I have had fairly quiet nights with only a few alarms to deal with from the venous pressure side. Push a button and go back to sleep.


I have been feeling as well as it gets, have been getting OK sleep and have no complaints to share. Next 3 weeks will see me going for a bunch of tests as a result of my requesting to be put on the transplant list. I will keep you informed of course.

Back From Camp

Dear Readers,

We survived dialysis camp! The experience was very close to what I expected. The opportunity to get away for a week and spend some time exploring a beautiful part of Canada was well worth the mosquitos and black flies.

Susan and I packed up the Jeep with help from our older daughter and drove 4½ hours north along both super highways and small country roads to a town, Dorset Ontario, best known as a center for fire-watchers. The Canadian shield there is covered with trees and the district, Muskoka, is known as the land of a thousand lakes.

After registering and getting my dialysis schedule (Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8:30am) we unloaded into the room, a brand new efficiency unit similar to an inexpensive motel. A meeting with the camp organizers at 6pm provided us with a schedule of camp activities (pot luck dinner, bonfire, soccer game, etc.) which we promptly ignored. Things here are organized for families with lots of things to do for kids. There is a baseball / soccer field, tennis courts, mini golf putting greens, jungle jim and water equipment such as canoes, kayak and paddle boats.

The next morning, Susan had to wake up unexpectedly as I was having some kind of drug reaction. I tried to go to dialysis quietly but had what seemed like a combination of a blood sugar crash and gabapentin overdose with twitching and stoned feeling. I took glucose tablets and eventually got to the clinic where I hoped the blood cleaning of dialysis would help with too much gabapentin.


The clinic was transported out of a hospital with 15 chairs and the latest Fresenius machines. The nurses were from various clinics around the province and were there on a working holiday with our days off as theirs. Four hours later, I was feeling much better and was prepared to go exploring.

We drove to the nearest large town, Huntsville, about 20 minutes away and got some groceries and a bit of relaxing juice for the week ahead. Between and Saturday, we did nothing. I did manage to get in a bit of fishing (no luck), a couple of drives to explore and a couple of movies on my new Imac that we brought for entertainment. I caught uoon 24 hours of podcasts, Susan on her book. Dialysis went without a hitch, I had no further problems and did not experience any ill effects from the switch in dialysis treatment duration and frequency.

From what we could see, it was a great place for families to spend some time together. We did have a bear sighting in the camp on Thursday but Susan and I were into the BBC production of the Taming of the Shrew with John Cleese in a lead role and missed the fun. We left on Saturday morning and with a stop to visit some of Susan's family at their summer cottage, were home for dinner. Our opinion was that it was the best $250 we had spent in a long time. We hope to be lucky enough to go again next year.

Vacation

Susan and I are off for a week at dialysis camp today. I will give a full report when I return.

A Half Run

In an effort to get another good night's sleep, Susan put me on dialysis yesterday from 5 until 11pm.  My blood pressure dropped at 9 well into the 80/ range so we ended the session at that time.  Today I'm feeling good.  Since we are leaving for dialysis camp on Sunday, I will have runs tonight and Saturday night.  I should have no problems with getting dialysis back on a 4 hour / 3 times a week for the week we are gone.  I will report on dialysis camp when we get back.  

If you want another reason to try home dialysis, read this story about a nurse poisoning patients at a US clinic.  

2 Days to Forget

Unfortunately I have fodder for this column. Lately I have had good health and great (quiet) experiences with nightly dialysis. However, that changed on Tuesday.

I woke up with the strangest sensation in my body. Starting at the base of my spine and quickly moving upwards, I had an intense throbbing that radiated outward. It wasn’t really painful, just consuming. I had to sit. These sensations went on all day, every hour or so, and lasted about a minute.

I worried about heart problems (I’ve had a silent MI a few years ago), angina, stroke and all the other usual bad things one imagines, but did not do anything about it thinking (hoping) it would go away. By dinner however I had had enough and Susan took me to the hospital.

With quick efficiency I was on a stretcher, being poked and prodded and questioned. Within an hour, all the tests and x-rays were in and the Doctor ruled out heart problems, infections and just about everything else. Unfortunately, he did not rule anything in and I was sent home with a script for an anti-biotic “in case it doesn’t go away” and told to come back if it got worse.

Yesterday morning, that problem was gone, but instead I had a problem with gas, bloating, vomiting and nausea. This is a reoccurrence of a problem that has plagued me once a month for the past 4 months. As before, after a very unpleasant day, the symptoms went away and today I awoke to my usual condition.

If any of you have experienced a similar throbbing problem, please let me know. Your comment can be public or private by email to me at jmeloche.1@gmail.com

Thanks,

John