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°•°•°Angie's Kidney Support Site's MSN Space°•°•°Heaven knows organ donation saves lives. June 21 Kidney Foundation of Canada Gift of Life Walk
I'm participating in The Kidney Foundation of Canada's
Please support my campaign to help Canadians living with kidney disease
by donating today! Your contribution will benefit The Kidney Foundation
of Canada, the national volunteer organization committed to reducing
the burden of kidney disease. http://kidneykorner.com/AK/Gift_of_Life_Walk_2009.html An estimated 2 million Canadians have kidney disease or are at risk while each day an average of 14 Canadians learn that their kidneys have failed.
Secure online donations can be made with VISA, MasterCard and American Express. An electronic tax receipt will be sent to you by email within minutes of making your pledge. You can make an online donation now. Click here to get started: http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?SID=2254627
Since its creation in 1964, The Kidney Foundation has helped millions of Canadians suffering from kidney failure and related disorders such as hypertension, diabetes, urinary tract infections and kidney stones. Today, the Foundation continues its focus on strategies to improve the organ donor rate in Canada. It is also exploring preventive approaches to detect chronic renal insufficiency at an early stage, delay its progression and prevent complications associated with the disease. Please help Canadians living with kidney disease - donate now by clicking here: http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?SID=2254627 Thank you for your generous support! "angieskidney"
Want to register yourself to walk?More info on how to register yourself here! and if you are in Windsor and want to walk with me this is the walk I will be walking:
Date: Sunday, September 13, 2009
Want to buy shirts or a Green Bracelet to support awareness?Check out the list of items here!June 13 June 13th 2009 - Transplant doing well a year and a half later :) Transplant is doing well. Creatinine bounces around a little especially if I do not drink enough but I find it hard to keep up on drinking fluids now since I got used to limiting my fluids so much on 6 1/2 years of dialysis. Right now my GFR is at 25 but if I drink enough I can get it as good as 32! My hemoglobin tends to still dip so I still give myself Aranesp in my belly every week and I still must stay on Phosphate binders but I have no problems with Potassium anymore and my output is great so I have to drink a lot! Also I wanted to announce a few sites that I am either connected to or highly recommend: My new url for my site (name changed in Feb 2009) is http://KidneyKorner.com (no longer angieskidney even though I am staying with that name as user names on forums as forums don't allow you in most cases to completely change your user name). Also I have been uploading videos on ca.youtube.com/angieskidney and will be doing more in which I want people to comment on what they want to see in the future! Also a new Facebook group has opened in Canada trying to bring all Canadians together in Kidney Disease awareness and in the fight to get more people aware of home hemodialysis or have it available in their area! Especially in trying to get NxStage to Canada (can you believe that mobile dialysis machine went to the UK first because of how complicated the Canadian system is?). The Canadian Kidney Connection! http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=68965850985 And also I am on these 2 forums a lot: www.kidneyspace.com and www.kidneyfun.net as well as on this wonderful new group (2008) called the TransplantAlliance which brings all Transplant recipients as well as family and friends and people wanting transplants together in one site! Very caring warm and non clickish! That is what I like!  http://transplantalliance.orgTake care everyone and stay well!  - Angie KidneyKorner.com and this next one has subtitles because my camera man did NOT do a sound check ... please turn up the volume on this next one: December 30 I got my transplant Sept 30th 2007! I got my kidney transplant after waiting for 6 years for the call! It was a slow start and worried me as the kidney was not working for over a month! I had to still do full time dialysis for 7 weeks!! I had what is called ATN, or Acute Tubular Necrosis! This was because the kidney was lacking oxygen carrying blood due to my blood pressure being dangerously low right after the surgery! It came up eventually but the kidney still was traumatized! There was nothing the docs could have done. It was just a wait and see kind of situation! Then the Nephrologist at the transplant hospital on my Thursday appointment decided to see if I could go from Thursday's appointment to a Monday appointment without dialysis and this way blood labs could be compared without dialysis taking out things and not know if it was the kidney or dialysis itself. So I skipped Friday's dialysis on Nov 16th and was able to stay off dialysis ever since!! I still have to give myself injections in my stomach of Epo/Eprex (actually just recently was switched to Aranesp which I am happy about as it is given less often and a small dose but does well for me!) and I still have to take Phosphate binders as my kidney is still not 100%. But I now can have potassium (infact it tends to be on the low side) and I can drink all the milk I want again!!!! I am going to try to add some pictures of my hospital stay: June 21 June 21st 2007 - Buttonholes have been stopped - back to Rope Ladder Technique :(The nurses have decided to STOP the buttonhole technique on my AV Fistula because it is so hard to cannulate and the nurses lack the time it takes.... So buttonhole was done on me from Dec 8th 2006 to June 11th 2007 ... it rolls too much. The nurses say it didn't work because it rolled so much but I say it is because when they first were establishing it I only had the same nurse the first 2 times instead of the required minimum of 6 times ... I am disappointed and just want to have a transplant. Because of my high antigen rate chances are I won't get one any time soon from a Cadaver and I have already been waiting since 2001. So I have now listed on a few FREE registries on the net! I have only gotten emails from overseas though.  Edit: New listing on my site at: http://kidneykorner.com/AK/DonorSearch.html
February 04 Jan 31st first time both blunts are used!I have been having buttonholes done since Dec 8th 2006 but it took all the way to Jan 31st 2007 to be able to get both blunt needles in! I think it is because my dialysis unit has different nurses cannulating me even though I read on the net that it should be the SAME nurse (or tech depending on what part of the world you are in)! This is where I got my info:
I have even been told that even though each nurse are cannulating me in the same buttonhole, that they are probably cannulating the actual fistula in a different place each time and that is why the blunts were just pushing the fistula around instead of going in Well the blunts worked on Wed (I asked them to try because for some reason they kept trying after a weekend .. - Angie
December 14 Dec 14th 2006 - I Started Button Hole Finally!!!Button Hole started Dec 8th 2006!Friday Dec 8th: Button Hole started. All went well except that toward the 1/2 half of my run on my machine my fistula started spasming. Also my arm was sore as the fistula would shring toward the end. Might have hit a nerve or the needle sharp tip might be hitting the wall of the fistula. BP drop a bit at the end but I don't want to adjust weight before weekend.
Monday Dec 11th: All went well. Needles slid it very easily. BP dropped at end but all seems fine. Maybe dry weight goal needs to be adjusted? Might just be because I was heavy and had a lot of excess fluid to take off.
Wed, Dec 13th: Arterial needle ok. Venous needle infiltrated fistula when nurse turns pump speed up. Must stop and retry. 2nd needle doesn't work neither. Give 15 min rest and put ice on swelling. Recirculate blood that is already in machine so it doesn't clot on me. Try a 3rd time, 3rd time's a charm. Toward end my arm is sore. We decide next time to find a new venous buttonhole spot since this one is causing problems but my buttonhole nurse tells me she won't be here on Friday. Guess it is back to the ladder technique til she is back. She tells me to tell the other nurses to stay away from the one good buttonhole we have started to establish. My arm is swollen and sore. I hope they will have better luck on Friday. September 27 Sept 27th 2006 - UPDATE: A lot has happened the last few months!The first time I typed this it all was lost when i went to add pics .. man MSN sucks!
Anyway, they have been using my AV Fistula now for a month but I had to go for a 2nd fistulogram when it kept "blowing" (I would get a goose egg and lots of bruising). Turns out there was a narrowing that was preventing the fistula from running as well as it should.
Now I have had them use the fistula for a month and have had no problems for a little over a week. But that was only one time they had to go back to the catheter so they over looked that and said that I have had really no problems for 3 weeks so they removed the permcath out of my chest yesterday.
It feels like I have been shot (or from how I imagine it would be) and I do actually have a hole in me. They sutured the part they cut but not the hole and the tegederm only covers have the hole since they focused on the cut instead. So I have a bandaid over it right now but you can see the hole clearly if I remove the bandaid. It is erie.
Here are some pics .. (some of other dialysis patients in my unit on my shift): August 10 Aug 10th 2006 - My Fistula Works!My Fistula works now and has been used for the whole month and a half now! It does blow a lot however and my arm is very bruised because of this. My fistula is very "snakey" the nurses tell me at dialysis. I eventually want to learn the buttonhole technique but that will be when my fistula is more stable and I switch to mornings where the head nurse will train me.
 So they sometimes still use my catheter that is in my chest:
  I have pictures on my cell cam-phone but can't download it right now .. so that will have to be in a future post.
- Angie
 April 16 April 16th 2006 - Update It has been over 10 days now with my 2nd fistula! This one seems to be working unlike the first one which failed after 10 days.
How the surgeon made the cut it looks like someone bit my arm. I am glad the AV Fistula is not huge yet but I am aware that as it gets stronger that it will become bigger. I know I have to just accept this but I pray mine won't be as huge as 2 people's in my dialysis unit.
I am still young (32) and unmarried. I still want to be able to attract men. But I have come to the realization that the right man will be able to accept these little things about my life.
I am lucky enough to have attracted one such great man. His name is Jeff. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world because he doesn't even mind going to dialysis treatments with me at the unit.
 Here was my first fistula before the stitches were taken out:
 and now it looks like this (pic taken after getting my 2nd one):
 When I put my finger on the 2nd one I can feel the vibration of the fistula working
 ! I am nervous about when they will starting putting the large gauge needles in for Hemo  . Right now they are still using my catheter that is in my chest.Well, I have to go jump in the shower and get to Church with my mom for Easter! Have a good Easter everyone!
And remember, no matter what hardships anyone has to go through, life goes on! Let's make the best of it!
February 20 Kidney Quiz by Angie & past related posts from other blogFebruary 05
My latest surgery failed (AV Fistula)My latest surgery was to put a fistula in my arm. It was working but just this weekend it stopped. This is my first experience with a fistula so I am not happy and don't know what to expect and am a little upset by this. Since it is the weekend I can't just call up my dialysis unit (they are not open on sundays) and I call the ER and they won't give advice over the phone. I have no ride in unless I call an ambulance. So I am not going to do anything. I see the surgeon on Monday morning anyway. I just hate waiting. It is 3:30am on a Sunday morning. I can't sleep because my mind is on this. I really wish I had a normal life ...
  ...   Angie   Update:
The dialysis nurse said I should have gone to emergency right away incase it was blocked by a blood clot. The surgeon seemed to think it wasn't that even though he didn't do an x-ray or anything. He said he can't save it and I will have to go for another surgery higher up on the same arm for another attempt. http://katiekabo0m.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!5A993BA50F7C6CA2!206.entry
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) and it also worked the next time too on Friday without a tournequet! I am not sure which is better (with or without one) but my fistula rolls and I have been told two different things! I really have been losing confidence with my dialysis team. I really want to learn how to cannulate myself for the sake of my AV Fistula lasting .. but this is coming from someone who was terrified to do her own subcutanious injections of Eprex and then Aranesp into her stomach before ..
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