Saturday, February 11, 2012

Holy Boxes Batman!

So Thursday we got a big medical supply shipment. They delivered replacement tubing, lines, dialysis solution, masks, hand soap, sanitizer, face masks, gauze, syringes...the list goes on. We cleaned off some of the basement shelving to prepare. This is kind of what I was expecting:



This is what we actually got!!!!!!!!!



I mean really! 

 (Doesn't Anthony put it in perspective?!)


Where do other people put this stuff!? What if we didn't have a basement? What if we had to put this in our house somewhere? And he has to order every month...and get a monthly supply each time. So because of the timing of his order he actually has to order again next week and get more boxes in 2 weeks!! Wow!

When I got home and saw it my eyes must've been as big as saucers. "We'll find a better place to put it. We'll organize it more. It won't have to sit right here forever. Some of this is going to go back, I won't use all this stuff," Anthony greeted me at the car. And this is just what's downstairs.

This is our set up in the bedroom:



This is on Anthony's side of the bed, obviously. The machine on top is what he'll be hooked up to. You can see some of the tubing and lines that Anthony will use hooked up. His first bag of Dextrose solution is laying on top of the machine, and the second bag is hanging on the side.  There is also a drain line that runs the length of the bedroom and into the toilet. He'll do this overnight tonight, Saturday, for the first time. It takes about 10-15 minutes just to get the machine primed and ready. Now all he'll have to do is hook himself up when he goes to bed. He got a shorter tube for his stomach so he doesn't have quite so much tubing hanging around. It's now a 6 inch connector that he's wearing. He seems to like it better.

Anthony will dialyze for 8 hours tonight. He'll have 5 exchanges over the course of those nine hours. He'll have about an hour of 'dwell' time each exchange. So basically here's how it works. An "exchange" is a full cycle. The machine fills up his peritoneal cavity with about 1400 mL of the Dextrose solution. He will then 'dwell' for about an hour and 15 minutes. In other words, it'll hang out in there doing its thing and cleaning out the toxins for 75 minutes. The machine will then automatically drain the toxin-filled solution from his abdomen and it will be carried to the toilet through the drain line. That's one full exchange. Once he's drained it will automatically fill him up again. This cycle process will continue all night until all five exchanges have taken place. He's trying to time it so that he can get up and unhook and clean everything up and out of the floor before Lincoln gets up. There's no way he will understand why he can't play with the tubing or pull it out of the floor. 

He's less tired with the peritoneal dialysis. It's a different process and doesn't involve his blood like hemo dialysis. He already feels better. He said he can tell a difference with his bones and joints in particular. He felt like an old man at 33 with hip and knee trouble. Once he started dialysis he noticed a quick change there. The other very noticeable positive so far has been the sleeping. He's definitely sleeping better, longer, and having less trouble falling asleep. For someone who hasn't slept well in his whole life, or at least as long as I've known him, that makes your world different. 

We're both hoping and praying that the noises the machine makes won't be significant and we'll be able to sleep well through them. I know it'll just be something to get used to...like noises on vacation. I'm sure it won't take long for us to get used to it so that we don't really hear it at all. 

On a more fun note..Lincoln found this precious costume in his closet last week and just HAD to put it on! He was soo soo cute "swimming" around the house. Could this be a sneak peak of Halloween?!


1 comment:

erin4209 said...

I want a Nemo costume to match!