Small update on things

Today I had my blood drawn and my vein mapping scheduled. It was easy and uneventful really. The blood was drawn quickly and relatively painlessly, one stick and one tube... piece of cake. The vein mapping was a little more interesting but completely painless and easy. They did an ultra-sound on my arms to look at the veins and the arteries and will use that to determine whether or not I can have a fistula put in so I have another means of dialysis. Aside from having a blue rubber band tied *tightly* around each of my arms for five minutes (ouch) and having lots of goopy, slimy gel stuff poured over my arms from my wrist to my shoulder... it couldn't have gone smoother and the whole procedure lasted about 15 minutes. I waited in the lobby longer than the actual procedure took and the nurse made a joke about the paperwork taking longer.

The blood that was drawn will tell my complete blood cell count (CBC) to make sure I'm not anemic or anything like that and also it's just routine to make sure my dialysis doesn't need to be adjusted. The vein mapping will tell the doctors what I have to work with as far as what my other dialysis access options are. Currently, I only have one access which means only one way of dialysis so in the case of an emergency or for any other reason that would cause me to have to stop PD, there needs to be another access so I can still receive dialysis. I really don't want to get a fistula if I can help it... those things are ugly and for some people, it's already awkward enough so I don't think I really want to get an ugly, pulsating, lumpy mass that people will ask about, want to touch and/or just stare at it and make everything even more awkward for me than it already is. On the other hand, I could make up some really cool stories about it...


And as for the transplant update... my dad is redoing one of the tests and he has an appointment with the nephrologist (kidney doctor) next week I think to go over the results again before he meets with the head transplant doctor (again) and THEN, if everything is good, my case will be presented to the committee and, after that clears, I'll finally have a date for the transplant and something solid to finally look forward too.


So please pray, if you would, that everything with my dad's tests would come back fine and that they would move this process along as fast as they can. Thanks! :-)


Also, a little bragging moment before I go, I was able to catch the last ten minutes of my siblings' volleyball practice and I was soooo proud of them. My sister was the cutest girl there and my brothers made some excellent serves, they practice hard and they play well with their team and I made sure to cheer real loud for them when I was there. I think I'm going to try to go to more of their practices... I can't do a whole lot but I can still cheer good and loud. All that to say... my siblings are the best and I love them tons and yes, I am biased, be jealous because you don't have amazing siblings like mine! :-)