Some dialysis sessions glide along without fuss. Today is not one of those.

From the moment we started, the machine has been in a mood. We flushed the lines. We swapped them around. Then swapped them back. Then repeated the whole routine again, as if the machine might suddenly decide to behave out of sheer boredom. No such luck.

We even switched from HDF to HD—the kind of change that sometimes settles things—but the pressures still refused to cooperate. Alarms kept chiming their disapproval. The whole setup felt like it had decided to challenge us for sport.

And the best part? We’re not even finished yet. This isn’t a tidy story with a neat ending. It’s one of those sessions where you just keep going, step by step, because stopping isn’t an option. The team is doing everything they can, and I’m doing the only thing I can: staying put, breathing through the frustration, and letting the process unfold.

The next run isn’t until Wednesday, so there’s no “tomorrow will be better” ending here. Just the honest truth of a day when the machine acts up and you push through anyway.

Some days on dialysis are smooth. Some days are stubborn. Today is definitely the latter.