Yesterday, as it was Monday, I expected there to be some difficulty in cannulating myself for my dialysis session. What I did not expect was that it would take my named nurse and I several attempts and then think that … Continue reading Right amount of fluid taken off, but still ½ a kilo over my dry weight?
Last Thursday, I was one of three renal patients who attended the onsite opening of the B. Braun Wellstone Renal Care Centre in Downs, Port Laoise. The Renal Care Centre is where I receive my thrice-weekly dialysis sessions. Leading up … Continue reading B. Braun Wellstone Midlands Renal Care Centre opened in Port Laoise
Being prescribed a new medication always means learning about what side effects there may be, and how the medication should be taken. This is why patient information leaflets are a vital part of the pharmaceutical industry. (However much they annoy … Continue reading Patient information leaflets are important
I’m very pleased to hear that University College Dublin Students’ Union has created a campaign raising awareness of U=U in conjunction with HIV Ireland’s #MPOWER service. Well done to former UCDSU President, Conor Anderson, for speaking out and raising awareness. Continue reading What does Undetectable=Untransmittable mean?
It is heartening to hear that the Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service is changing its rules for blood donation to allow gay men who have been in a same-sex relationship for three months or more to give blood as part … Continue reading Progress on gay blood donation: does it take account of U=U?
At the beginning of May, my dialysis unit (the B Braun Wellstone Midlands Renal Care Centre in Port Laoise) made a suggestion of trying to see how many steps we could take each day to improve our mental health. The … Continue reading Walking challenge helped mental health: near 110,000 steps in last week!
So, on Friday, I had created a table for recording particular stats whilst on dialysis. Then a friend suggested that I use a bullet journal to make things easier, so I have done that. I then realised that I had a blank page to the left of my table, and so have used that to create checklist to keep track of my medications. So, let’s see how this goes for the next few days and then I will decide whether to continue or not. Continue reading Revised format for recording dialysis and HIV medications and stats
Dialysis, like much of healthcare, is all about numbers. The numbers may be examined on a yearly, quarterly, monthly, or weekly basis. Some are checked hourly during each dialysis session. Usually, these hourly numbers are registered and checked by the … Continue reading HSE computer hack has helped mental health for me as a dialysis patient
Since I transferred my dialysis care from the Midlands Regional Hospital in Tullamore to the B Braun Wellstone Midlands Renal Care Centre in Port Laoise, we have been working towards the goal of self care. This will be where I will take responsibility for my own care and my own dialysis in conjunction with the unit staff. I am already back to cannulating my own fistula, and preparing the trolley in advance of this. Soon, I hope that the unit staff will start to teach me to prepare the dialysis machine in advance of the treatment. In the last week, … Continue reading Self care becoming an achievable goal
Following the monthly review by my consultant, it has been decided to increase my time on dialysis to 4 hours per session from the 3.5 hours that has been the normal since I started. The reason for this is that it should help to get me higher clearance which is better than not. So from Wednesday, I will have even longer to find things to do, listen to Audible or music. I also hope that it might stop there being so many sharp decreases in blood pressure. Continue reading Extra time on dialysis should bring improved results
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