What Goes in Must Come Out

I hope all the Mothers out there had a lovely Mother's Day.  I did, I had great walk at the beach with mu husband and boys, watching  my boys look for cool rocks and sea glass is one of my favorite times. They get along, I can sit back and enjoy the sun and breeze and they bring me random things to look at that are so exciting to them, they think it is some cool treasure. That's what being a kid is all about.  It's nice to look at the world through their eyes once in a while.  We had a great dinner with family at a little Italian place we've been going to for years, and getting to hear Sal the crooner sing the Sinatra classics during my eggplant parmigiana was an added bonus.

So onto the matters at hand. When I started this journey called dialysis I didn't know the half of what I was in for. And to quote my vascular surgeon " you were angry and very very sick when we met in September" you just didn't know what was expected. My husband said if the doctors told you the truth about all the things they would have to do me I would't show up, no one in their right mind would.

So I got in the front car, strapped on my seat belt, pulled the roll bar down and held on for dear life for the roller coaster ride I have been put on. Getting the catheter for dialysis was the first loop. I have been hanging on stuck in this loop upside for the last 8 months. FINALLY after many dips and turns and more loops  the fistula access in my arm is working well enough to get the catheter out of my chest. No more! Adios! Good riddance!!  I made it safely back on solid ground with nothing more than a couple of stitches.

Now I am not saying that this is over, oh no, far from it, but I have graduated, so to speak to the
elite class of dialysis patients, the needles only group; but on the other hand, THERE IS NO GOING BACK! The fistula is the only game in town, no back up plan or safety net.  It is just something else to get used to. And my semi-permannet sharpie tattoo on my arm drawn to indicate where they can stick me will be a nice fashion statement in the summer when sleeves are optional.  Yes that freaks me out! But that's what XANAX is for ;)

I hope that from now I only ride on the kiddie coaster, I don't want to hang upside and do loops and twists and turns. I don't mind the little dips and hills, I can handle that.  In the meantime on Thursday I will be taking the longest shower human history!!!