Catching Up: Life in the dialysis fast lane

Sad but true; those of us on dialysis still have to contend with all the other health issues that come with maturity. That is, getting older.

On Wednesday, I had about 12 stitches removed from the back of my head where Squamous Skin Cancer had previously been removed. The subsequent lab report showed the area to be clear of any cancer, so I’m finished with that for the time being. I’m certain some form of skin cancer will pop up in my head area in the future. It always has in the past. Only death will break this cycle.

Yesterday, I had an appointment with my Cardiologist. Recall that in July 2015, I underwent a triple bypass and have been seeing a heart specialist regularly as preventive medicine. While in the doctor’s office, my blood pressure was 105/65. So much for white-coat syndrome. All checked out great heart-wise, so I don’t have to have another such appointment for eight months. Typically, I would have had a Coronary Angiography (a procedure that uses a special dye (contrast material) and x-rays to see how blood flows through the arteries in your heart) by now, but that has been terminally postponed due to my kidneys and age.

It has been fifteen days since I had the operation to reposition my catheter. During this period, I have not experienced any alarms. So something is working! I also have noticed that I am experiencing a much higher rate of removal of liquids during my peritoneal dialysis. Recall that the Liberty Cycler each morning reports via a screen reading “microfiltration.” This is the amount of fluid removed in excess of that put in during the PD process. It is now consistently running over one liter, which is great. In conjunction with this, since my trip to Indiana, my weight has gone from the 154 lb range back down to 148. This is due to actual weight loss and pulling more fluids out during PD.

During my PD training, I was instructed to religiously check the expiration dates on the dialysate solution bags to make certain they were current. But did you know that many of the disposables we obtain from Fresenius also have expiration dates clearly marked on the containers? For instance, the box of Staysafe Caps I am currently using has an exp date of 2023-11-30. The Alcavis 50 has an exp date of 2024-11-27. The Aniosgel 85 NPC has an exp date of 03/2024. Lastly, the cassettes I’m using have an exp date of 2026-04-30.