Man, so much to say and so little time!
I’m furiously working on a new site design (because I was bored today), and now have no time to write about the events of the last week or so.
I’ve been doing some reading and have lots to talk about regarding new discoveries in my world (tech related), ID/Evolution debate, stem cells and kidney transplants, and tons more.
Right now though, I need to get this new design up and running, so that everyone can enjoy their experience here a bit more.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and I wish you all a very happy New Year.

My sincerest apologies to everyone.
I just realized today that some of you have been leaving comments, and they’ve been waiting for my "approval" to be published.
It was a setting that I must have changed at some point (though I don’t remember doing this) to allow for my "approval" of comments before they’re published.  Previously anyone could comment, and it would publish immediately.  Anyway, I never meant to remove that capability, and so I have published the comments that were left the last couple of weeks, and have changed the settings so that your comments will now publish immediately.
I know we’ve picked up a few new readers in the last couple of weeks, and I’d like everyone to be able to comment and discuss here if they’d like, as well as over at the forums.

Again, my apologies for those of you who left comments in the last couple of weeks that weren’t published, and weren’t responded to.  I have fixed the problem, and have responded to your comments.
Please contact me if you run into problems like this again, so it can be fixed expeditiously.
And as always, thanks for stopping by, and for commenting.  It’s very nice to hear from people who are stopping by.

But we’re being taken off early tonight due to a broken water pipe (or something along those lines).
I only bring this up because I was planning on writing a bit about things on my mind the last bit of treatment, but now that bit won’t come.

I’ll try to make it up on Wednesday though, and perhaps by then my thoughts will be coherent.

I mentioned a few weeks back doing an interview for a member of the dialysis_support listserv doing an article for a publication (at least I think I did).
Well I walked into my clinic today to find the published - printed copy sitting there for me to see (complete with crummy picture).
My first reaction?  "Cool!"
My second reaction?  "I thought things in quotes were exactly what you said, not paraphrased…..  I’m confused."

What’s the deal?  I’m not saying I didn’t say the things I said …  but I didn’t say them exactly as they are quoted.  The context of how I intended some things to come across also seems to have been lost in some instances.
Overall after reading it I kept wondering if someone in my clinic would read it and get the wrong idea - thinking I was against the clinic or somehow unhappy with my time there. 
To be clear, I really value the people at the clinic - both doctors and medical staff (almost certainly a few of them will be reading this now that this blog’s URL has been "published").  *smiles*

Seriously though.  It’s important to me that the doctors and techs and nurses working on me know they are valued, and appreciated.  It’s also important to me that they know the things I mentioned in the article are all in all fairly accurate.
I do feel there are issues that are not adequately addressed, and I think it is the patients who potentially suffer.
In the article I mentioned more "customer service" issues - and a few bad sticks.  That’s pretty much out of the question for now due to self cannulation (at least the blame-game is over for now).  But there are constant issues with sanitary protocol, techs working the floor who have seemingly no idea what they’re doing, and so on.
What is so difficult to understand about infection control?
If you have latex gloves on and go to shut off another machine that’s alarming, you are risking cross-contamination.  What is so hard to understand about that?  You need to wash your hands and put on new gloves.
When you’re taking a patient off, you don’t run to another part of the clinic to grab something you forgot - touching who knows what along the way - then come back and continue working on the patient with the same set of gloves.
Even if the science told us there was no significant risk of infection or cross contamination (which isn’t the case, as research indicates this is a big deal), wouldn’t they pretend to be paranoid about it just to make us feel better as patients?  Is the problem that not enough patients say "whoa….  do you mind putting on some new gloves after blowing your nose?"
Well, while I’m sitting here writing this I just talked with a technician about some of these issues.
I know that at least some level of this education exists.  But I can’t help but think that you have to have someone working the floor whose job it is to encourage and educate techs as they begin. 
Good habits have to be formed, and it needs to be done in a constructive manner which promotes forward thinking and problem solving on the tech’s part, rather than "oh great, here comes my nagging boss again."
Perhaps with time these things will improve.  Time, and a corporate structure that is concerned about more than how their business is being run from a financial standpoint.

Right now is a moment I don’t like while at dialysis:  watching another patient have a rough time.

This has happened quite a few times over the years I’ve been here, and never gets easier.  Right now it appears that this poor woman is having a heart attack.  Unfortunately, neither she nor her husband speak much English, so nobody really has any idea what’s happening.  The ambulance will come, and take her away, and hopefully the paramedic on this rig won’t be deaf like the last time. 
The last time, one of my long time dialysis friends was having a heart attack right next to me in his dialysis chair, and a deaf medic showed up.  I couldn’t believe it.  I thought it was great that he was working in the field, and that he was able to do his job and help people.  What I couldn’t believe was that he was the leader of the rig, and was paired up with an EMT, rather than another paramedic.
He didn’t understand the patient asking for his nitro, and heard him saying he couldn’t take nitro.  He then relayed to the firemen and EMT on site that the patient couldn’t take nitro — while the patient keeps yelling for his nitro.  It was ridiculous.
I can only imagine what will happen if the same medic shows up with this poor lady who can’t even tell him what’s wrong in English.
In the other situation, the guy didn’t get his nitro until he was at the hospital  …..   That’s a bad thing.

The problem here and now is, nobody knows what’s really going on with this poor woman.  She’s feeling chest pain, but has anyone found out if perhaps she is just cramping? 
The medics are here now, and getting ready to transport her, though I’m not sure anyone has yet heard from her exactly what’s wrong.
I pray she is alright, and I pray she is indeed not suffering a heart attack right now. 
I’ve been around long enough to have more than a few patients pass away.  It never gets easy, and I hope that won’t be the case with this poor woman, bless her soul.  Hopefully she’ll run into someone at the hospital who speaks enough Spanish to find out if she is suffering indigestion, or heart failure.