Here I am. Slow and moving with caution little today. I had a bout of anxiety for a few days, March 30 – April 3, because of a chain of incidents that I had no control. I was overwhelmed, and for a reason, anxiety shouldn’t have caused me to go out of control. I felt far off from reality even though what was happening was going on as usual, and my routine was the same minus one day.
The Fall –
It will never take time to see me fall. My balance without my brace and shoes on is not the greatest these days. It depends on treatment at the dialysis center. On March 29, I was getting something out of the refrigerator and putting it back. I had pulled out something that I did not need, and contents spilled to the for — one hardboiled egg. I went to pick it up, and in the meantime, I had gotten dizzy and could not collect myself enough to catch myself, and down I went. I felt on my back and hit my head on my walker hard enough that I got a bump on the head. A moment or two later, I sat up, scared as I was, feeling the spot grow underneath my fingers between the skull and neck on the right side. I scooted across the floor to grab my phone to call 911 for help. The ambulance came and asked them to take me to ER to get the bump checked to make sure I was good to go. I had a CT scan done, and the spot showed to be a hematoma. I was able to find a friend to bring me back home. March 30 was the day that I didn’t expect to have after my fall — the day after.
Treatment & Graft
I went to dialysis on my regular day and time. The tech who was hooking me up couldn’t get anything to happen that the clinic nurse looked at my site get There was no flow whatsoever. Yep, my graft quit working. The nurse called IR at the hospital to have them look at it and fix it. I was there by 1 PM, and the procedure began around 2 PM – 2:30 PM and ended before 5 PM. The graft was cleaned of the clotting and working again, strong and ready to go. They managed the sights and sent me off to my room for a while before removing the IV and checking my vitals one last time. After the procedure and getting home, DKF and I didn’t expect what came next.
The Bleed
When I got home to relax for the rest of the evening before bed, DKF noticed that seepage and blood were causing the gauze to be covered in more blood. We got into the vehicle and head to the ER. All was good for a little while. An hour later, waiting for a room, my blood seeped past the clear cover that was keeping the gauze in place. DKF took care of me with help from the workers nearby to get cleaned up. Within minutes, I was put in a room and waited for the ER doctor to come in. He talked to me and DKF, and I learned that this ER doctor understood grafts and fistulas, dialysis another through the years of his career. The doctor spoke about what he may need to do while mind and mouth were going a mile a minute. This was when my anxiety came to bring havoc onto me for a few days. The doctor took no time to find the bleed, stitched it up, and I was out the door with new bandages. DKF took me to the ER again Wednesday morning because we were unsure if we had seepage or another lead when she noticed the same pattern. Thankfully it was just seepage that time.
Thursday, April 1, 2021
Thursday went on as usual despite that I was slow in moving about and around. My graft worked well again. The graft may have quit working because of the fall Monday evening. Treatment went well, and I got in and out in good time even though the treatment time I am at the clinic is for three hours and fifteen minutes a session.
It has been a better day, and I am noticing that I feel the anxiety fall away slowly.
