The Cycler, Another Test & Some Snow

The cycler has arrived and Chris is using it each night.  It's pretty noisy, but he's getting used to it.  One thing that's driving him nuts is the "initial drain."  Chris doesn't have any dialysis fluid in him during the day, but the machine tries (hard!) to drain him before starting.  It won't let us bypass that function, either.

All of last week's lab results were good, so he didn't get EPO or iron shots.

Since the last post, another test has been added to Chris' schedule in SLC:  a cardiac catheter.  This concerns me because it involves injecting him with dye that I fear is harmful to his kidneys.  We checked with Dr. Mallea at the monthly meeting on Thursday, and he said that (a) it won't necessarily do more harm to his remaining kidney function since he's on dialysis and (b) we can't move forward without it so he needs to have it done.

Oh, and as we're prepping for the trip, check this out!  It'll be slushy and snowy and all sorts of fun.  Guess we'll leave extra early for our wee-hour morning trip.  (His first procedure is at noon on Monday, and it's a 5.5 hour drive in good weather/traffic -- according to Yahoo! maps: Distance: 358.34 miles — Time: 5:30 h)

At each of his procedures tomorrow & Tuesday, he'll be seeing different providers.  Each of them will ask him what medications he's taking.   I made up a spreadsheet in preparation for the trip and I will print out a handful of copies.  This comes in very handy and definitely beats trying to remember it all.   On each list, I'm also going to print a request for them to fax the results of the testing to Dr. Mallea.   We'll do a follow-up with him on Monday (Mar. 26th) to see how everything went.

I'll post here during the trip if there's any news.