A Visit On Ann's Hemodialysis

Ann on hemodialysis

Today, Jayvee and I visited Ann during her dialysis session. She  goes for dialysis every Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays at the Medical Center Manila accompanied mostly by her aunt and mother. We arrived there at around 4:00 PM - an hour early before completing the 4-hour process.

She lost weight compared to when I last saw her from the same hospital almost a month ago during her confinement. She said she has to maintain her weight at 45kgs. She has gotten really thin but she is more lively now.

Her IJ (internal jugular) cathether is still attached on the right side of her neck. On a hemodialysis, blood is withdrawn from the artery or vein for purification and is returned through the vein. Right now, the IJ cathether is the gateway for the blood until such time the AV (arteriovenous) fistula on her left arm is ready. The AV fistula operation was one of the procedures she underwent during her confinement in August.

She let us hold her left arm near the pulse to feel the vibration from the fistula. It is caused by the increased pressure of blood flow having her artery and vein sewn together. She constantly held a stress ball and kept on squeezing it to hasten the enlargement of the fistula so it can accommodate a cannula or large needle for the dialysis.

Ann with her mom (left-most)
and aunt (middle) after the
hemodialysis session

We waited an hour until the process was completed. During these times, the nurses took Ann's blood pressure twice - the last one being at 130/90. We also witnessed Ann's classmates in dialysis completing their sessions. There was a woman and two men. All are senior citizens. Ann is the youngest on that room that time - but she mentioned about another classmate a year younger than her.

The nurses removed the tubes connected to her IJ cathether and carefully taped the bulky object back to her neck so it wouldn't be swinging while she moves. I learned that she has to protect it with a plastic/stretch wrap - the kind that we see wrapped on grapes sold in supermarkets - whenever she takes a bath to avoid it from getting wet and being infected.

Ann would normally feel dizzy and sleepy after the process, but aside from these, she said she feels fine and can do normal activities such as drawing, watching TV, reading books, and so on as long as it does not result to physical stress. She is still maintaining her diet - no fats, no sugar and limited to 1 litre of water per day. She is also maintaining vitamins and medicines - one of which is Eprex - an intravenous medicine to treat anemia associated with her kidney disease. It costs Php1,000.00 (a discounted price) and has to be taken every after her dialysis session.  We even witnessed when the nurse injected the medicine through her right shoulder.

Ann with her peace sign

While her mom was busy on her billing, she stood up and went to the huge weighing scale in the room. She weighed 45.30kgs. The result was immediately noted by one of the nurses.

One of the things I liked in that room is the attentiveness and care of the nurses. They were strict - in fact, I was not allowed to take videos or photographs (I managed to sneak, though), but they were polite and accomodating. A resident physician went through all the classmates one by one and checked how they feel. She checked the bandage on Ann's left arm covering the stitch of the AV fistula operation. She told Ann she can already remove the bandage since it has already healed partially. But Ann herself could not bear the sight of the stitches, so for now, she covers them especially when she is not at home. She told the young doctor that she will take the bandage off upon reaching home.

We bid goodbye at the hospital entrance when she, her mom, and aunt took a taxi homeward bound.