As I walked back into the clinic from wheeling out Mrs. Halona, I approached the lobby from walking up the sidewalk ramp , through the sliding glass door. Walking to the treatment floor door . As I push my key code into the keypad , I hear laughter and people singing…. I’m like okay as I say to myself “ Is there a party I didn’t know about?” ….. As I open the door I hear music playing and patients are dancing in their chairs and staff are moving to the near as they work. What you know , AW accidentally disconnected her Bluetooth earbuds from her iPad, and it connected to her Bluetooth speaker in her bag and the volume was at an all-time high. The song Fantastic Voyage by Lakeside was playing and let me tell you I know that I saw patients that once were in wheelchairs , stand up….. patients that walked with canes were twirling them, patients that were once sad became a little happy, treatment times ended for most but nobody cared. It was that moment when music soothed the soul of our clinic. Every Pod was jamming. We had a few patients in the lobby saying” Is it a party in there?” . AW, looking with guilt trying to cut the music off but remembering if she moves too much she might set the machine off and possibly infiltrate her arm. Then her blood pressure cuff pumps up leaving her restrained . Not to mention she was reclined. I just stood there and laughed. For once, we all forgot about being short-staffed and the existing burnout we were experiencing. We were caught up at the moment. As I made my way towards her, AW finally got a grip onto things and immediately turned the music off. She replied ,” Oh Dwelyn I’m so very sorry. The music was loud, but I was jamming Man”. “My EarPods came out of my head, and somehow it got disconnected from my Bluetooth and Boom Yaaaaoww!!! It was a concert here boy… Lol…. “It took me away, far away I say from this place here for a moment!” I said to her…. “It’s okay AW. We need a little spunk sometimes. Well at least now you only have about 2 hours left in your treatment. You’re trucking along I see.” , “ AW replies…” Yes I’m moving right along. It’s not that bad once you get used to this Dialysis stuff, but only time will tell.” And just as I was going to take off my gloves and gown to go to the bathroom, I hear…” I’m bleeding!””…… I turned to my right and see Mr. Wilson holding out his right arm away from his body. Slight hint of blood soaking through his shirt that seeped through the gauze and taped wrapped securely. As he walks slowly with his back bent over slightly and in panic mode. I tell him ,” Mr. Wilson, take your left pointer and middle finger and hold your site firmly where your needle sticks were.”…. He replies,” Dwelyn it’s blood , uggghhhh!!!! Now you could just imagine the look in AW’s eyes. Startled I say. So I proceeded to tell Mr. Wilson as I approached him with a new pair of gloves for me , a pair for him , and a few bleach rags for the blood spill. I then tell Mr. Wilson to press firmly where his anastomosis is. ( his incision site where his fistula access begins near his forearm.) I see a full trail of drops of blood about only ten feet away. Now as a Hemodialysis Technician it’s safe to say this is what is expected in our job description. Granted I don’t want to say this is the norm. I ask Mr. Wilson to have a seat in one of our spare chairs we have just in case this ever happens. If you’re in the Hemodialysis field , you know what I’m talking about, or you can simply relate to this. It’s kinda like cheating during change over. Since time is of the essence with shift change, and we purposely don’t want to treat patients like cargo, but that’s how scheduling goes. It kind of feels like you have to get your patients in and get them out like an assembly line. That’s the one thing that has always bugged me throughout all my years in my profession. Cool thing is our clinic is big enough, so we can use extra chairs in the clinic for each pod. To make it fun we call each spare chair in the clinic The Timeout Chair. Well think about it for a second. Some patients feel rushed by us as staff members sometimes while others rush to get out of here because I don’t know about you , but I never in all my years in my profession ever met a patient who wants to stay an extra second at the clinic. Then we have this thing where patients have to rely on public transportation. Oh, that’s another story I’ll get into later……. So as Mr. Wilson applies pressure with his fingertips, his fingers are moving up and down at a rapid speed. Boom Boom………. Boom Boom ……… Boom Boom . The blood slowed down from his access ,but not quite. While I’m cleaning up the blood spill with the 1:10 bleach solution AW is catching all of this action…. If you will…… Eyes like a deer in headlights on full beam . Now I’m done, and I take the drenched bloody bleach rags to the biohazard , I throw my gloves into the biohazard as well…… Ahh, Man! I have a little of blood splatter on my gown, so I have to change that too. I’ve got to throw that away now as well. I proceed to wash my hands at the sink near AW with my back turned. Now I can see her reflection in the mirror over the sink looking at me , looking at Mr. Wilson and back at me again. Woo I tell you I’m laughing so hard with tears in my eyes because AW is looking like she’s seen a ghost or a horror film. I clean up, put on my PPE( Personal Protective Equipment), and take two blue pads, some gauze, some tape , some alcohol, a special band-aid, and a few gloves to put on Mr. Wilson’s hand. After I clean him up and told him to sit a bit, I make my way back to the sink where I washed my hands prior with AW to my back. As I’m washing my hands with my head down in deep thought. I hear AW say my name “ Uh , Dwelyn I have a very serious question?”……. I look up into the mirror again and see her face behind with eyes bulging, her right hand raised slightly to the left of her mouth as if she was hiding what she had to say, so nobody could hear her or read her lips…. I see her mouth moving silently…… This lady I tell you. I reply “ AW what’s up?”…… She replies ,” Why is that man’s arm over there who was bleeding have two big mountains jumping up and down on his arm ?”
To Be Continued………
Kidney Trails 