A day ago I was talking about this new threat to my wellbeing, my finances, and literally my life when the dialysis machine went on alarming frequently because it is reading a low pressure in my AV fistula's arterial part. I was told to exercise it because it is seemingly dying on me. However, the button scars of my AV fistula is showing that it has more pressure unlike before when I still got my unsightly bump on my left arm. The new graft had made the fistula get more pressure because of the radial size of the artery which was connected to a wider old arterial part of my AV fistula.
So it prompted me to look for answers and one of them is to have my blood's RBC count for testing which I would do this morning. The reason for that is to see if the cause was a higher amount of red blood cells because it causes blood clots and it shortens the use of dialyzers because blood clotting damages the dialyzer and it is hard to replace them for the reason of their expensive costs. Anyway, I will be looking to see if the main culprit of the problem was those extra red blood cells which the head nurse is not pointing as the cause but rather about the pressure of the arterial part of the AV fistula.
But I also suspected that lowering my body and raising up my arm by putting or laying it on the armrest of the "Lazy boy" chair has an effect of lowering the pressure of my AV fistula and I noticed that. Meanwhile if I would sit, the pressure increases along with dropping my arm down to my side. So this morning I decided to put my left arm down and not use the armrest while hooked-up at dialysis. I also tried to sit up as high as possible without compromising my comfort and pain although it is a bit uncomfortable for me because I just prefer on lying flat on my back. Sitting up also raises pressure to my AV fistula.
Well, what you know? it worked, it seems that my head nurse was quite right indeed, it was the factor of low pressure of my AV fistula because the dialysis machine never alarmed like it used to do a couple of dialysis ago. So because of this solution I have never been more relieved because it just dissipated away my worries about this impending threat to my wellbeing and financial resolve. I can already breathe a sigh of relief because of the swift resolution of my problem that alarmed me a lot and had made me to panic, but all is well now and I can just relax already.
However I have to still see the result of my complete blood count test because I want to know if I also can taper-off my use of EPO if it is still necessary to get an injection of it every week or maybe every two weeks because I really do not want my body to be dependent on EPO injections because my body is still producing it which is why my hemoglobin is still not crashing. but I still want to nudge it a bit to raise it up some more.
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