Friday, July 9th, 2010

Hello dear ones --

Took Craig down to Swedish Hospital for his first outpatient dialysis today. He really enjoyed the car ride down and seeing the beautiful sunshine, after 3 weeks in at the hospital.

As he was walking onto the floor, he was already greeting his new staff friends. Settled him into a corner room, with the temp a cool 60 degrees (I asked if they were trying out hypothermia as a new treatment modality). His nurse William quickly adjusted the temp and got us both warm blankets (heaven!)

Hooking up dialysis is like hooking up jumper cables, near as I can tell -- red to red (arterial flow) and blue to blue (venous flow). They were able to draw blood from the dialysis port, so for the first time in 3 weeks, no pokes for the Craigers!!! This is indeed a happy day.

Yesterdays labs that the visiting nurses drew indicate that the serum albumin has risen from <1 to 2.3! (Normal is >3.5) The nephrologist doesn't believe it. It does seem like a really dramatic improvement. Waiting on repeat labs drawn earlier today, but hoping they confirm this improvement. If albumin stays above 2, he can go off Coumadin, which would be fabulous.

Amanda got her cast off Wednesday -- I could barely watch them with the buzz saw over her little wrist, but she was fascinated. Went swimming last night for a short time -- the water is never warm enough for me (I'm a wimp).

Love, Sharon