Another Visit to the Dialysis Center

Yesterday was my weekly visit to the Dialysis Center for a flushing of my catheter. I didn't bother to look up at the name of the place in the hopes of avoiding the whole ton of bricks hitting me like last time. Going into the back where all the patients are still makes my head swoon a bit and I'm unsteady on my feet but it wasn't as strong this time. I knew what to expect but this time I noticed on the little chair table next to me was a tournaquet and an alcohol swab. Warning bells started going off in my head because these are the things used in drawing blood. Even after 40 years of being a diabetic I'm not use to needles. I HATE needles! Before I let any vampire get any of my blood I ask what test they are doing and why they are doing it. Most of the time I know the names of the test and reason for it. While during a hospital stay for an infection on my leg from a bug bite, one of the vampire came in at 2:00 in the afternoon. After grilling her on what the lab orders were, I declined the tests. Apparently they are not use to patients exercising that right. The resident doctor came storming in to try and intimidate me into having the blood work done. I went down the list of each test and reason I was declining it. First was a test to check my cholesterol and that should be done as a fasting test and since I had eaten breakfast and lunch in the past 6 hrs it wouldn't be an accurate reading. The second test was an A1C test which is commonly done in diabetics. The issue I had with was that I had been to my quarterly checkup complete with bloodwork 10 earlier so there was no need to repeat that test. There were a couple other minor tests but those too had been covered with my quarterly checkup. Needless to say that resident doctor and I didn't get along very well. We had another disagreement on what to do about my insulin pump. He wanted me to remove it so they (hospital) could manage my blood sugars. The main function of an insulin pump is to easily manage blood sugar levels without the multiple injections. In fact in order to go on a pump, I had to be on at least 4 shots a day. Like I said before, I HATE needles so there was no way I was going to let them take my pump off. All this to say, I'm very protective of my veins and I worried needlessly over seeing the tournaquet. They did not need any blood and that was a big relief to me!
The catheter this week showed signs of bleeding which it had not done until yesterday. So I've been told to stop doing too much and let it heal. I didn't realize I was doing too much but I'll keep that in mind and try and do less of whatever it is I do.
Also had a visit with the surgeon who said things were looking good to his satisfaction. He said that January had actually been a slow month in doing transplants. They had a good number of organs come in but unfortunately they were too scarred to be usued or didn't perform well on a profusion pump I think he called it. Training has not yet been scheduled for me to learn how to dialysis at home and the surgeon had commented that he hoped I got a call before I needed to use it. That's my prayer.