Another day spent at Portsmouth Hospital with Mike. Today he had a Fistulagram also known as a Fistulography. It’s an imaging test where they insert a needle and dye and do some imaging to make sure the fistula in his arm is working properly before they can remove the Central Venous Catheter (CVC) which he has had since February. Since Mike has stage 5 kidney disease, this Fistula is a life line for dialysis. He did well during the procedure, even though there was a lot of pressure and discomfort. The test showed that he had scar tissue built up from a previous antibiotic picc line, so they had to open it up with a balloon. He was in the operating room for about an hour and in recovery for another hour. Starting Tuesday, the nurse’s at the dialysis center will try using the arm Fistula for the next 3 sessions. Once it is proven to be working properly, an appointment will be scheduled to get the CVC removed from his chest. He can’t wait to get rid of that thing.  Another upda...

                                                                Today I have the blessing of spending time with two of my grandchildren, Lilly and Elijah. It’s nap time for them and a little break for me, Grammy. I haven’t written in a while, so I thought their nap time would be a perfect opportunity. I sat down at the kitchen table, opened my IPad, got my warm tea beside me, a bay window with beautiful greenery right outside and my grand-dog Stitch lying by my feet. What a perfect setting for writing, right? Wrong, the words just aren’t flowing today. It’s not that I don’t want to write, I do. I feel the stories inside me, wanting to come out. The thoughts, the emotions, the little moments I have experienced that made me think “I need to remember this and use it as a blog topic, I won’t forget”, yet I have. I think sometimes I h...