written July 27, 2014
I started re-reading my blog entries yesterday morning, to make grammar and typo corrections that my wife discovered for me, but also to figure out in what order to post them. Since I’ve written 16 of these things so far, I’m trying to determine if chronologically in the order I wrote them is the best solution. That would be the most accurate. But maybe putting them in a historical order is better, starting with my reasons for writing the blog, followed by my diagnosis, followed by the dialysis treatment and the side effects and so on and so forth.
In re-reading some of them, I’ve discovered some errors in my initial research. In “Blood Pressure,” for example, I mentioned that one of the dialysis techs told me that all my prescription medications get removed during a dialysis session. That’s not actually true – only medications that are water-soluble and end up in the blood stream will be removed. But most medications do not end up in the blood stream, even the water-soluble ones. I haven’t done a lot of research into this, but my sister is a pharmacist and she explained how it works. I’ve never checked to see which, if any, of my prescription meds are removed during dialysis, but no one is telling me to change any of the medications, so my guess is none of them are actually removed during a session.
That’s just one example of something I got wrong. And I’m pretty sure if I post it in that form, someone is going to comment on how incorrect it is. Still, leaving it there is also good in one way – it shows that I’m still learning about all of this stuff as I get closer to my transplant. I want anyone who reads these blogs to know that I don’t think I have all the answers – I clearly do not. I’m struggling to figure things out the best I can and sometimes I’m going to get the information wrong. Maybe it’s better to just leave the wrong information in there and correct it in a separate blog post like this.
I remember only one or two other small things I stated incorrectly. I’ll go back and find them then maybe post a note in the comments correcting the item(s). That’s probably the best solution – I get to keep my original piece without rewriting (too much time and effort to rewrite sometimes) and I get to mention the correction on the blog directly.
Okay, problem solved. Now, back to dealing with my hypertension.