Since I missed the bypass yesterday, I was determined to try to find it today, but of course, since I was going backward on the Orange Trail, and there were almost no markings in that direction, I soon got turned around. I never was sure if I found it, at least not until I got back to camp and downloaded our GPS track, only to learn we were practically on top of it, but just missed getting there. At least now I have a better idea where it is! I had asked a couple of local riders where it was, but there directions weren't too thorough (which is typical of locals everywhere, as they're so familiar with the trails they have a hard time describing it to someone from outside the area...), so I didn't find it anyway. Nevertheless, Flash and I had a fairly laid-back ride, lots of walking just to build up his stamina, until we headed back toward camp, when he largoed as fast as he could most of the way back to camp, so a good workout considering. Once I got him back to camp, I started on Hubby's dialysis session, which was a disaster. I couldn't get a flash on his arterial, so I tried changing needles, which seemed to work, but then the cartridge seemed to clog up, so I went through the process of putting in a new cartridge. That seemed to help for a little while, but then his arterial starting spiking really high, and when I couldn't fix it, I called the NxStage tech guy, and he said it was likely an access problem, and said we should stop the treatment and don't try to rinse back, so I did. When I took off his venous line, sure enough, there was a big clot in the line, so there were some problems. I tried to listen for a thrill, but there didn't seem to be one. SO disappointing, as until last Wednesday, his access was going like gangbusters! Grrrrr! Now I'm going to have to spend time tomorrow trying to get him into a local hospital to get his fistula declotted again. This will be the fourth time this year! We're convinced it's just because of the awkward position of this fistula, it's just so far under his arm that it's impossible for him to not put pressure on it, even when he doesn't sleep on it. Don't know what the long-term answer is, but the short-term is hospital for yet another procedure. I was in the middle of a couple loads of laundry, so we had to keep running the generator for a few more hours, a big waste of propane if we're not dialyzing! Anyway, we finally settled down after that, a bit frustrated at this turn of events.
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