paging doctor peckinpah

in an ongoing quest to make myself feel less helpless during my dialysis sessions, last night i took my own needles out.

as i've already mentioned, i've been moved up to the purple needles which have a wider bore and longer tubes. (it also means that i can get my bloodflow up to 350 ml/min, which i also did last night-not entirely successfully)
the longer tubes mean that i can actually grip the end with my fingers.

now to take the needles out, this is what happens. when you've been disconnected from the machine, you remove the sticky tape that holds the needles in place. you then pull the needle halfway out, put on a couple of band aids. now, get some guaze ready in your right hand, then grip the end of the tube with your left hand fingers, ignoring the fact that as you've been holding your left arm still for 4 hours and the blood in thatt arm has been going on a detour through a large piece of machinery, so that you've lost a lot of feeling in it.
now, slowly pull the needle out, while quickly pressing the gauze over the whole where the needle was. quickly is the operative word. remember that the needle was plugged into an artery, so the blood will flow quickly. don't worry, its all a matter of timing.
once the hole from the top needle has stopped bleeding, repeat on the lower needle.

last night i did this for the first time. the blood was everywhere