Nocturnal Dialysis (This should have been posted last June!)

[I was going through my notes and found this unpublished bit.]

Work With Me – Please!

Sunday, June 3, 2012 -- Tonight is a big night for Dialysis Dave.- it’s the first night of what will hopefully become a new schedule for me.  As of today, he K Street center opens for nocturnal dialysis treatments at 7:00PM instead of 8:00PM.  Instead of arriving at my usual 9:30PM and leaving at 4:30AM, today I arrived before 7:00PM in order to get “put on” the dialysis machine in time to get taken off at 1:00AM so I can make the last bus home at 1:30AM.  (If I miss the 1:30 bus, the next one is at 4:50AM.)

First issue:  I didn’t get put on until 7:20PM, which means that my six-hour session is scheduled to end at 1:20AM, which will cause me to miss my bus.  What gives?  Nothing – it’s the usual snafu.  Totally expected.  How do we handle it?  With dexterity and aplomb.  We negotiate a 1:00AM take-off time for tonight, and calmly agree to work with the staff to the best of their ability going forward.  And we conveniently forget to tell them that there’s a second bus that leaves around 1:50AM that would leave me about a mile from home, which is still a whole lot better than getting home at 5:30AM.

Week Two:  So far, so good!  I’m four-for-four making my 1:30 bus!  I know that my luck won’t hold out, but I am appreciative of the little things.  Lakshmi and her staff are going to great lengths to see that I make my bus; I love the fact that I never had to mention that if the new put-on start time is 7:00PM, then the center should be open for business at 6:50PM.  They figured that out on their own, and made the necessary changes to people’s schedules and building access to make it happen.