When Linda began hemodialysis in 2008 at Bassett Hospital (now Medical Center) in Cooperstown, she was working at the hospital so they made her the first person hooked up in the morning so that she would lose as little work time as possible. That meant we had to be there at 6am, which meant setting the alarm for 4:30am. So it seemed fitting that her first dialysis treatment on this trip called for her to at the dialysis center (in Grand Island, NE) at 6am. No problem--we were tired enough from yesterday's drive that we fell asleep fairly early, slept relatively decently, and even set the alarm for 5am.
We were ready to roll at 5:45 for what my directions said was a 15-minute drive. The problem was that I had two sets of directions (taken from Mapquest--the second set made after we got the early "chair time," starting from our motel instead of coming in from the east). It wasn't until I looked at the directions that they seemed to contradict each other on whether we should head north or south on Highway 281. Why the confusion? Because one set had us going north for three miles and then making a U-turn to go south.
Then we pulled out of the motel and were forced to turn right to get onto what we were sure had to be the right highway. It was, but there were no signs telling us whether we were going north or south. We went several miles in pitch blackness before feeling pretty sure we were headed in the wrong direction. Fine. Linda grabbed the cell phone to call the dialysis center. It was now 5:55 and we were due there in five minutes. We suddenly felt old and panicky. The voice of the woman who answered was pretty faint and Linda had trouble hearing what she said, but we gathered that we did indeed need to turn around. Linda thought she heard that the last key bit of information was that the center was just past the "Pump 'n Perk," which sounded like a perfect name for a place where you could grab some gas and a cup of coffee.
Once we got turned in the right direction, it was just a matter of time. The "Pump 'n Perk" turned out to be the "Pump 'n Pantry," which doesn't sound as apt as the way Linda heard it the first time. But we found the DaVita dialysis center, and then it was only a matter of banging on the door for a couple of minutes until someone came to open it for us. That was a very friendly nurse named Tami who is attending Linda right now as I write this. They have a dozen chairs there, and Linda was the second person to be put on. Good news: they allow visitors. We've been told that not all centers allow visitors (Bassett does), because of the ever-present risk of infection for patients. When they're being hooked up to or "taken off" at the end of the several-hour dialysis session, they're especially prone to infection, but the last patient at this center gets hooked up at 8:30, so I'll be going back around 9 to spend the last hour or so of Linda's session with her. That's a plus. It gives me time to post this entry, catch up on some e-mails, and pack up the car.
The car needed gas after I dropped Linda off, but I didn't go to the "Pump 'n Pantry." I had spotted another station along that main road which had a lower price, so I stopped there instead. Now this place does have the perfect name: "Git 'n Split." I kid you not. I did, and I did.
So we've learned one on-the-road lesson already: if you get to your dialysis location the night before an early chair time, do a dry run. Find the center when there's no pressure instead of panicking first thing in the morning.
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