Are you kidney-ing me? (Lizz Update)
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I had surgery last Friday to have my PD catheter put in. (Read this post for more details on WTH PD means) The recovery has been OK, but harder than I was mentally expecting. I'd hoped to go back to work on Monday, but that wasn't going to happen because I was basically unable to stand up straight due to the pain in my belly. Aaargh!
I had an appointment this afternoon to check and make sure that the catheter works OK, with a few rounds of saline flushed in and out of my gut. It worked great, and only hurt a little bit, so baby steps! I'll have training three days a week for the next two weeks, and I'm hoping to be off hemo completely by the first week in December.
I currently have a huge dressing where they put the catheter in, but you can see what it actually looks like in the photo below. There's not much to it, as you can see, and once it's healed the dressing I have on the actual exit site will be MUCH smaller.
So I met and chatted with my PD nurse, she checked my catheter to make sure it looks OK (it does) and then we did a few “exchanges” to test how it's functioning. An exchange involves filling and then draining the peritoneum with saline solution. Today was a very small amount; the bag below was actually used for about 4 exchanges, but when I'm doing this full time at home, that bag is about how much liquid I'll be carrying around in my gut during the day when I'm walking around.
Also, the clinic room is inexplicably dog themed. You can't even see the angry pit bull painting at the end of the row on the wall! ?
This is probably the only PD training update post I'll write; it'll all be pretty boring until I get switched over at home full time.
I'm still waiting for my transplant evaluation appointment, so I'll also write when that happens.
As always, if you have any questions about this, feel free to reach out. I'm happy to share as much as I can.
I’m sorry about the unanticipated pain (and the whole process in general!) A friend of mine is currently waiting on a kidney transplant. Your posts have been really helpful for me to understand all that’s going on with him.
So sorry you have to go through all this Lizz! I find your posts very interesting so please keep them coming. We can all be on this journey with you at least a little bit.
That’s a lot to have to go through, and I know it can’t be easy. I hope you are able to have your transplant soon!