Time for a change

My mom and Susie, my aunt and dialysis nurse....at a different clinic....kept telling me, "It's not if you get an infection with your perma cath, it is when." This had me very worried and was more of an incentive to start peritoneal dialysis. This is a type of dialysis you do on your own at home. There are two ways to do this. One, you can do manual exchanges 3 to 4 times a day or you can use a machine and dialyze at night when you sleep for 8-10 hours. The treatments are very patient specific. So, I had to get a "tink-off peritoneal dialysis cath" placed in my stomach. It wasn't a big deal surgery. I had a great surgeon (actually here in town) and a friends' husband as my anesthesiologist. He gave me a nice dose of Versed and everything was right with the world. He is one of the only people who have never had a difficult time starting an IV on me.

So, now I have a perma cath in my neck because I have to continue hemo for a couple more weeks (no shower) and now I have a tink off cath which means no bath. So for about 2-3 weeks, I was sponge bathing! This was horrible. I don't know how people who choose to not bathe choose that!

Once we were home from the surgery and the pain meds wore off, that PD cath hurt. Apparently it was rubbing my pelvic floor and was "looking" for a place inside my abdomen to settle. I couldn't move for about 3 days. I had to remain completely still until this cath settled and quit moving around. Every now an then it will shift and it reminds me it is there but other than that I have had no problems with my PD cath.