new on dialysis

[benito]

My husband will be on dialysis pretty soon. We are new on this. He was scheduled for surgery this morning but it was cancelled and moved to be done on April 24th. They told us that he needs to be off blood thinner for at least 5 days before his surgery. The nurse told us its called PERMACATH to be place on his left chest. His blood test numbers are high. Creatinine # is 7.95 on his last blood test. So his Doctor finally convinced him to go on dialysis because the kidney is not going to get better but will be worst if he don't go on dialysis right now. I was wondering how will he feels after the surgery. We were told that he needs to dialyzed for at least 2 to 3 hours after the surgey. Any advise you can give us.

[chefnancy]

The surgery is not too stressful. He will probably be sore and have some pain, but they will give him pain medications. Once he has dialyzed, he may or may not feel better right away. Often it takes a while on dialysis (a month or so) before you really begin to feel the results.

[benito]

Originally Posted by chefnancy

The surgery is not too stressful. He will probably be sore and have some pain, but they will give him pain medications. Once he has dialyzed, he may or may not feel better right away. Often it takes a while on dialysis (a month or so) before you really begin to feel the results.

Thats good to know. He is such a baby when he is in pain. For the last 4 days, his right leg is hurting him and he told me that it feels like its starting to cramp and it keeps him awake at night. I hope this pain will go away as soon as he goes on dialysis. Thanks for answering me. I am not sure how to use this site. Hope I am doing this correctly and will read my reply.

[chefnancy]

You are doing fine. Just read the posts and respond to any that you want to. You can also start your own thread if you don't find an appropriate place for what you want to say. To do that go out to the main subdivisions, like "Share your Experiences" and click on one of the subthreads. You will see a "New Thread" button on the upper left hand side. Click on it and you will be led through the process of starting a new thread. Ask all the questions you want. Information is your friend.

[angieskidney]

I was told I could not shower for awhile with mine. Incase you want to know what it will look like, here is a pic of mine when I had it

[Blessed]

Hi Angie,

Thanks for the picture! I forwarded it to my family and friends so they could see what the catheder looks like that I had put in yesterday. I wondered, do you have any suggestions for keeping it dry and infection free? I put a baggie over the ends this morning and got in the tub, and washing my long hair was very difficult! Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, since it sounds like it will be 4 months until I can have my fistula put in and its ready to use.

Lori

[Des]

According to me A BATH IS A BIG NO-NO.

Where the tubes enter your body you can get a very bad infection.

Most people have sponge baths for the torso part of their body and sit in the bath with very little water for the bottom part. You sort of "hang over" the bath to wash hair.

The site MUST remain dry and covered at all times.

[lectropet]

I'll second it to what Des said," You must keep the permacath dry". I found out the hard way what happens when you get the perma cath wet like in the shower. It was supposed to be covered with the tecaderm bandage. I was in the hospital for a week with a high fever and a bad headache. Now all of the catheters are gone and I can take showers again.