What a blessing that this following situation might’ve been worse: A surprising thing happened on the way from Kroger’s. Though on my last hemodialysis treatment, my nurse and technician noticed that my catheter was exposed (meaning that it was sticking out) and would need to be replaced. No biggie—it’s happened before. Just a trip to the vascular center to have it replaced; it’s a minor surgical procedure to remove the old, and replace with a new one. Well, wouldn’t you know, Sunday afternoon after leaving Kroger Marketplace in Beavercreek, heading back to my apartment, and walking in my door, after dropping off my grocery bags, I noticed, quite by accident, that under my shirt my arterial and venous lumens from my catheter (they’re the red and blue plugs sticking from my chest) were no longer on the left side of my chest, like they normally were. My plugs were under my shirt, down near the top of my drawstring pants’ waistline. And I could feel the long tubing work its way around my waist, which meant that my catheter completely came out. I’ve never had this happen before; although, I’ve known of other patients who have experienced this. Immediately, I checked my dressing from the catheter site to see if there was any bleeding. None at all; my dressing area was completely intact. So, that means the exposed catheter slipped out without my feeling it. My sister came by my apartment and took me to Kettering Medical’s Emergency, where they took a chest x-ray and, under instructions by my vascular surgeon, applied a tight pressure dressing to the area, in case bleeding would occur later (which it did not), and discharged me. Today has been a busy day—morning surgery to replace my catheter, then off to Davita for my full hemodialysis treatment. I truly am blessed! Thank you, God. Now, I’m ready to rest and call it a day, with a little pain medication to ease the soreness. :-D
Posted on: Mon, 05 Aug 2013 21:52:02 +0000
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