Tuesday, December 20, 2011

PD catheter exposed - not working well

Yesterday after dialysis G went to have the PD catheter "exposed".

The resident had a little difficulty as it didn't want to come out. Of course, it has been buried
for 2 months, so it probably got a little "attached" (lol).

The Dr. asked us "will they flush out the catheter tomorrow?", and we replied "we don't know...".
It always amazes me that we get asked questions like this...but then it makes me mad that I DON'T know.....because usually I am quite prepared.

So today we went for the PD training. The catheter wouldn't run, so she put some saline in it as there was blood in the catheter line (you could see it), then she tried it some more.

To do the PD dialysis you put fluid into the stomach cavity through the catheter, leave it for a while, and then drain it out. The tech managed to get about 50 cc's in, some drained out, then it stopped.

There are a few possibilities for this problem. In my opinion the most likely one mentioned is that the end of the catheter in the abdomen got twisted and is pointed upward. This would explain why some of the fluid drained out but not all.

There are a couple more possibilities. Anyway, we were sent home with instructions for G to take laxatives, as one of the other possibilities is there is too much pressure on the catheter from the intestines being full. I doubt this is the problem, but it's the easiest one to try and fix.

We will go back tomorrow morning. If it's still not working then they will X-ray it to see if the catheter is in the wrong position.

I am not really surprised by all this. With G, nothing ever goes as it should.

At least the good news is we didn't get the snow and sleet they predicted, so driving around
wasn't that bad.

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