Done. The surgery only took about an hour and a half. I think I went into the OR at 9:40 am and woke up by 11:45 am. We were late going into the OR because the surgeon decided last minute to put the fistula into my right arm. He said my veins were kinda small in my left arm and he couldn’t be sure that the fistula would work. The right arm had much better veins.
Dammit.
It seems that once the needles go into the fistula, you can’t really move your arm that much. With my right arm immobilized, I’m not going to be able to do much during dialysis. It already sucks having to sit for four hours, but at least I could do stuff. Now it’s going to be much harder to sit and do nothing.
The peritoneal dialysis catheter is out too. I’m supposed to change the dressing after 24 hours. Now I have to slowly get rid of all my remaining PD supplies: solutions, tubing, cleaning solution, etc. I also have to figure out how to put my temporary crowns back in before trying to eat.
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Another issue, hopefully temporary, with having the fistula on the right arm is side sleeping. It still hurts for me to sleep on my left side, and now I can’t sleep on the right side so I’m stuck sleeping on my back. That’s tolerable with my adjustable bed but on normal flat mattresses, my back and chest still hurts when lying down.
I’m not sure what I could have done. Ask the surgeon to force the fistula into my left arm? Telling him to forget the fistula and use the chest catheter a bit longer? Sigh…
Life with chronic diseases 