Goodbye, Chest Catheter (updated)

Not yet. The procedure is scheduled for next Tuesday. This time, the vascular surgeon will take it out in his office. Last time, I had to go to the hospital, which means at least a 4 hour wait. Th doctor took it out in the pre-op room anyway, so it wasn’t a full OR experience. This time,it should be much faster. Hello hot showers, again.

The dialysis center also removed my one suture from the fistulagram last Friday. The head nurse did it and commented that it didn’t even bleed when he removed the one stitch. As always, he talked to me aboutTesla since he bought a Model 3 while I was here before.

The fistula works much better now too. The tech was able to cannulate me on the first try for both needles and run the machine at 350 mL/min without any alarms.

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Update: 8/28/2020 3:45 pm

I don’t think I shared this photo before since it’s kinda gross, and it was taken before I started this blog. This was the previous catheter after it was removed form my chest. The procedure was done in the pre-op room at St. Joseph hospital. They were prepping me like I was going into an OR. I was wearing a hospital gown and I think they stuck an IV needle in me. Then the surgeon walks into the room, gives me a local anesthesia shot, then yanked the catheter out. I think he asked me if I wanted to keep it. Uh, no.

It didn’t hurt coming out but it did feel weird. I thought there would be more blood since it was sitting in a large vein for the past 20 months. This time, I’m only going to a doctor’s office to remove it. The actual hole in the chest should close up in a few days so may a week for the first shower in many months?