For those of you who have been following our adventures in dialysis, Hubby was originally set up with an arm graft back in December (a sort of internal tube that I had to stick sharp needles in in order to dialyze him), but that clogged up, not once but twice. After the second time, the doctors said they needed to try something else, but in the interim, they had implanted him with a catheter that was essentially a port out of a vein in his lower neck. We’ve been using that since just before we left on our horse expo trip last month. Today we went in to get the surgery he needed for a new arm port. After careful analysis, the surgeon managed to install an actual fistula, which is the preferred way for most hemo-dialysis because it closes it off enough for Hubby to be able to take showers and use the hot tub, and once it’s seasoned and finished off in about 6-8 weeks, I’ll only need to stick one place with two dull needles to get access. If the fistula hadn’t worked, they would have had to put in another arm graft like the first one, and I’d be back to sticking with sharp needles. The only problem is that they had to do it in his left arm, which is the opposite side of the chair from where the machine is (both at home and in the trailer), but not so far that we can’t work with it. We’ll just have to figure out a way to manage it, like always! The day actually started out at the acupuncturist, where Hubby got another treatment (which made his back feel much improved!) before we headed up to Vanderbilt for the surgery. They didn’t call him into surgery until almost 1:30, even though they wanted us there at 11:30, so we were sitting around wasting a lot of time. We had Lola with us, though, and she’s always good for entertaining the other guests in the waiting room, which helped pass the time. Eventually, he got squared away in pre-op, and once they whisked him away to surgery, I headed out to do some shopping. I took a long drive down to Franklin to look for new tack for Flash, because when I tried to fit him in one of our old bridles, the whole thing, including the snaffle bit, just looked too darn large. I bought a smaller bit and another headstall just to be on the safe side, but I noticed there wasn’t really a variety of sizes like I thought there would be, that, in fact, they were hugely adjustable, so I decided I needed to take a closer look at Hubby’s OLD bridle, which I hadn’t really looked at in years. (That’s what happens when you only have the same two horses 🙂 Another stop at Walmart, where I got the call that Hubby’s surgery went fine, that a fistula was indeed the way they went, and he would be ready to go pretty soon, so I finished up and headed back to the hospital to pick him up. Of course, he was starving hungry since he hadn’t eaten since last night, so we ran through the drive thru at Wendys for a burger, fries and Frosty, headed home with just one stop to pick up a package and some fresh eggs from our chicken-growing neighbor, finally arriving at our doorstep at nearly 10:00. A LONG day! Wound up, though, so bedtime still isn’t imminent, but it won’t be long!
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