hero catheters

[sullidog]

Hi all,
Yes, I was in the hospital again. My graft clogged up again. My surgery was suppose to be on Monday but was on Tuesday instead do to the weather. He got it going again but then after he sewed me back up and took me to recovery it stopped again so I told him ok that's it I want my permacath back in my neck. He warned me the infection rate was hier but I said I know and he said it's your body and I respect that. So he put my permacath back in my neck (the permacath is what I had when I first started dialysis) Anyways do to the blood thinner that they used to clean the port out my blood was really thin. After dialysis it started bleeding perfusely from the insission in my arm and the site where the catheter was they could not get it to stop even with lots of pressure. They ended up taking me to ICU for the night. They finally got it to stop with some serga seal wich they use for clotting and gave me some clot medicine through my IV.
I was returned to a regular room the next night. Today before I was  discharged my vascular surgeon talked to me about a new access he's experimenting with called a hero catheter (he's the only doctor putting these in right now) Anyways it goes through the vaines in the upper arm and through the neck down to the chest. He said the infection rate is a lot less and he's had really good success with them lasting more then a year and still going strong. I opted to try it out. He said the reason my graft kept shutting down was because my vaines were too small and it couldn't support keeping it open and flowing. My nephrologist thinks my vaines should be strong enough to try a new graft but they're not. To proove it we are going to send him pics of my autrasound that my surgeon did on me today.
I see him on March 3 to schedule this but he wants to do it in the next couple weeks.
So yeah that's my week thus far. I will let you guys know when my surgery will be.
I do have a question, have any of you heard of a hero catheter? Do any of you have one?

Troy

[Rerun]

Yes, Kitkatz told me about the HeRO device a year ago, but my vascular surgeon said it would not work for me.  I don't think your surgeon is the only and first one to use them.  What an ego!

Here is more information:
http://www.sentara.com/Services/Vascular/Pages/vacular_hero.aspx

Best of luck and let us know if you decide to use it.

[sullidog]

I'll let ya know how it goes! What I meant to say he's the only surgeon in ohio to use them.
Troy

[Lillupie]

hmmm,
 sounds intresting. I wish i could see a better picture of it then what is on the website. I probably would not mind having that. that being said that once PD no longer works for me I am sure they will try to force me to get a fistrula or graft. I just like the permacaths.

Lisa