Has any one had their Pd tube replaced?

[billybags]

I know I keep moaning on about my husband having had peritonitis and his pd tube was removed in case it had the e-coli bug.Well he has been given a date in early September to have it replaced, he is on Heamo at the moment.
 My question is: Has any one else had this done, was it ok, did you get a good dialysis with it or has the peritoneal  membrane been weakened by the bug. He does not know what to do, he hates Heamo, he hates sitting for 4 hours, 3 times a week. He was doing fine on CAPD before this crap happened. Like to hear some view on this please.

[Restorer]

I had a catheter put in last August, and it never worked. We were taking out time letting me heal before putting the catheter to use, but it ended up tangled in omentum and not able to drain. I ended up in the hospital with uremia before I could get it replaced.

Later in September I was finally able to have the catheter replaced. The plan was to just untangle it laparoscopically, but after I was under and they took a look at it, they decided to replace the catheter entirely.

The incision was painful for longer than my first cathether placement (probably because they cut right through the just-healed previous incision), and it took longer to heal. I really needed to be getting dialysis, so I started using the catheter exactly a week after it was replaced, with small volume fills and very low fill speeds - manually regulated by partially closing the clamp. Within a month I was doing better with the fills.

When I had my second, worse case of peritonitis earlier this year, it did affect my membrane. I ultrafiltrate less, and apparently my Kt/V is lower. I used to never have problems with potassium, but now I do. It could also be compounded by continuing loss of kidney function, though.

[mikey07840]

I had my PD catheter removed. After too many infections, I have switched back to heamodialysis. I am getting much better dialysis results. I do not know if I will try PD again, but for now I am sticking with heamo.

[Hanify]

Early on my catheter twisted and kinked and they had to do the operation again to straighten it.  I hadn't had peritonitis though, so I'm not sure about that side of things.  The op itself was no problem and they made a different incision so I didn't have a lot of pain.

[sico]

My first PD catheter never really worked well. Even after having the omentum partially removed. Then it flipped and i was about to give up on it and get a fistula made (had my veins mapped) for HD. But i'm glad i persevered with PD and agreed to a new catheter. 2nd time around i had a different surgeon put it in another way and it's all been great since.

[billybags]

Restorer, Did it take you along time to recover after your bouts of peritonitis. My husband seems to be so tired , can not sleep and having sweats at night. Being on emergency Heamo we thought he would be a lot better, but no. I think he is scared of having the pd pipe in again after all the pain. Looking forward to your answer..

[Restorer]

billybags, the only problems I had from peritonitis were abdominal pain and fibrin. All of my episodes of peritonitis were caused by the same bug, Staph aureus, so I don't know what it would be like with something nastier. It took me just a day or two to feel better after the first one. The second was a little worse, and it took me a couple days longer to feel better.

The third was by far the worst, the only time I needed IV pain meds in the ER. The pain stuck around for at least a week, and I burned through most of my supply of pain meds (darvocet). I stayed on PD and didn't need to go to emergency hemo.

[billybags]

Thanks for that Restorer, Husband came home to day after Heamo session and he was told he was not doing very well on it and it would have to be tweaked. He still car'nt make his mind up whether to go back to CAPD. Isn't life a shitt*er. Have to see the neph on Wednesday so will be asking for answers.

[Hanify]

That's for sure.  It kind of strikes me a funny (not funny ha ha) that you have to make a choice between PD or Haemo!  Who wants to make that damned choice anyway! 

[peleroja]

I had my first ever peritonitis last November (after being on PD for 5 years), and they had to remove the catheter as I had pseudomonas, a particularly virulent bug.  In April they gave me a new PD catheter which didn't work, so they did revision surgery in May, and it has been working fine ever since.  Unfortunately, they say my Kt/V is too low and they may have to do some tweaking to my prescription.  No one has yet mentioned having to go on hemo again.

[koutsounel]

My son's first pd catheter didn't work properly, so he had to have it removed. Fortunately he didn't need dialysis at the time - as with his condition, renal failure caused by nephrectomy was the "cure" for nephrotic syndrome. When he had the second catheter put in, the surgeon also did omentectomy, as this caused a problem the first time. 15 months later and it is still working fine!
The only thing I noticed, the pd catheter scar is bigger than the nephrectomy one, and the operation is quite a big one. Of course, if someone needs to have it again, there is not much you can do, but in our son's case we asked for it to be delayed because we felt it was too much for him. I can understand that hemo is not great, but going to theater is far more serious, and having one general anaesthetic after another is not the best thing that can happen to you.

[koutsounel]

I had my first ever peritonitis last November (after being on PD for 5 years), and they had to remove the catheter as I had pseudomonas, a particularly virulent bug.  In April they gave me a new PD catheter which didn't work, so they did revision surgery in May, and it has been working fine ever since.  Unfortunately, they say my Kt/V is too low and they may have to do some tweaking to my prescription.  No one has yet mentioned having to go on hemo again.

I noticed you mention Pseudomonas, did it take aprox. 6 months to replace the catheter because this particullar bacteria takes a long time to clear? My son lost his catheter for this reason, and they told us it is a difficult bug to clear, but our understanding was we would wait 2 months