Hello my name is Nikki in TX

[Bambino_Bear]

Thanks for your kind words.  He is having a lot of gas pain which from what I have read is pretty common.  Also his skin itches a lot.  He never had a problem with that before the surgery.  Anyone else have this after PD surgery?   

[Shaks24]

Did the surgeon use surgical glue instead of sutures? Mine did and both my arm and belly were itchy around the incisions.

[Bambino_Bear]

I'm not sure.  He had to go in today to do a change on the exit site bandage as they did a crappy job securing it after surgery.  He does have a cough and is going to mention that to our nurse.  Are you still having drain pain?

[Shaks24]

Did exchange this morning and no pain whatsoever. Go figure! Even when there was pain it was not severe. It felt like my belly button was getting sucked in. lol

[Bambino_Bear]

 

[Bambino_Bear]

Today Justin had the bandages changed and did a flush.  Everything went great.  He is healing really well.  He fills and drains pretty quickly.  No pain.  Everyone is so nice at our clinic and that really helps.  We start training 10/17.  I feel a lot less stressed now. 

 

[MaryJoe]

   Glad to hear things are going well and that Justin is healing well. Also happy that your stress level is lower now.  Oct 17 is a very good date to start your training, it's always been a good day for me! 

[Bambino_Bear]

Thanks Mary Joe!   

[Shaks24]

 

[Bambino_Bear]

Training starts tomorrow.  Our nurse called earlier to check on us and to go over what we will be doing tomorrow.  Everyone that I have dealt with has been so nice.  Here's hoping day 1 will go well!

Shaks how are you doing with the exchanges?

[Bambino_Bear]

First day of PD training went great.  Everyone was so nice and helpful.  Round two tomorrow.

[Shaks24]

Hi Nikki. Everything is going ok. I am glad tp hear Justins training is going well. Keep us posted.

[Bambino_Bear]

We have hit a speed bump.   

Everything was going fine with training.  Yesterday during our final fill my husband noticed that his scrotum was swollen.  He informed our nurse who immediately went into drain.  She spoke with another doctor and a neph.  They set up an appointment with our surgeon for Monday.  Looks like another surgery will be necessary.  My poor hubby is so upset,  Things were going so well.   They told us the body should absorb the fluid over the weekend.  Things are still very swollen.  No pain.  We were advised if he begins to have pain to call and our neph will meet us at the ER.

Anyone else had this happen?   

[Shaks24]

No swelling anywhere Nikki but I have had some issues in not draining nearly as much as I fill. We think it is constipation related so I am taking Mirrolax to see if it helps. This morning I drained real good. 2400ML. I am so sorry to hear this about Justin and I hope they figure it out quickly. I have heard of this happening but do not know much about it. Hopefully someone else will chime in. I know they also get concerned about hernias with PD. Were they using 2 liter bags? Best wishes for a quick resolution.

[Bambino_Bear]

They have him doing 1200 fills right now.  They don't think it is a hernia. They mentioned something about it being congenital that allows the fluid to leak out.  I wasn't there as I had to stay home for the supply delivery otherwise I would have asked a lot of questions.  'sigh'.

Glad things are going well for you!  :-)

[Shaks24]

I googled it Nikki. It seems this occurs with 3 - 4 percent of PD patients. They refer to it as an inguinal hernia that results in fluid leaking into the scrotum and or genitals. It is repaired with surgery and according to what I read he may have to stop pd for a few weeks while the repair heals. If you want to read about it google scrotal edema in peritoneal dialysis patients. Of course the bottom line is that the doctors will evaluate and diagnose. My best wishes are with you both for a quick and successful resolution.

[Bambino_Bear]

Thanks so much!

[Shaks24]

Hope the swelling is going down.  It really sucks that we are going through so much to begin with and then complications happen. I am praying for a quick and good resolution for Justin. Stay strong.

[Vitality]

Hi, Nikki!

I recently started PD and am now doing automated PD. You can read some of my experience here on a comment I made on this post (look for Vitality): http://ihatedialysis.com/forum/index.php?topic=29683.0

My PD nurse had warned me to be on the lookout for possible swelling, but so far, I've experienced none. I hope that the process of rectifying your husband's issue goes smoothly and that he is able to continue his manual PD and onward to automated PD. I can assure you that better days are in yours and your husband's future!

If it is complete body itching that your husband is experiencing, this is not associated with the surgery; it is due to his continued kidney function decline. There are many symptoms associated with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), and full body itching is one of them. Another is ammonia breath. The itching is due to phosphorous buildup in the blood; ammonia breath due to the buildup of the products of metabolism of protein. Further, as the kidneys steadily lose their function and the blood becomes toxic, the body starts to try to use the skin as a blood filter. Your husband may also notice that he feels a thin layer of thick oil on his skin after about eight hours between cleansing. This would be his body trying to do whatever it can to rid itself of some of the toxins. In the process, the skin starts to modify its function. He may notice changes as various skin areas, particularly the forearms and calves, change texture and perhaps tone. (I experienced these symptoms as my kidneys began to fail, and researching them led me to find that I had CKD due to long-standing hypertension that I didn't have a clue about.) Not to worry... PD will soon resolve this and all symptoms associated with CKD  , except occasional edema (water retention) when there has been an overload of fluid consumption. Unfortunately, if he is taken off PD for a period of time, it will only be his skin and failing kidneys trying to cleans his blood, but they will steadily fail, and the symptoms might get a little worse during the interim between now and when he is back on PD. To mitigate as much itching as possible, try to cut out as much high-phosphorous containing foods as possible. Reducing phosphorous will be part of your husbands PD diet anyway.

OK, Nikki, thank you for sharing, and I wish you and your husband the best! I KNOW that once he is on automated PD, your lives will return to EXACTLY what it was before your husband's health declined with only a twenty-minute connect at night, occasional soft shuffle noises from the machine at night, and twenty-minute disconnect in the morning. Your days together will be free to do WHATEVER it is you might do without being on PD therapy, so take heart and look forward to NORMALCY in the near future with the plus of your husband's good health because of PD. 

[Vitality]

@Shaks24:

...I have had some issues in not draining nearly as much as I fill.

I am known as what is called in the PD world as a "quick transporter". That means that my PD process happens faster than usual. For me, a regular four-hour dwell time was too much! After a particular optimum time, the body will start to reabsorb whatever fluids the PD function might have pulled out and more! Therefore, to alleviate this, a shorter dwell time can help. My PD nurse didn't advise me of this; I experimented and figured it out for myself. I cut my manual PD dwell time to three hours instead of four, and I consistently pulled 900 to 1500 ML extra from 2000 ML bags. The success with this timing helped my PD nurse decide on 1hr 15min dwell times for five cycles for my automated PD program. Try reducing your dwell time and see if that helps.

[Shaks24]

Thanks so much for this info. I will try it after discussing with my nurse.

[Bambino_Bear]

The swelling has gone down a lot!   

We have an appointment with the surgeon tomorrow @ 2pm. 

Thanks so much Vitality for your kind words.   

I will update tomorrow after the appointment.

[Vitality]

@Shaks24 - Yes... talk to your PD nurse about it. Remember the term "fast transporter". If she agrees with trying a shortened dwell time during manual PD and you find that you do fairly consistently drain more fluid than you fill, you might also ask her if 0 (zero) "Last Fill" in your automated PD program would help you not absorb during the off time (day time) when you are fully trained and doing automated PD with the machine. With the knowledge that I am a fast transporter, my PD nurse decided it would be best if I go completely empty during the day and had me change the program in the machine to 0 Last Fill. (BTW, before I reduced my manual dwell times, first my feet, then my ankles, then my calves, then progressively my thighs, expanded with retained fluid (edema). Hahaha... no pain or anything, but whenever I would look down at myself, all I could think was "I've become a cartoon character!"  It looked so odd and so funny. (But I know that edema is not a laughing matter.) Reducing the dwell time helped me to get rid of the extra fluid and return to looking normal within just a few days.)

[Vitality]

@Nikki - That's GREAT news!!!

Earlier, I said:

...your lives will return to EXACTLY what it was before your husband's health declined...

Well, that's not exactly true. I'm sure that your PD nurse(s) and doctor(s) have already shared information with you regarding the need to modify your husband's diet to reduce sodium (salt), phosphorus, and potassium consumption. DaVita, a major dialysis services company, has FANTASTIC materials online regarding ALL things associated with dialysis:

http://www.davita.com - Home page
http://www.davita.com/kidney-disease/diet-and-nutrition - Diet and nutrition
http://www.davita.com/cookbook/index.cfm?cmp=dvahome_cta_cooking_download - recipes

Unfortunately, another change is no swimming, period.  (I did read somewhere about the ability to swim in some kind of specially prepared water.) And also, no heavy lifting or extra-strenuous activity when your husband is in the "filled" or "dwelling" state of PD. He can exercise while in this state, but nothing that flexes or strains the abdominal muscles. Otherwise, when "empty" or "drained", all strenuous activities are fine.

As far as I know, those are the only lifestyle changes to expect. I, personally, am back to jogging/running, playing tennis/basketball, doing yard work, and working out as usual. Sooo, life on PD is quite normal other than the PD process at night. I holster my transfer set in the wrap-around waist harness. It is unnoticeable, even with just a t-shirt covering it, and I don't think of it during the day unless I specifically examine it. The brain is surprisingly adaptable to changes to the body, and your husband will adjust and feel it normal in a short while.

[Bambino_Bear]

So we went to see our surgeon today.  The swelling has gone away.  Doc did not feel a hernia.  So tomorrow we go and have our nurse to a 1200 fill.  Our Neph will be in the office tomorrow so that if we have the problem again he can observe it.  Assuming we have the swelling we will then go to the surgeon so he can try and figure out what the deal is.  I was hoping to have this figured out by now and surgery scheduled.  I am a bit stressed out.