I Got My Fistula

[Cordelia]

hi everyone i got my fistula this am. i'm okay, will write about my experience soon when i have ability to type with 2 hands better lol     
all went well             

[boswife]

Yeah.  One thing done and behind ya . Glad your doing good

[MooseMom]

Oh, I just saw your name up there on the board!  I've been thinking about you ALL MORNING, wondering if you were at the hospital yet, wondering if the surgery had started yet, then wondering if it was all over yet, and THEN wondering if you might be home yet!   I'm so glad that you are OK, and I'm really looking forward to hearing more when you feel like it.  Thanks so much for checking in so quickly!  You must have known that I was a bit nervous.

[okarol]

  I hope it heals well - take care!

[willowtreewren]

    I know you are happy to have that behind you! I still love Carl's fistula, which is still going strong! 

When it comes time to use it, make sure they are extra careful with it. 

Hugs and best wishes to you!

Aleta

[kevinswife]

I'm glad it went well.  My husband will be getting his Wednesday. 

[fearless]

YAY Cordelia!!!!!!!!!!!

[Marsh]

 

[Traveller1947]

Whew--glad that's over with!  Now, on to healing...

[jonsal]

Nice to hear! Take good care of it!

[Gerald Lively]

The fistula is in as of yesterday afternoon.  I don't know what I expected but it went smoothly.  They laid me out flar on my back, arms spread as if I were making snow angels. Then they draped a tarp so I couldn't see the sugery itself, as if I wanted to watch.  Before I could comment, I was asleep, and that lasted about 15 minutes. Once awake, my curiosity got the best of me and I asked to see what was going on.  Alas, I did not have my reading glasses on and I couldn't see anything anyway. Then it was over.  The procedure lasted about 30 minutes.  Have a slight ache this morning.  Doctor said it went smoothly, that the subject vein was larger than he expected.
So, in two weeks he will evaluate.
gerald 

[boswife]

Great GL   .... So glad for you TOO that thats now behind ya...  Hopen the 'ache' will be gone quickly  

[mcclane]

good to hear cordelia !  get well soon !! 

[Whamo]

I'm glad your surgery went well.  I go back in for a checkup in a couple of weeks.  Then I will have the second half of the procedure done.  Don't forget to squeeze the red rubber ball or the kidney shaped rubber thing Phoslo gives away.  My doctor said to to squeeze it for 8 seconds. 

[Cordelia]

Hello everyone!!!!             

It's SO good to be back!               Thanks ever so much for all your sweet words and good thoughts!            Thanks so much for your best wishes!     

My fistula surgery experience was good!    I was very amazed how fast it really went-before I knew it, it was over!     

My arrival time at the hospital was for 6 am, I did not get registered until almost 7 am because 2 people at the register desk had called in sick that morning so I waited a bit longer......

Once I arrived in the day surgery unit things moved very quickly!

There, they took my temp and bp and drew blood and gave me a toasty warm blanket, oh boy do I love those!   

Soon after they took me another waiting room and then in a matter of minutes I was in the OR--they just let me walk into the theater.

They hooked me up to the IV, the surgeon came in and I was able to ask him a couple of questions ......the last thing I remembered was someone saying, "blood work pending" and I remember thinking, oh God, how long am I gonna have to wait for that?     

Next thing I knew I was waking up in the OR and being wheeled out     

Then I was moved to the first recovery room for half an hour then moved on to yet another recovery room where they kept me an hour and then i left the hospital by 11:30 am, surgery was scheduled for 8 am and I think they started by 8:30 am so the sugery was an hour long roughly.........

I felt great in the recovery areas, awake and alert, NO pain!    If they would have let me, I would have felt like leaving right after surgery   

When I went home, I had no pain at all.....took it easy and went to bed that night with not much effort, slept like a baby   

All week I didn'treally have any pain, some mild soreness but only took extra strength tylenol for the soreness. I didn't touch the tylenol 3's at all  which made me happy since my stomach can't tolerate it.

The bandage was removed Saturday and all looked well. I showered for the first time today in a week and boy, it felt good!     

The steri-strips are the only thing left on it right now. My outer bandage was removed and my unit told me they will fall off on their own.......

My fistula is healing nicely and my arm is somewhat bruised, but the nurses said they've seen worse.

I go back to my clnic in January to see the surgeon.

Sometimes it swells a bit but then I just elevate it.......

All in all, the experience was not as bad as I thought it would be and I would say hands down, this surgery was MUCH easier than the central catheter!!

Gerald, I'm so glad yours went really good!  Kevin's wife , I hope your husband's fistula went well and Whamo, I hope yours did too! What do you mean the second half of your surgery, Whamo?

If anybody wants to ask any other questions to me, please feel free, I'm an open book when it comes to this stuff        I sure wish that I'd had this site with all you fantastic people here to read and ask questions over a year ago regarding a central line but I didn't know of this site back then  in the summer of 2010!  when I went into renal failure     

[willowtreewren]

So glad everything is looking good, Cordelia. You, too, Gerald.

The key now is to exercise it with the squeezy ball and baby it when you first start using it. 

Aleta

[Cordelia]

Thanks, Willowtreen!     

[MooseMom]

Oh, the anticipation is so much worse than the actual surgery!  What the surgery represented to me was what really hurt me, not the surgery itself.  But you were able to go in with a completely different mindset, ie, this will be much better than a cath.  I'm so glad this big hurdle is behind you!  Thanks for posting more about your experiences as this will really help the next IHD member who has to have a fistula placed.

Stay well!

[mcclane]

good to hear everything went well ! 

[Cordelia]

Hi MM and Mcclane     

Thanks so much!        I don't mind sharing, in the hopes I may help someone else     

MM, you got it when you said, the anticipation is always much worse than the actual procedure!!!          I always find that true!     

Sorry I wasn't able to update in awhile, I couldn't log onto the forum all week. I'm happy to be back         

This past week my arm started to ache so bad at night when I went to bed so I started sleeping with my electric blanket on where I just drape my arm over the fuzzy electric blanket and oh, it helps soothe the aching so I can get to sleep!   

It aches off and on during the daytime too but I can cope during the day, its at night when I'm trying to sleep that I need the relief and I find the warm blanket so nice!            And one thing is for sure, I never had this aching until just recently so I know its from the surgery.         Anyways, people at my unit say its pretty common for that arm to ache after surgery.

The first night it ached and it ached......AND it ached and it prevented me from sleeping, it made me miserable!!!     

Anyways, I haven't started excercising it yet, they told me not to and to wait until I see the surgeon in January. 

The last few days I'm back to my usual stuff, I'm using the hand and the arm and just being careful not to lift anything heavy. The trickiest part for me is remembering NOT to pick my purse up in my left hand.     

The steri strips have come off and there is a raised bump where the incision was. It looks ugly to me  but the nurses all say it's beautiful               

[MooseMom]

Cordelia, are you taking any pain meds at night to help relieve the ache so that you can sleep?  Even just regular ol' Tylenol would be helpful.

I'm glad your nurses aren't looking at your fistula and are exclaiming, "Oh my God, I've never seen one looking like THAT!"

[Cordelia]

          that's too funny about the nurses! LOL

MM,  I was taking extra strength tylenol the whole first week however, I stopped because it constipated me so horrible.   Any tylenol makes me so horribly constipated. But, the blanket is helping. It's on so low, the heat, its not at a high setting. It's just enough to soothe the ache and best of all, its not a pill that causes nasty side effects