Tweety, After the catheter is in he will most likely go to dialysis. They may not let you wait with him. Don't be mad it's just the policy of the hospital. He may feel a little discomfort from the stitch holding the catheter in place. Also when he tries to sleep it may be strange for a while till he gets used to the catheter. The doctor will talk to him and you about the fistula. I had to wait for a year till i had a working fistula. Not all take that long. For now though just make sure he keeps the catheter dry. After a few treatments like maybe three or four he should start to feel better. He may be light headed or even feel sick. Most of that goes away when they get his dry weight correct. Just watch out for this. Sometimes your dry weight is with a hospital gown on. At the dialysis centers you don't wear one so your weight will be different. Once he does get a fistula it will take at least three months to mature. Don't let them stick him too soon. The doctor should tell them. Tweety, I know this will very hard on you and him. You are both in my thoughts. If there is anything i can do just let me know.
Hi Keefer and thanks for all your support and kind words.....he was suppose to start dialysis today and it was all planned out. Now they had him on coumadin for the past month since they thought there were blood clots in his kidneys and that was causing the functioning to go down. Since his GFR was 7 just this past Monday, they had planned everything for today and they told me on Monday no more coumadin....well yesterday I had to take him to get the test and we went there today for all this....now hear this, who knows how back his GFR but all because his coumadin is still high, they decided not to put the catheter in so that told me no dialysis and the nurse said she will do it Monday since this is a dumb weekend (I have learned to hate weekends since this whole drama began) so I really snapped at the nurse......I said "I will not take my husband home and let him die because his kidneys shut down and his GFR is very very low"....she said he is not symptomatic and he is not swelling nor short breathed and he will survive the weekend......I honestly don't know if he will last the weekend.....I can't believe how stupid they were about this coumadin garbage.