Oxnard—My surgery is over; the Peritoneal Catheter is sitting in my abdomen, and after a few hospital delays, I’m home.
THIS Catheter is a little different; the bad things in my body that my Kidneys can’t filter will be absorbed by the cleansing fluid I’ll put into my body before bed, called dialysate, which absorbs the bad stuff in my blood, and my stomach lining will be the filter.
This means no more trips to Dialysis, no more filtering my blood into an artificial Kidney for 9 hours (more like 11 with travel and wait time), and no more heart damage. It’s five weeks away while I heal, but the tough part is complete.
The prep was interesting. The last time I had general anesthesia, it meant getting gas on the operating table, which was unpleasant way back in the 1960s. This time, the Anesthesiologist came in and said he added something to my IV to help me relax. About 30 seconds later, I was out.
I woke up after the surgery, and the nurse had a small lunch ready for me because I had to fast for 12 hours before the operation.
They were running behind because the…
