Dialysis Port Placement Day.

 

Day #9 (Day 18 since 1/2/25) of Mike in the hospital. First and foremost, we both want to thank you all for your prayers, love and support. 

Yesterday after the decision was made to get the ball rolling on dialysis, Mike and I spoke with a woman from vascular surgery about the procedure to place his port for dialysis. She explained the minor risks of this procedure but then realized the complication of Mike’s neck/back fusion from his Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS). The procedure requires the patient to lay flat, Mike is not able to lay flat and his neck is very limited on how far he can turn it left and right. The procedure can’t really be done in a sitting up or slightly reclined position because it cause’s a big risk of an air embolism. Because of this, this woman had to go back to the surgeon and come up with another plan. I am not sure yet what the plan is as they haven’t called me yet this morning, but Mike’s day nurse said that it is a go for this afternoon. 

So PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, continue to pray for this procedure to go smoothly with no complications.

When I visited him last night, I was shocked at how swollen his hands, feet and belly were. When I had left Sunday night, his ankles were somewhat swollen, but last night it was so much worse. He hadn’t eaten in over 24. Hrs, has no appetite and now because of the procedure later today, he is not allowed to eat. He is also not able to produce urine, the loss of appetite, shortness of breath, swelling and urine retention are all typical symptoms of renal failure, so needless to say the dialysis is now urgent.

Last night he was emotional and scared during my visit. We prayed together and read scripture, which appeared to help a little. This morning he sounded a bit more upbeat, but I know he is still anxious about the upcoming procedure, so please also continue to pray for his mind to be calm.

We both know that God is not a God of fear. 

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7

You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. Isaiah 26:3


Comments

  1. Kathy Barrett-DickFebruary 4, 2025 at 8:41 AM

    You got this Mike! You've got an army praying for you! We love ya buddy!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. JoyceFebruary 4, 2025 at 8:57 AM

    Thinking of you and sending prayers. You got this Mike. Your a strong man thats for sure.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

When Caring Becomes Too Much: Recognizing and Coping With Caregiver Burnout

Image
  I am writing about this topic because writing helps me reduce my stress. I know although I feel alone in this journey sometimes, I am not, so I’m hoping by writing about it, I will help others to feel understood and validated. I have written a blog post in the past about living with someone with chronic illness, this post will be similar to that, but more on the feelings of burn out. I think like me, many care takers don’t vent or talk about their feelings as much as they probably should. I can only speak for myself but I suspect that there are probably many who feel the same way. Most of the time I don’t say how I’m really feeling because I don’t want to sound like a complainer. Besides, do people really want to know how I am feeling? Probably not. Sort of like how the majority of people ask “how are you?” In passing, but they really don’t want to know, they are just being polite. If they really wanted to know, they wouldn’t ask when passing by, they’d ask when they planned on s...
Read more

Another Day, Another Procedure and a Whole Bunch of Feelings

Image
  Another day spent at Portsmouth Hospital with Mike. Today he had a Fistulagram also known as a Fistulography. It’s an imaging test where they insert a needle and dye and do some imaging to make sure the fistula in his arm is working properly before they can remove the Central Venous Catheter (CVC) which he has had since February. Since Mike has stage 5 kidney disease, this Fistula is a life line for dialysis. He did well during the procedure, even though there was a lot of pressure and discomfort. The test showed that he had scar tissue built up from a previous antibiotic picc line, so they had to open it up with a balloon. He was in the operating room for about an hour and in recovery for another hour. Starting Tuesday, the nurse’s at the dialysis center will try using the arm Fistula for the next 3 sessions. Once it is proven to be working properly, an appointment will be scheduled to get the CVC removed from his chest. He can’t wait to get rid of that thing.  Another upda...
Read more

Update in the Michael Health Chronicles

Image
  As I posted on Friday, Mike’s dialysis fistula placement surgery went well. He had a bit of a tough weekend. Dialysis on Saturday was a bit rough between the fatigue and pain from the surgery the day before. We are grateful it all went well though, a step in the right direction. But, in true Mike fashion, it’s one step up and two steps back. On Saturday we got notice from Lahey Clinic saying that Mike will not be put on the kidney transplant list at this time, as we suspected but it’s still disappointing. After all the tests he went through, his team of doctors determined that he is too high risk at this time and would more than likely, not survive the surgery. He is still considered fragile and has to continue to gain some strength back as well as get his broken back fixed. They will retest everything and reassess in January.  We will not give up, we still trust God’s plans for us no matter what they are. The winds have changed a bit so we must adjust the sails. With school...
Read more