Third try's the charm

Bryce had been having some pain and more movement than there should be with his chest catheter the past few days. At this point it's supposed to be healed enough that pain and movement is a problem. He called the vascular surgeon over the weekend- they scheduled an appointment with him today. 

They removed his CVC (the second one in as many months) which the doctor said was infected and will put in yet another one in a procedure on Thursday. He also checked Bryce's fistula which didn't feel as strong as his last one did at this stage. They did an ultrasound and said there has been some narrowing of the veins so they will also go in and try to balloon the veins back open during his procedure on Thursday.

Fistula #2

Bryces fistula surgery today went well, they didn't have any problems. The new fistula is now in his right arm; they also fixed his chest catheter that we've been having problems with when we dialyze the past week. They took the old one out and put in a whole new one in a slightly different site so we are hopeful that makes treatment go smoother for the next couple months until we can use the new fistula. Bryce hasn't been able to feel the usual strong pulse (the thrill) in the new fistula but the doc said to give it a few days and see. He's been able to rest comfortably this afternoon and evening and is dialyzing now to try and make up for the shortened treatments as of late.

For details of how the day went read on; if you're not interested it's fine ☺️ Just know he is doing well and feeling okay. As usual, we appreciate so much all the love, thoughts, prayers and checking in on us today. It always helps keep us calm in otherwise turbulent situations. And if you know me you know how much I appreciate calm 👌🏼

Bryce had to be to the hospital at 5:45 this morning to prep for his surgery at 7. I got a call at 10AM from Pre-surgery saying he was done. I got the kids ready in a hurry and out the door, hauled them all inside and back to his recovery "room" only for the nurse to look at me like I was crazy. "He's not ready to go."

I was still breathless from the adventure of wrangling the kids to this point.

She informed me he would still need another 30 minutes or so to pull out of it and be ready to be discharged.

The kids hadn't had breakfast yet and I didn't want to drag them back home so we went for breakfast at Carl's Jr. and the kids played on the jungle gym for almost an hour. 

I still hadn't heard anything, so I sent Bryce a text with no response, then called the hospital for an update. I spoke with his nurse who told me he was still really drowsy and when he would dose off his oxygen would drop, so she couldn't let him go until he got his oxygen numbers higher. I told her he sleeps with a CPAP so unless he has his mask on while he sleeps it's normal for his oxygen to drop. She said she'd give me a call when he was ready. 

By now it was noon so I thought I'd take the kids home, get them ready for naps and then be able to head back when I got the call. I loaded the kids back up, drive home, got kids unloaded and settled in to wind down before naps and Bryce texted saying he was ready. Since I had to sign discharge papers I had to bring the kids in, I couldn't meet him curbside. So...we loaded back up and headed back to the hospital. We got right back, got our discharge papers, dropped off his prescriptions at the pharmacy and came back home. Got everyone settled down for nap time and headed back out to get his pain medicine picked up.

It was madness all day, but now it's over and hopefully he can sleep well tonight and get a good treatment in tomorrow too.

This is a picture of Bryce's old chest catheter. The new one looks slightly different but it's basically the same. It's on the right side on his upper chest, just below his collarbone.