We got a call on Wednesday evening informing us Bryces surgery was scheduled for 11:30 the next morning. Bryce called the surgeon (yep, we are THOSE patients!) and said he had some afternoon meetings at work he wanted to try and be done for so if they were able to move him up earlier in the day at all to let us know. 7:30 Thursday morning we got a call that if we could be there in 15 minutes he would be next. He hurried and got ready, I dropped him off expecting to hear in a few hours he was done and ready to come home.
At 11:30 he texted me and said he was still waiting! He hadn't even had the procedure done yet; the one before him had complications and ended up taking 4 more hours. He eventually got back for his turn at 12:30. The nurse called at 3:50 saying he should be ready in about 45 minutes. I fed the kids a snack, we loaded up and went to get him from outpatient post-op. Of course since he's been on anesthesia he can't drive or sign himself out, so I had to park, take all 4 kids in and wait in his teeny tiny "room".
Dr. Ballard (his vascular surgeon who did the surgery) said it went well; they opened his right arm fistula up quite a bit and said he thought it should stay open. They put his new chest catheter in on his left side now (his last 3 have been on his right side) so that's given his other side a little time to heal. It's working fine; we've dialyzed with it twice already. It's much tighter in place so hopefully (fingers crossed) that means we won't have any problems with it. Dr. B said he has every expectation his fistula will continue to mature and be ready to use in 6-8 weeks and then we can be DONE with this CVC stuff for good!
Bryce has had a little pain and tiredness but has bounced back better than his last two so far. He felt well enough that evening to come to Pierce's last soccer lesson. We're thankful he is such a trooper! Heaven knows none of this is easy for him; were so glad he's a fighter and puts on a brave face for the kids even when he's not feeling his best.
