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I have got my date for the PD tube & fistula surgery through, it is on the 4th october. Can someone give me some idea of what to expect and if possible a realistic recovery time? I get conflicting information from the doctors and nurse i have seen, some tell me 2 weeks others 6 weeks??
I can't speak to the fistula. When I was considering it my neph told me it would have to "cure" for several months before it could be used.
P had the PD tube put in at the end of July. It was a simple day surgery; in and out of the hospital in 6 hours. They gave me a sedative, I went to sleep and woke up in the recovery room with no problems. A week later I started training for CAPD. There was very little pain. Some soreness but that went away. I keep the exit site clean and bandaged and its given me no problem.
Hope your experience is the same as mine. Good luck. Let me know how it goes. --Bruce
Hi, do you know why they are doing both a PD tube insertion and a fistula? Is the PD cath. a short term solution before you start haemo? Otherwise, it seems a bit unecessary to me to do the fistula and possibly use an access point before it is needed, since in the future, it may need to be but may no longer be any good, eg clotted off. Put it like this, if a doctor tried to insist that I had a fistula that I wasn't planning to use, I would refuse. Are you on the transplant list? If you are planning to do PD you can do that for a good few years generally (if you don't run into any problems) and there is a good chance that you would receive a kidney before PD stopped working. Amanda
Insurance policy.. Better a well developed fistula then peritonitus and no decent access?
However did you mention before mike they seemed to have doubts about you & PD? (I may be completly imagining this.. as its 12:32 am and should be in bed:D) perhaps that was the reason.. did you ever get to the bottom of it..?
I've got conflciting information depending on who I spoke to. When I last spoke to my consultant, he said that they would be doing a fistula as a back up and originally you are right that they had doubts about me doing PD but they have agreed to let me try. When I saw the surgeon a month or so ago he said he would just be doing the PD tube insertion and not the fistula but I've since been to see the renal support nurse and she said that they would be doing it for the reasons mentioned by Jman.
I'm wondering whether they haven't told the surgeon , it wouldn't be the first time that they have done that. I'm still waiting to start my epo which they said they would be doing over a month ago and it took them 4 or 5 months to sort out getting me in for a iron infusion, by the time I actually got it my ferritin was 20 something!!
I've never had an operation before so I am understandably nervous about the whole thing. The only time I have been in hospital was for my biopsy years ago. It's difficult as it sort of makes everything suddenly very real if that makes sense? I feel ok apart from being weak and tired most of the time so I sometimes feel that there is nothing wrong with me but then I will have a day or a few days where I feel really crappy and I realise that there is. It's difficult to explain but the PD tube just made me realise that there is something seriously wrong with me and dialysis is going to happen, I didn't feel that way when I was put on the transplant list and the transplant really scares me.
Hi Mike
I think I would get absolute confirmation what it is that you are actually having done. It is disgraceful the way patients are treated sometimes in my experience - the right hand often doesn't know what the left hand is doing and these people are supposed to be here to make things easier.
Having said that, the PD operation itself is nothing to be worried about. I had mine done in May (my first operation) and it was fine. A little sore afterwards but nothing I couldn't cope with, and dialysis itself is very manageable, just a bit boring. Obviously my experience of dialysis may differ wildly from some others, but I find it relatively easy. The best thing is not feeling unwell any longer. Like yourself, I had many days where I felt so tired I really couldn't function properly (with anaemia and general malaise). I remember dragging my feet in lethargy most of the time; however, this has entirely subsided and I now feel fine most of the time.
I hope you manage to sort things out and please let us know how you get on. I would be pestering the hospital non-stop until I had an answer...
Ruth
I've got an appointment at the hospital on monday for a pre-admission assessment so I intend to find out exactly what is going to happen then.
It sounds like I'm pretty much like you were at the moment, I shuffle around slowly at work and I get tired just walking up the stairs. I hardly ever go out anymore as I'm too tired in the evening and haven't seen a lot of my friends for ages
I'm not too worried about the dialysis as I know from what others have said it is going to make me feel better eventually.
, it wouldn't be the first time that they have done that. I'm still waiting to start my epo which they said they would be doing over a month ago and it took them 4 or 5 months to sort out getting me in for a iron infusion, by the time I actually got it my ferritin was 20 something!!