Day 1

[Sleepywife]

I want to start this by saying I am the spouse of a grumpy man. What are you supposed to expect day one of PD surgery. We tried to go home and they left it open ( his belly button are). Then we notice it’s red. So shocker I say let’s go to the er. Needless to say we are still sitting in er but I figured it was an actual question. They keep saying do not touch it leave it covered and yet here we still sit. I know I’ll find out answers at one point maybe today ( it’s 9pm). If not I’ll just keep being the sleepy wifey

[bumblebee_tuna]

Sorry I can't help you diagnose the redness (and you are already in the ER). It's not a "big" surgery but there will be some pain the firs couple days. I had a terrible itch from from the inside from day 3 to I'd say, day 7 (approximately) but that could just be me and the way the wound was healing. A couple of weeks later they will start "testing" the catheter.

[Sleepywife in reply to bumblebee_tuna]

When we left no one said whether or not it was supposed to leak? Or what but now the patch covering the site is red … blood I think . We looked at it for a minute tops before the fill in nurse was like ok time for clothes and you’re gone. So we are sitting at hour 4 no pain meds and husband is very stiff. I feel bad like we should have stayed earlier. I honestly just wish the nurse who wanted to see us out did.

[Sleepywife in reply to Sleepywife]

I just want to freak out when I need to… I am glad I found this feed at 4 am the other night. Honestly did calm me down a lot. My husband is 36 so this is just not where we saw life. But that’s been our story since day one.

[bumblebee_tuna in reply to Sleepywife]

Yeah, they do want you out of the hospital quickly ... Hopefully it's nothing and you can get some rest tomorrow.

[Sleepywife in reply to bumblebee_tuna]

We just saw someone who said it was dressed very badly. Literally was open at his belly button. So I feel good that I made him come in. The doctor agreed it wouldn’t have made it a week.

[Beachgirl32]

I’m so glad you went to the er so sorry you were not given instructions what to watch out for. I know I received a paper saying what to look out for and definitely what you described get to the er it said . I had excellent care and my dressing was well done I’m so sorry your husband was not. I hope his pd journey will be a safe one now. I been doing pd dialysis since February on the cycler and it so nice to have my days free.

[Sleepywife in reply to Beachgirl32]

When we speak to his doctor and surgeon I plan to ask why we got no details. And if we did get details it wasn’t in writing. Sorry but he came out of anesthesia for maybe an hour. Had 2 slices of bread and was told to relax. New nurse asked how it was and quick looked at it ( his first time seeing it). Then took the iv out and kicked us out. His paperwork only talked about what drugs he could take. I wish we had been given anything or told anything about what to look for.

[Porter20]

This is the best feed ever, full of people that have walked the walk. Sometimes better than doctors because of the vast experiences!

This find was a God send to you guys! Hope things calm down it stinks having to deal with this.🙏🏻🥰

[Sleepywife in reply to Porter20]

Honestly I have to agree. Since finding this place I have calmed down a lot. Don’t tell my husband I said that. Because he thinks I am a worry wart and haven’t calmed down. But he’s my best friend. Our cat is his. But this has helped and seeing people actually saying day by day calms me. It’s not a doctor saying ohhh this is what I see. It’s people actually saying this is what I feel. Soo thank you for listing and telling your stories

[RonZone]

Glad you found this site. Every PD experience is different. You can click on my name and see the posts I wrote about mine. I ended up in the ER the night of my surgery but for a different reason. Then had all kinds of stuff going on since. I won't name them all and they will be different from what your husband experiences I'm sure. It is scary when you get home and something happens that no one has prepared you for. Luckily, I was able to call my PD nurse, and also left a message for my surgeon who actually called me back and told me what to do in my situation. So at least I had some way of getting information. Make sure you have your PD nurse's number, your surgeon's number, in fact get everybody on your PD teams number for texts and email address for emails. You might need a good bit of support going forward and they will be a lot of help. And of course you can post questions on this site. We can't help diagnose, but we can offer thoughts and suggestions. I wish your husband and you well on your PD journey. Keep posting about your progress in coming days! And yes, guard that surgery exit site well and follow your PD nurse's instructions to a "T" to prevent infection.

[Cornhusk]

My wife had some bleeding I think the night after surgery that soaked through the dressing. We called the surgeon and he said to either change the dressing ourselves our go to an Urgent care to have them change the dressing. We changed the dressing ourselves. We had an appointment with the PD nurse the next day, as he actually said that we should not have have changed the dressing but instead should have put more dressing on top of it to avoid infection. He changed the dressing and applied some pressure and the bleeding stopped. After that it was fine and we didn’t see any more bleeding. I don’t think my wife was ever in a lot of pain.

[Darlenia in reply to Cornhusk]

Your PD nurse preached the same message that we received when my hubby was on PD. Infection is a huge concern. Our nurse also said we should always see the dialysis center with any issue and, if that wasn't possible, to make sure that only those nurses/doctors familiar with PD touched or worked in the catheter area. Our PD nurse was also unhappy when my hubby was seeing a urologist about a UTI, worrying about accidental cross contamination. So he was super cautious around everyone.