Today we got to add another surgery to our calendar, We met with the vascular surgeon this afternoon. It looks like his graft access for dialysis will be put in a week and a half away. It could have been this next Monday but Woody chose to put it off a week since he is having the procedure to remove his peritoneal dialysis catheter on Thursday. We don't know exactly what that entails and it sounded like it may be a bit more involved that we thought at first. So Woody decided that itnwould be best to give himself a chance to recover and heal a bit form that before heading in for another procedure. I was surprised when I read the papers after getting home that the graft will be done at St. Thomas Murfreesboro hospital. I was under the impression that it would be done at the Murfreesboro Medical Center surgical center...what do we know!?! This morning I was going through emails trying to get rid of a lot that have piled up since I haven't had a lot of time lately to go through email! I found an email from Vanderbilt about an estimate. Incouodn't figure out what we had had done at Vanderbilt that they were telling us the cost of a procedure. I opened it and realized that it was from our local hospital. I have trouble thinking about it as Vanderbilt since it has been Harton Hospital ever since I moved heree! It was giving us information about Woody's procedure on Thursday. I learned that we will be getting a call in the morning to give us information and for us to give them information. I found forms that Woody could sign ahead of time and forms to fill out which we successfully did. So hopefully that will help with registeation. Dr. Thomasson's office also gave us an automated call with a time for an appointment so maybe we know when the surgery is supposed to happen Thursday morning. So medical "things" are piling up around us once again! Tomorrow is our nurse's last day to come to the house for training. I am feeling more comfident, but hate that the first day we will be on our own will be the day after Woody's surgical procedure. Today we got a call from the company that makes our newest dialysis machine. She was very nice and explained that they were there to help us...even give moral support if needed! Today I gave Woody iron through his access. Tomorrow I will be giving him his anemia shot...the nurse forgot to stop by the clinic to get it this morning. When the nurse left this morning, she found two packages on the front porch...one for his next anemia shot that she ordered yesterday and our rolling stool...to add to our dialysis "clinic!" I put the stool together a little while ago so I could recycle the cardboard. I think that it will help me some when I need to sit down to do certain procedures...when I am sitting on a chair, I always want to move a smidge that way or a smidge another and hopefully this will help. It doesn't roll real easily since the room is carpeted, but I figure that is good so it won't roll out from under me! Well, tonight, I think that we are both pretty tired. I look forward to not having to get up so early as we have been this week in order for me to have dialysis up and running before thr nurse gets here. The alarm going off before 5am is a little too early for me! I don't think that we will have to be up with the birds on Thursday since the time the doctor's office gave is late morning...guessing two hours before the time told us. At least whatever time they tell us all we have to do is travel about ten minutes down the road to be at the hospital. Now for the dialysis graft that will take some more getting up with the birds as it is at least an hour away and probably more with morning rush hour traffic. I will say that today's appointment went very quickly. We were told to get there a half hour ahead of our appointment time. Instead we got there right at our appointment time and were called back fairly quickly and thr doctor came in very quickly...a plus in our book for this doctor! I think that Woody convinced him to try to put the graft in his non dominant arm...not ideal...but given that he only has one good arm and one good leg (luckily on opposite sides), it would be better if it could be placed in that arm. I think that there Re some restrictions on what all you can do with the arm that it is in...and he needs to lean heavily on that arm when he is getting up and when he uses his walker. Guess time will tell if the doctor decides to try that arm...but it seemed like that was the way he was leaning. Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!
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