Rick's Version of the Last Two Weeks, Part One

Rick's Writings from the TT Diary, 11/28 to 12/15

Mary's prologue: the last two weeks have been busy in the extreme, so I'm 'way behind on my typing duties. So hunker in for a good long read, and here's the words from Mr. Tuel, Himself, with the occasional odd note from other family members:

11-18-09, Saturday
The week coming up will end off with me sporting no less than three alien devices warming their way through my arterial/venous/peritoneal systems and spaces. I guess I've been looking forward to peritoneal dialysis because it would get us off the hypodialysis machine ($974 a pop Editor's note: yes, but it is covered by insurance) and away from having to rely on the ferry boats and their continued depleting expense.
Jean has been pushing me toward getting on the kidney transplant list instead, something I hadn't been thinking about much.
12/2/09 Wednesday
JD writes: “JD FED JIVE :-) NOW JD IS GOING TO WANDER AROUND :-p”
Rick picks up:
Dialysis today & yesterday. Murderous leg cramps yesterday. I'm still limping today.
Tomorrow is fistula and peritoneal dialysis catheter installation. Not looking forward to this but some good news came today. Pathology report on bladder biopsy came in today. It is NEGATIVE (which is good)!
Dec. 3, Thursday – Slice & Dice Day
I spent Tuesday & Wednesday at the N.W. Kidney center piling up hours in the chair in preparation for today. For the fistula & peritoneal dialysis catheter surgical procedures. Doctor Pham wants potassium blood levels to be neither too high nor too low – or else they've been known to scrub the job on the spot & re-schedule until all is put right.
Woke up @ 04:00 with a beautiful pre-dawn full moon shining gloriously through the bedroom windows. This lovely display had to stand in for my usual coffee & breakfast which I couldn't have prior to surgery. Sighh...they want you on the table hungry and dehydrated for their procedures.
Since I'd been up at 04:00, they also got me fairly sleepy and, after lab work & I.V. Insertion, they wheeled me into the O.R. @ 12:45 and before I knew it, I regained consciousness in post-op almost instantly. Miraculously, in that brief period of time, the fistula & P.D. Catheter were in place. Even more miraculously, after that brief instant, the nearest clock said it was now 14:20. They wheeled me into my very own room on the 11th floor with a lovely view of the Cascades and foothills. Room 1162, phone number 215-XXXX. I highly recommend it!
Mary and I had a late lunch together and I decided to stay the night, just to be on the safe side. I fell asleep at last, much the same as I woke up this morning, a beautiful full moon rising in the east and and shining in all its glory through my 11th floor window. It ascended into the darkening eastern sky from behind the shelter of the Cascades while I absorbed a Philly sandwich and a quart of ice water.
04:00 once again, Friday, Dec. 4th: I didn't stay asleep for long and, hours later, here I sit wondering where the quart of ice water went. Why don't I have to pee?
There's a new innovation for preventing blood clots from forming in the legs of bedridden surgical patients – inflatable cuffs are strapped to the ankles that fill with air and empty out about three times a minute. The problem is that one can't get any sleep with them on.
So – I'm not sleeping and I'm not peeing.
Meanwhile, as time goes by I get these pain spasms from the P.D. Catheter site as well as throat pain from the breathing tube that was in my throat during the surgery. Sips of ice water are soothing but I'm still wondering where that water is going.
06:30: My RN (Barb) had her assistant Weyni walk me around the the floor to try and get my cancer-free bladder to give up its secrets. Weyni also did a bladder scan and it revealed there was about 350 Ccs in there, although I have absolutely no urge to purge. Neither do I have the ability.
Barb and Weyni had to go deal with the rest of the floor but they called Dr. Pham's office before they left. Dr. Pham sent one of her staff, Minday, over to pay me a visit. Mindy said the bladder issue was likely due to the anesthesia. Should clear up in about 24 hours. Then she checked my fistula and gently placed two fingers over the arterial connection. “Ooh,” she said, “it's beautiful. You can feel it vibrate.”
She showed me where to touch it and although I couldn't feel a vibration, I did feel a strong steady pulse rate right where they connected the artery to a vein.
She put her stethoscope over the artery and let me listen. The pulse was loud, deep, resonant and rhythmic. Coolest of all, I can put my wrist up to my ear and hear it pulsing steadily away, like a propeller on a ship, echoing through the water.
07:00: Surprise! Doctor Oliver dropped by and checked out the fistula and the P.D. Catheter. Her face broke into a broad grin.
“They're beautiful,” she said, beaming.
I sort of shared the moment and did not say: “They hurt like hell and I can't pee.”
After Dr. Oliver left I tracked down the floor nurses and suggested a Foley catheter by they felt it would all resolve itself on its own.
08:00: The new RN on duty is Helen. She lives on Vashon, somewhere in Burton. She told me to order some breakfast and drink more water so that's what I did.
Mary called around 10:00 to say she was on her way in to pick me up. I went out to the nurse's station and told Helen at which point she relented and agreed to empty me out with a Foley catheter before discharging me.
Phew. What a day. Or rather, what a couple of days.
(Here he affixed the label he was given when he entered the hospital on Thursday, which said: “I was screened on Thursday,” and below that he wrote, “...and I've been screaming ever since.”)
(This is only about half of what he's written. TO BE CONTINUED.