Catheter # 4

It's hard to believe I'm blogging about this...but yes we received a 4th catheter on Monday.  This was a little unexpected!
Saturday Night Chris and I went to a wedding.  We had arrived home late and headed off to bed.  We had only been asleep for about 2 hours, and we were woken up to some loud banging in Mark's room.  We arrived in Mark's room to find his TV on the floor and Mark in tears :(  He was upset because he thought his TV was broken...It was fine and so was Mark!  So we settled Mark back into bed and were ready to officially call it a night.  Out of the corner of my eye I saw a catheter on the floor.  To be honest at first I thought it was the catheter from his Baby Fake...I just figured he had riped it out of his baby doll and left it on his bedroom floor.  Then I looked again..I realized it was Mark's catheter!  At that point I was afraid to lift his shirt up, I was fearful of the blood.  We finally lifted his shirt to find no catheter and no blood!  I think I must have asked Chris a million times, "Is this a nightmare?  Is this really happening?"  I then called the hospital right away..and we were off to Boston.
We arrived in Boston at about 5am and spent a lot of time sitting and waiting.  We rushed for the fear of bleeding or infection.  They did nothing!  I thought for sure it would be replaced and we would be on his way.  That was not the case..we were admitted and not seen all day.  Finally I was told we would be he would be an add-on for Monday surgery, and he would have dialysis after that.  There is nothing worse then hearing you will be an add-on...It the medical world that means the earliest you will see the OR if you are lucky is 3pm!  That is just how the cards played out!  He was off to surgery at about 3:30 and then right up to dialysis after that.  He was finally finished with dialysis at about 10pm...then we waited 2 hours to be discharged!  We were determined to go home...One long day, successful surgery, successful dialysis treatment, one small seizure, but it didn't matter...I wanted my own bed!
I bet you wonder why the catheter fell out?  I did to...I thought initially Mark had pulled it out.  That was not the case..his dressing was still and place and there was no blood.  As we were sitting in the ER a light went off!  His stitches were removed from his catheter on Friday.  The surgeon had stopped by that afternoon and said to remove them.  It had been over a month so they were well over due to come out.  I think the last catheter they came out after 2 weeks or so.  Was it just a coincidence or did that have something to do with it?  When I brought my theory up to the team, they all said that was not the case.  Well the funny thing is after Mark had his surgery the doctor came out to talk to us.  He said that the tissue never attached to the cuff of the catheter.  Typically it will just grow over the cuff and that is why the need to surgically remove the catheter.  In this case it never did!  When the stitches were removed on Friday, the catheter was being held in by the tape on his dressing.  In the end...I'm not crazy!

Waiting for surgery

Post surgery

Catheter we found on the floor!