As you can see from the image, the fistula allows for the blood filtering to happen. A needle from the dialysis machine will be inserted into the fistula (the fusing of a vein to the main artery).
The outpatient surgery is scheduled for Thursday Oct 5th at 12noon MST at Penrose Main Hospital. The surgery will take about 2 hours. Bill will need to rest and elevate his arm for a few days until the swelling goes down. He will return to work that following Monday.
The doctor will monitor the fistula for about 3 months to make sure everything is working correctly. Which means that Bill wouldn't be able to start home dialysis until January 2018. I know Bill wanted it to be sooner. But, this allows us to get dialysis machine training and prepare the second bedroom for his Broncos themed dialysis man cave.
Our kidney transplant class is Friday Sept 22nd at Presbyterian/St. Luke's in Denver. Then, we will schedule a time with a kidney transplant team from that hospital. We're grateful they can come to Colorado Springs without us making the trek to Denver. Once Bill has a match, the transplant surgery will happen at St. Luke's. There are 99,000 people in the US waiting for a kidney. I pray Bill finds one soon.
Photo credit: Verona Veins at Access Care Physicians
Thanks, again, Denise, for keeping us abreast of the progress Bill is making toward the goal of the kidney transplant. You both are in our daily prayers!
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