Dialysis Catheter Barely Working

Well, at 5am they took Mom back to ICU for dialysis. Her temporary catheter has just about stopped working. They were only able to do about half of the dialysis. the thing kept beeping and beeping ... enough to drive anyone crazy at 5am. Then we headed back to the room where Dr. Hagemeister was waiting. He decided to postpone the MRI for 2 weeks -- that way we can take a look to see what the radiation and velcade have accomplished. At 11:30am they wheeled Mom down to radiation where she completed her 9th treatment ... only 1 more to go. Then we came back to find out that we could not eat after all since the catheter surgery had the same "thou shalt not eat or drink" rule as the previously scheduled sedated MRI. Almost immediately they arrived to take us to get the new permanent catheter. They took us to a curtained-off area with really bright lights ... and a broken air conditioner. It was so, so, so hot! Mom's sat levels dropped to the low 90's and they started questioning whether or not they should do the surgery without anesthesiology -- well, of course Mom's sat levels sucked. She was hot and coughing her head off. So we waited and waited and waited some more -- then finally they told us we would be "worked into" the schedule with anesthesiology. So we sat there some more. Finally at 3pm they told us that Mom's surgery would be at 5pm so they sent us back to her room to cool off. Remember that she still has not had anything to drink or eat all day. They should be here any minute and we will start the catheter process once again.

Dr. Hagemeister also put in an order for physical therapy to come by to assess Mom. Our next big step is getting her to sit up, stand and walk ... oh, and going to the potty. Her renal doctor mentioned this morning that she wants the foley catheter (urine) out tomorrow -- so we gots lots of work to do. I am going to ask that they leave it in at least till Wednesday so that Mom can build up a bit more strength.