Fistula Follow-up

I had my follow-up appointment with Dr. Feldhaus on Thursday afternoon. He was pleased with how everything sounded, and as I went through my list of questions with him, I got a better explanation of what he actually did last week during surgery.

First, it turned out that my fistula wasn't completely trashed. He was able to clear the clot and open the fistula up. In doing that, however, he had to cut away an area where the vein and artery are joined together. Rather than stretch the two so tightly to join them, Dr. Feldhaus used a small piece of graft material to join the vein and artery together. This allowed the rest of my fistula to work as before.

I found this to be great news, because I thought that my fistula was doing really well, at least before it was infiltrated. Which brought me to the last question on my list for Dr. Feldhaus.

Was my fistula damaged by a careless tech, or was it still not developed? He didn't beat around the bush with his answer. He said he and his fellow surgeons see this kind of thing all the time. Now, he didn't think anyone deliberately did anything to my arm, but he did tell me he hears stories all the time about this kind of thing happening, and he sees the results.

I go back to see Dr. Feldhaus in a month. Hopefully by that time, the last little bit of swelling will be gone, and he will give the okay for the clinic to begin using my arm again for dialysis. Ultimately, that's the thing that matters most to me. Starting back with my fistula means we're getting closer to removing the catheter.