I wrote to you yesterday while in a holding pattern... I saw one of my surgeons, Dr Franco, on Tuesday for my bi-weekly appointment and blood work and he decided it was time for the catheter to come out....Not that the collective *we* didn't want to take it out earlier.....say, while I was in the hospital for a week?????
Well, that was the week that I had the liver biopsy and my pretty appendage, i.e. hematoma appeared refocusing all the efforts of that stay on what to do about the hematoma, had the bleeding stopped? and what about that clogged bile duct??????
They couldn't have cared less that the catheter that I no longer needed was still coming out of my chest. Let alone keeping me from a full shower that I so greatly desire.....Not having had one since the morning of my transplant...(I do bathe, but it consists of hair washing in the sink followed by a hand shower or bath avoiding the upper torso... OR, dressing myself properly with a bra and all....forcing me to wear baggy, boob hiding tops....(you girls know what I mean).
The photo of the catheter I had Joe take after a bath one day so you could see what I had been talking about. It was always wrapped up and covered with clean bandages....because it is an open line directly to my arteries we had to be extremely careful to keep it clean, dry and covered at all times because of a chance of infection. An infection in my blood stream .....well, wouldn't have been any fun...
Anyway, on Tuesday we scheduled the catheter removal to be done under anesthesia.... I guess he thought I had gone through enough and didn't make me go through the removal under a local and some sleepy time anesthesia which doesn't work to well on me..and at the same time clean out the hematoma.
I got to the hospital at 9:30am.....courtesy of Mary, THANK YOU AGAIN, MARY....and I finally went into the OR at about 3pm for less than an hour while Dr Franco cleaned me up and I was home that evening...
I go back tomorrow for a recheck and some more blood work... I will share that with you tomorrow...hopefully my bilirubin is continuing to drop. it was 2.3 yesterday. My yellow is continuing to clear up...and I will have more energy as it clears up.
By the way, I had my 2 month liverversary on the 16th!
And I do promise to start posting with pics about the actual transplant experience...I was going through some photos tonight...
