Games of Emotion

    What a day!   This morning at nursing rounds we found out that his levels were up again.   So, we figured the Kidney and ICU doctors would decide it was time to get off the fence.  It was a bit more tricky than that because of the fact that it was Friday.   He still apparently isn't to the point where they feel it's an emergency, however because it is Friday our options were complicated. 
     Option "A"  - Go ahead and take the plunge and do the things that need to be in place to do dialysis.   Essentially make a "port" (not the technical term but it's the one that I feel describes it best).  The "port" will be where they connect him and his blood to a machine to filter his blood.   It will take blood out, clean it up and then put it back. 
     Option "B" - A bit more risky, wait some more and see if things improve.  The "port" that they would be putting in would be used for at least a few weeks or months.   With it being the weekend, the people able to put in the more "permanent port" would likely not be here, and so they would have to do a more basic one and then go back in later and make it more permanent.

       We asked them to get the plans in place to do the procedure today while we decided for sure, they said that if we decided not to go ahead they could cancel them.

      After much discussion we decided to make our own plan with a mix of the two.   Get the port placed today while it was at the safest, and then wait until tomorrow's labs to see if things improved before doing the actual dialysis.   This would also allow the dialysis to be done during the day while our nephrologist was here instead of trying to do it tonight.

      Everything seemed to be going OK, there was a bit of a question of who would do the procedure.   Either interventional radiology or a vascular surgeon.   They put him on NPO (No food or drink) and then several hours later we found out that it was for not.   They weren't able to work him into either surgery schedule and instead want to try for Monday. 

       Thank-you to all of my family coming at just the right time to give a well needed hugs and  shoulders to cry on at times when difficult decisions were made and discouraging news was shared.

     So here we are... stuck again, feeling like we've been the pawns in an cruel game of emotions.  Making such a tough decision was difficult, all for nothing.   Tomorrow we just hope that we wake up with the good news we thought we might hear today.