Last night Sawyer's dialysis machine sounded a "check line" alarm at 3am. It's not an unusual event. Typically, this alarm chirps when Sawyer crimps the line attached to his catheter as he tosses and turns through the night. The quick fix... roll him over, straighten the line and he's good to go. However, we had no success with this last night.
Everything externally was clear. So something inside of him was impeding the flow of solution . It appears that the catheter was clogged with fibrin (a fibrous, protein substance).
It was a troublesome moment as he was full of solution and we were not sure if we could get the catheter to drain. Karen and I both feared another trip to the hospital. I know we are a little sensitive, but the last time his catheter clogged, Sawyer ended up back in surgery.
Eventually, he drained and we did not need to go to the hospital today. The doctor sent us heparin to inject into his dialysis bags. Heparin breaks down blood clots and fibrin is a substance that clots blood. So, this should work well.
Sawyer gets itchy from head to toe when he has heparin in his system. I hope he can get through this without the itch. So please pray for no clogs and no itching tonight.
Update: Sawyer just went through his first of twelve dialysis cycles. It was slow, but it worked! We trust the next nine hours of dialysis will go well and we will all sleep good!
Thank you for your continued prayer and concern.
1 comment:
Look at you two! You and Karen are awesome! That would have freaked out a anyone else and yet you two handled it like pros. You are my heroes. :-) Drat that Fibrin and I'm praying no itchies from the Heparin.
Love,
Shannon
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