Perma-cath removed

It's the end of an era! The perma-cath is out!

Took quite an effort. It had a ball shaped thing just underneath the skin around the tube, to act as a barrier against infection and to stop it from coming out accidentally. I'm told sometimes they can come out on their own not long after being put in, as there's no scar tissue formed. This one however was settled in very well after being there for over 2 months, with an amount of scar tissue attached to the ball shaped thing keeping it solidly in. They used local anesthetic and sliced the entry point a bit bigger and into the scar tissue to remove it. Once the ball thing was out the rest came easily. Had to put pressure on the area for about 15 minutes to make sure there wasn't a lot of bleeding. I wanted to keep the catheter as a souvenir but they said no, dunno why. Probably would bring back too many bad memories anyway.

Saw the Cardiologist and did some heart stress test thing on a treadmill, whilst they monitored the heart with an echo thing. The result was everything is fine with it and I don't have to see him again. He said that any abnormalities apparent the other weeks when I was in hospital would have been the result of the infection I had at the time (pneumonia) and possibly the HIV pill as well which they where giving me (Kaletra) after they stopped the other two.  He will inform the Renal team and Infectious Diseases team of the results. 

Had the last blood test early on this morning before the catheter was taken out. I was sure it was going to be fine as I felt fine, so a bit annoying after all the tests last week for them to want another one, but I suppose it's just procedure. The results were still good, the creatinine levels staying constant. 

So a good day at the hospital today. The biggest thing was getting that perma-cath out. I feel fully functional again. The kidney nightmare is getting further behind me.