Yesterday, I arrived at the hospital at 7:15 in the morning. I was supposed to have a procedure done on my right arm at 9:30. I went into pre-op, got the IV set up, and waited for them to come get me, and waited, and waited, and waited. The nurses/techs came to get me right before 2 pm. I was taken into a room with a bed in the middle and 3 monitors hanging on the left side of it, with a small xray machine over my right arm. I watched the whole thing on the screens through the xray. The doctor numbed the area over the fistula then inserted a wire which he pushed up to my shoulder. Watching that on the monitor and feeling it was quite unnerving, although it didn't hurt, just a little poking. There was a narrowing at the upper end of the fistula that was causing the branches to occur in the lower part. The doctor inserted 3 different sizes of balloons over the whole procedure and blew them up in the fistula. OW OW OW OW OW. He put in a stent to make sure the fistula doesn't narrow again at that location. This all took around 15 minutes, really quick considering I waited for hours.
The doctor says that the branches should go down in a week or two and he wants to see me sometime next week to see how it's doing. My arm stings a bit over the insertion site and kinda pokes me in the upper arm but it's not terrible I guess. I'm glad the procedure's over though. Now I can add right arm fistulogram to my repertoire.
