My dad is on diaylsis for a few months now, he is doing it at home by himself at nite far away from me but called and said he woke up yesterday with a green stomach, has anyone ever heard of this before, this is all new to us, thank you so much. He is having a real hard time with it all, he is not one to call the dr unless it is almost a 911 time. thanks again.
I hope that your father doesn’t feel the same way about calling his nurse as he feels about calling his doctor. Maybe he doesn’t realize that the doctor will get paid by Medicare every month whether he calls the doctor or not. However, if he’s unwilling to call the doctor, he should call his home dialysis training nurse – and I’d recommend that he do this soon. If he isn’t comfortable knowing when and asking for help, he needs to tell his nurse this. Perhaps she can help him recognize when and who to call so he is more comfortable asking for help. If not, home dialysis may not be the best option for him.
It’s impossible to say what could be going on without having a better description of the problem. He should call his nurse and describe his green stomach more precisely to him/her and I’d recommend that he not delay or it could affect his ability to continue to do PD.
Some questions that the nurse might ask include:
– When did he first notice that his stomach was green?
– Is the green color of his stomach related to having hit himself (bruise)?
– Does he have green discharge (pus) from around his peritoneal dialysis catheter (exit site or possibly tunnel infection)?
– Does he have stomach pain, fever, cloudy drain bags (peritonitis)?
– Does he have any other symptoms?
– What has he done to treat his symptoms himself?
He should see his doctor, nurse, dietitian, and social worker every month at a clinic visit if he’s getting treatment in the U.S. However, with this symptom I wouldn’t wait until that scheduled visit to go to the clinic to have the nurse check him out.