I am allergic to heparin. I believe it triggers something called Heparin Induced Thrombocytopenia. This is a bit of a pain in the ass since heparin is used everywhere, from most surgical procedures to preventing the dialysis machines form clogging. At my dialysis clinic, instead of locking my catheter with heparin or injecting it into the dialysis machine, they use argatroban afterwards to prevent my catheter from clogging. At the other dialysis clinic I was at, they don’t have argatroban so they just use saline. My catheter clogged once during the month I was there. Their solution is to drip a stronger anti-coagulant into my catheter whenever it starts clogging.
Argatroban is expensive. I heard the nurses say that one vial is ~$7,000. I guess my insurance is paying for it. What happens after I switch to Medicare? Does Medicare cover such an expensive drug? If not, do I just go without and deal with clogs in the catheter? Maybe that’s another reason to get a fistula.
Life with chronic diseases 