Since the tech that put the needle in my arm Tuesday is going on vacation, the had another tech try and stick me. She was unable to hit the vein so they’re going to try again later. No lidocaine this time either and it hurt quite a bit. Maybe I need to wait, though everyone at the dialysis clinic wants to use it ASAP.
There’s a older Asian woman next to me getting hooked up and I guess the needles are hurting too. The tech was asking her if she wanted lidocaine. When they stuck me earlier, the tech said the would rather not use lidocaine since it puts an air bubble in the vein and makes subsequent needle insertions harder.
Also, this is the second day in a row where there’s no mask in my supplies bag. I’ve been wearing used surgical masks. Maybe I need to bring my own from now on.
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After about an hour and a half, the tech that poked me Tuesday came back and tried again. I think it hurts a lot less if you hit the vein instead of arm tissue. He had to stick the needle almost perpendicularly at first to get at the vein. Anyway, it ended up working and they set the flow rate at 250 ml/min, a small increase from Tuesday. The nurse said they were drawing blood out of my arm and putting it back through my chest. Usually the needle sending cleansed blood back will hurt a lot more if they miss the vein and have blood fill up the tissue around the vein. Great.
Life with chronic diseases 