Fistula: Third Use

The dialysis clinic switched technicians today. They usually rotate the nurses and techs every so often but I can’t figure out their schedule. Anyway, I think my nurse is still out so one of the supervising nurses was substituting. Right at the beginning of the session, one of the techs came over and stuck a needle in my arm. Initially there was no bloodflow but she managed to move the needle a bit and struck the vein. They didn’t use Lidocane this time either so it hurt going in and sporadically during the four hour session. The nurse initially set the flow rate at 200 ml/min but increased it to 220 ml/min. Again, that would mean I was getting less dialysis than necessary since I was barely clearing at 350 ml/min. They did manage to remove 2,600 ml of fluid though.

The nurse asked me to put an ice pack on my arm at home. There was light bruising from the last session. Between surgery scars, Sharpie drawings, needle marks, and bruising, my arm looks like a mess.