At dialysis yesterday, the tech was able to get both needles in the blood vessel on the first try, however the arterial needle seemed to have high pressure again. She went and got the OG tech, and he was able to readjust the needle so it flowed much better. They haven’t use the chest catheter for over a week now. I’m getting worried that if they don’t flush it soon, it may clot and won’t work if we need it again.
Also, the tip of the upper needle looked like it was getting pretty close to the fistulagram incision site. Right after hooking me up to the machine, the incision site started to hurt. I think it was still healing from the cut and to have that much blood flow near it wasn’t good. The pain subsided in a bit but occasionally I would get a brief shooting pain near the lower needle. That went on until late in the night last but hasn’t come back yet.
Again, I really don’t like the fistula. It’s ugly and it hurts a lot more than the catheter. No one has shown me the actual statistics for the infection rate for the different access methods. I’m pretty sure infections are more serious with the catheter but is it common? What about compared to all the complications that can happen with a fistula? I also think poking the needle in the same spot all the time can’t be good. The scabs covering the insertion site never heals and there are permanent dark spots on my arm from the repeated cannulations. Even after I get a transplant, those fistula scars will probably never go away. Lovely. Another scar to add to the many on my upper torso: long open heart surgery scar, exit sites for heart fluid draining tubes, peritoneal dialysis catheter port, and two holes for hemodialysis chest catheters on my upper right chest. I feel like Frankenstein.
Life with chronic diseases 