My fistula failed this morning. The tech could not get any blood flow from the arterial needle. She tried several times but was unable to get the needle in the right place. One of the supervising nurses decided to go up higher on my forearm and create a new insertion point outside of the area suggested by the vascular surgeon. Even though they used lidocaine, it hurt a lot when the needle was inserter. Fortunately, she was able to get good blood flow and we used the new site as the venous site since it was higher up in the arm. However, it did hurt pretty badly for the rest of the session, and I was told not to move my arm since it was a new site. They were afraid the blood vessel would collapse then I would be without a fistula. Not sure what happens after that? Skip a day of dialysis? Go to the hospital for another chest catheter?
The gauze wad (second set of tape from the wrist) was the blown site. The tech had removed the first needle since I said it was hurting. They were going to leave all three needles in until the end of the session. As usual, there was quite a lot of bleeding but that stopped quickly. I tried to sleep but each of the three needle sites were painful so I was awake most of the time.
Here’s what my arm looks like the previous day. There’s persistent scabbing on both exit sites, and the vein underneath is very visible. It’s hard to see in the photo but the vein protrudes out quite a bit. I’m thinking of putting on a band-aid over the needles sites for cosmetic reasons since I look like an IV drug user with all the marks on my arm. Hopefully some of this will fade post-transplant.
Life with chronic diseases 