Happy to say that the fistula is working great today. The tech didn’t even use the rubber tourniquet; he just asked me to put some pressure on my arm with my finger below the elbow. Needles went in on the first try and flow has been good. No pain… yet. Thursday was like this too but something hurt really bad for a bit when the needles were taken out.
Speaking of flow, my dialysis prescription is four hours at 350 mL/min, which comes out to 84 liters or ~22 gallons (US) total. All through two (relatively) small needles.
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Ugh. With about 30 minutes left in the session, the top of my third toe on my left foot starting hurting from neuropathy. I think it’s the first time that the pain attack started during dialysis. It was bearable but the tech saw me wince a couple of times and thought it was the dialysis needles. I had to explain that my arm is fine but my foot is killing me. Again, I took two Tylenol pills to see if I can head off the pain.
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The sharp pain in my arm happened again. I think tip of the bottom needle is too close to the top (venous) needle so when the tech presses down to control the bleeding post needle removal, he’s also putting pressure near the tip of the needle still in my arm and it hurts a lot. Last time he said he would pull the bottom needle out first but I guess he forgot. The pain went away as soon as he pulled out the second needle.
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Fortunately, the foot neuropathy pain didn’t last that long. I got some lunch on the way home from dialysis, and took a 3 hour nap after eating lunch. The pain went away sometime during the nap. This seems to be the new pattern: more nerve pain attacks but not lasting as long each time. I’m not sure if it’s the Tylenol or the leg shaking (for increased blood flow) or the calf massage that’s reducing the pain duration. It all seems kind of random; I wish there was more a cause-effect to this.
Life with chronic diseases 