I Hate Dialysis Message Board
Dialysis Discussion => Dialysis: Home Dialysis => Topic started by: NCspinner on January 13, 2023, 06:21:05 PM
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My husband has been a home hemo patient since early 2016. We have managed pretty well with buttonholes using the established access. Needed to create a couple of new buttonholes during that time but i8t was all going pretty smoothly UNTIL... he had a bad fall Dec. 10 that landed him in the ER and then hospital admission Dec. 13. Nothing broken but imaging disclosed a suspected osteomyelitis in cervical vertebrae and suspicion immediately turned to THE BUTTONHOLES.Apparently even the most conscientious cleansing/ aseptic procedures can allow bacteria to linger in the buttonholes. Never heard this before!
So he has been in a 6-week course of intravenous antibiotics for the bone infection, is getting dialysis in-center using sharps, and I can't get a straight answer on whether we can resume home hemo with buttonoles.(BTW in the past few years he has also had episodes opf bone infection in his feet resulting in a toe amputation last year...maybe a more logical source of this ostedomyellitis?)
None of the emois suggested can convey my frustration and disappointment with our system. I (we) feel totally hung out to dry. Would like to hear from any other home hemo patients who have encountered this problem.
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Hello NC spinner,
I would be very surprised if your husband’s suspected osteomyelitis is due to his dialysis-treatments because, when I suffered from “it”, it was due to a bone-infection on a fractured ankle-bone which was so very tiny, that the fact it was still broken and infected was not detected through repeated x-rays and other check-ups.
Please check-up further with a very very experienced orthopaedic surgeon/doctor to have another look at x-rays (if I remember well, one x-ray was done by using a very special light?) etc. and please check up further a.s.a.p., because when I suffered from “it” so many years ago, I was finally operated on by a very clever surgeon who told me after this emergency-operation that there was a tiny infected bone at my ankle-site which needed to be urgently "cleaned" from the bone-infection etc. and after this operation and another three months in plaster and many lots of antibiotics I was finally cleared and touch wood it may stay like this because the whole experience was quite a nightmare and had it not been sorted out so quickly, I could even have lost the use of my ankle …
Good luck and best wishes from Kristina. :grouphug;
P.S. I have tried to explain this experience in my own non-medical way as best as is possible and do hope it is understandable ... and please hurry ...