I am not going

[BigSky]

I never heard of using cotton balls to stop bleeding.

Are you talking about gelfoam?

[jbeany]

It's not a cotton ball - it's actually the same material as a 4x4 - but they come shaped in little round balls.  They are very firm.  My center uses them if you have problems getting the pressure in the right place on a folded 4x4.

[Stacy Without An E]

Twirl, you have mentioned two blatant reasons why your clinic seems to me to be very poor.

1) "No cotton balls in an effort to save money."

This is one of my biggest problems with for-profit clinics: the patients are not the bottom line, the cash flow is.  Get proper supplies or patients are going to get sick.  And when they do, they're going to SUE THE CLINIC for irresponsible care.  Davita and Fresenius, wise up or you won't have any more of those lavish parties you throw every year.

2) "I bleed and they blame me."

What are you doing, somehow mentally speaking to your blood to spill to spite them?  This comment is rude, ignorant and shouldn't come from the lips of any individual working in Dialysis.  Treatment is physically and emotionally challenging enough without staff members with double digit IQ's to be making comments such as these.

You may have been asked this already, but are there any non-profit clinic's in your area?

Take care Twirl.

[okarol]

twirl get some fake blood and punk them in the style of Julia Child here http://www.hulu.com/watch/3523/saturday-night-live-the-french-chef

[Joe Paul]

Twirl, sorry to hear of your bleeding problems. I hope you get what you need to help, hopefully Techs who know what they are doing.

[Sunny]

I wish you could be finished with all the unnecessary pain too. Hope they get this cotton ball thing figured out.

[Jess21]

God! How much do cotton balls cost?!?!?!?
Buy a case, I will pay for them!
Jeeeeeeeeeez 

Sadly, centers don't buy stuff all the time.  I was the only one at the center who had buttonhole needles.  They bought the needles..but only bought the scab removers once.  When the nurse requested to reorder them several times, he was told they were "too expensive".  so my needles would regularly get clogged by the scabs, causing them to have to use MORE needles, and causing me to get fistulagrams cause I was having clots.  How does THAT save money?!?  P.S.- I go back to my original original center Tuesday!  My first neph is in charge! 

[thegrammalady]

the gauze pads need to be folded more than once, then they will work just like the balls. in fact that's exactly what the balls are, prefolded guaz pads.

[Lucinda]

Hi Twirl.  We use seaweed pads over here which help with clotting the site.  Then we put the guaze over that.  When you take the guaze off the little patch of seaweed stays there doing its job and then you take if off about three hours later.  Happy to send you some of that over.  xx

[okarol]

Where is twirl? It's been a few days. 

[kitkatz]

http://ihatedialysis.com/forum/index.php?topic=13439.0



For Twirl-Girl update.

[paddbear0000]

What happened to my post???

[okarol]

What happened to my post???

It's here http://ihatedialysis.com/forum/index.php?topic=13439.msg231865#msg231865

[paddbear0000]

No, that's not the post I was referring to. I had posted yesterday about the little cellulose balls Twirl was talking about and had suggested she try Sureseals instead.

[RichardMEL]

Hi Twirl.  We use seaweed pads over here which help with clotting the site.  Then we put the guaze over that.  When you take the guaze off the little patch of seaweed stays there doing its job and then you take if off about three hours later.  Happy to send you some of that over.  xx

seaweed pads?? wow that sounds a bit new age

We use "dots" with folded gause over those taped down. I leave them on overnight and rip them off (and my arm hair!) in the morning.... I usually clot in around 2 minutes which makes it really easy. There's one poor guy in our unit who sometimes takes 30+ minutes to clot. d'oh!

[greco02]

Is there a governing/accreditation agency these facilities use?  Like JACHO for the hospitals or AAAHC for clinics?  Dept of Public Health?  They must have to pass some sort of muster to be in business?  Perhaps this is a place to look for standards of excellence .....sounds crummy to not have the supplies that do the best job for the patient.