Swelling in the fistula arm

[Riki]

I have had swelling in my left arm, which is my fistula arm for about 2 weeks.  I'm not sure what's causing it, but my original thought was that the wrist was broken from an incident with three very rude young women at Walmart (they were walking side by side, and would not move to let me, white can in hand, go by, and I was forced into a pillar), but it was xrayed and I was told that it was not broken.

They are in such a hurry to get everyone on in the morning, that they don't really have time to look at it, and when they do have time, they can't really move the arm around, in case the needles move.  I have told them about it, but they don't seem overly concerned.  That tends to be how they are there.  I can be concerned for months, but for some reason they don't act on anything until things get critical.  Mom took some pictures tonight so I can show them what they look like.  I don't think that it's fluid, because it's still swollen after dialysis.

My fistula is working great, so the swelling isn't hurting it any, but it makes it hard for me to hold things if I'm having trouble closing my fingers.

[Swamp Gator]

I would err on the side of caution. I had a lump develop on the sude of my graph. I kept asking the staff if I should be concerned about it. They said no, that happens sometimes.

Considering the fact that they wasn't concerned, I wasn't either. I let it go for over a month before I took the bull by the horns and went to see the surgeon that put it in. He looked at it and told me he needed to do surgery.  He scheduled me for surgery the next day and made all the arrangements for me to dialize in the unit in that town than come check into the hospital after dialysis.

He never told me it was serious. After surgery he told me just how serious it was. He said if it had burst I would have been dead.

When I returned to my unit and filled them in they tried to pass it off as they had never seen this happen to a patient before and didn't know I needed to be treated for it. Yet a staff member nonchalantly told me like it was nothing, that occasionally they see that happen to a patient and they just have repair surgery to fix it and all is fine.

I have learned if I want to stay alive, I need to be fully awear of everything and fully in charge of everything. If I am not they will end up killing me.

Hopefully your situation is nothing like mine was, but have a medical professional get to the bottom of your situation.

[Angiepkd]

I would have your neph or vascular surgeon look at it.  Something is causing the swelling and you don't want to take chances with your fistula arm!  They can maybe refer you to an orthopedic doc once they rule out other things.  Hope you feel better soon!  And WTH is up with the girls at Walmart?!?  Makes me want to smack them and their parents!  Good luck!

[obsidianom]

Try and identify where there is actual pain. Palpate/ press all around the hand and wrist and forearm. See if you can identify the actual sore spot if there is one. That would help with figuring this out. Sometimes an initial xray can miss a lot. I often re-xray in my office after the hospital finds nothing on their initial xray. I have picked up fractures they have missed. Also at 2 to 3 weeks the xray can be more definitive with changes showing.
I wouldnt let this go. It is quite swollen for 2 to 3 weeks. Something is wrong either in the vascular  aspect(fistula) or there is some bony or ligamentous issue. Push this to get an answer. 

[Riki]

There is a small lump on the underside of my arm, near my wrist that hurts when I touch it.  It was that lump that convinced the doctor to order the xray in the first place.  It is very close to the scar of an old fistula that was tied off 20 years ago, after my first transplant.  I wouldn't think that it would start causing issues now.  My hand is that swollen right now, that I cannot feel my knuckles.  I think they now think that the swelling is due to fluid, but since it did not change at all during dialysis, I don't think it's fluid.  After my first dialysis after my surgery a few weeks ago, my left hand went numb.  I couldn't feel my fingers at all, but no one thought anything of that either.  After a few days, the feeling came back, but it wasn't long after that the hand started to swell up.  I can't remember if it was swelling when I was still in the hospital or not.

[obsidianom]

It sounds nasty enough to get some quick answers. I would push this HARD to your doctors. 

[willowtreewren]

I would insist on more intervention. This doesn't sound good and it may impact your fistula even if it hasn't already.

 

Aleta

[amanda100wilson]

I wonder if the swelling is causing some fluid to be trapped in the tendon sheaths and causing tendonitis.  This is common with ESRD and can maje it difficult to do things.

[Riki]

there's no swelling around the fistula itself.  The fistula is above the elbow, all the swelling is below.  I'm pushing about a lot of things right now, but it always seems to take a long time to get them to act.  My hemoglobin has been dropping steadily since June, and they're only acting on it now.  It'll be a few months before anything is done about this too, no matter how much i complain about it