Fistula Bleeding

[letaek]

My father had a fistula created July of 2006-They attempted to try to use it a month ago but his arm became swollen. Yesterday was the 2nd attempt. Five hours after his treatment his fistula began bleeding heavily and my sister took him to the ER where they stopped the bleeding with a turniquette etc. I know his bleeding may be due to the heparin dosage administered to him at his davita clinic. He does not do any heavy lifting but last weekend he did go to an indoor shooting range with my sister to try out his XMAS gift-a walther P99 .40 caliber. Even though this is a handgun should he not shoot due to the force etc? And how normal is bleeding from a fistula after treatment?
I am looking into getting him some sure seal bandages to take with him to dialysis and maybe icing the area to slow blood flow after treatments will help.

Any advice? I'm going out there to go with him to his dialysis center tomorrow to talk to the nurses. Thanks in advance:)

[del]

Bleeding does happen sometimes after treatment.  You can usually get it under control by applying pressure.  Shotting out of a gun has not had any effect on my husband.  He has shot several moose since having a fistula 6 years ago.  Is he on any blood thinners besides heparin.

[letaek]

he takes baby aspirin every day for his heart...other than that and the heparin but tomorrow I am going to make a copy of his charts and be more informed overall.
Thanks so much for posting!!!

[angieskidney]

My fistula was made around the same time. There should not be bleeding after dialysis like that once the bleeding from pulling the needles stops. During my dialysis run my arm has become swollen with the nurse had accidently infiltrated the fistula and the blood pump on the machine was pumping the blood through my fistula but it was going out where the nurse infiltrated. But that is something during dialysis where you quickly call out for the nurse for her to fix the problem.

I would definately talk to the nurses and learn as much as I can!

[AlasdairUK]

Bleeding normally stops after dialysis once you have applied pressure to the exit sites. It can on occasions re-start bleeding when you take the plasters/ gauze off as you can pull the scab off with it and when you flex the muscle in your arm the internal pressure causes it to bleed. Just re-apply pressure to the exit sites to stop the bleeding.

You should never strap anything around your fistula arm to stop the bleeding as cutting off the blood flow can cause your fistula to stop working.

[angieskidney]

You should never strap anything around your fistula arm to stop the bleeding as cutting off the blood flow can cause your fistula to stop working.

I can understand that .. even though I use black straps .. they use the clamps at my unit but they are going to get rid of them but the straps are even tighter if I let the nurse put them on me. The nurse seems to think she needs to put them on me so tight or else I will bleed to death even though I don't have her put them on til I am done bleeding (I like to hold the area and only want the straps on loose to hold the bandages as I don't like them to be taped to me.)

[letaek]

Yeah he is on a low dose of heparin so that wasnt it-my sister noticed his gauze was soaked in blood and instead of re-wrapping it with more and applying pressure she took original gauze off to re-dress the fistula and it bled more...They drove to ER and thats where they wrapped my dads arm (inner elbow area where fistula is at) with guaze a sure seal bandage and an ace bandage for some pressure and they did a turniquette up higher on his arm-not near fistula so to stop bleeding...worried now

Today they just used the catheter as I called the dialysis center and spoke with a nurse. And Friday I will go in to see him