Monitoring and Nocturnal-Indiana University Fistula Cleaning Guidelines

At Indiana University, we take numbers at the beginning of a Nocturnal treatment and at the end of the treatment. This nonsense of having to take BP numbers every 30 minutes or every hour is alot of hooey. As I was told by the IU Nursing staff, "How in the world will you sleep, if you are constantly taking numbers, all night? IU has figured out that Betadine harbors infections, so we use CloraPrep pads to clean our fistulas. I know and realize that some are not able to use CloraPrep. To clean my fistula:

1. An hour before your treatment, use Gentamicin Sulfate Cream USP 0.1% this will get rid of scabs, even the really bad ones or it will make them very easy to clean. Make sure you wash your hands with anti-bacterial soap beforehand..... You need a prescription and it only costs $4.00 for a reasonably sized tube at Sam's Club. NO, you do not need a membership to buy prescriptions at Sam's.
2. Take off band-aids from using the Cream, and throw them away. If you have cream on the arm, wash it off with a guaze pad, gently, with anti-baterial soap
3. Wash your hands with anti-bacterial soap to the count of 20 to 30.
4. Wash fistula site with hand after using anti-baterial soap as noted above.....
5. Use Round Facial cleaning pads to clean fistula site, if there is a any scabs left over from the cream....
6. Wipe off excess water with guaze pad or clean soft paper towel. Have not had any issues with using the soft paper towel.
7. Clean fistula with Clora Prep Pads to the count of 30 and wait around four minutes for it to dry. Even sticky tape will not stick, if area is not dry.
8. After 4 minutes, you are ready to stick.