Don't worry, sj, I don't use any local and I don't feel any pain. I have, however, buttonholes. Unlike Richard, I love to look.
Quote from: galvo on February 26, 2011, 04:18:43 AMDon't worry, sj, I don't use any local and I don't feel any pain. I have, however, buttonholes. Unlike Richard, I love to look.oh I love to look... but then the girls slap me!!!
sammie when you start using the fistula make sure the same tech sticks you in the same spot to establish the button holes. This way your fistula will not develop those huge bumps called aneurisums. a 1/2 hr to an hour before you get on the machine put some emla cream (lidocaine) to numb your fistula. Wrap plastic wrap around your arm and go to the dialysis clinic. It makes needling a lot less painful. Once you have the button holes they will switch you to a blunt needle. This is suppose to hurt less but I only saw a smaill difference. Also b/c my fistula heals fast I continually have to use the sharp needles or the blunts in the button holes. The needling gets easier and you will get use to it, just takes time. xo,R
My fistula is on the inside of my right bicep, and I have matured buttonholes. The lower one hurts a lot when they insert the blunt needle, I think because it's in a tender spot. The upper one doesn't hurt at all. (I've never tried lidocaine.)We're all different with different levels of pain tolerance. Be strong and good luck.
I don't want to freak you out, but quite a few IHD members actually learn to stick themselves. They say they know their fistulas best, and they don't have to worry about some tech mucking it up. They also say that by and large, they don't experience as much pain when they self-cannulate, probably because their minds are occupied with getting a good stick. Maybe it's something you could think about?
Hi, sammiejo -The needles are pretty damned intimidating, aren't they? I can only tell you about my experience with buttonholes since that's all I've ever done, and for me they've been fantastic. I had ONE tech create them at my center and I've cannulated myself ever since switching over to blunts. It's pretty much impossible to infiltrate yourself with blunts - so that doesn't need to be a worry - and I find that doing the cannulations myself gives me something to concentrate on, as I have to focus on 'feeling' my way in. I've got a pretty good 'tunnel' created now and while it isn't completely pain-free it isn't bad enough to require a topical anesthetic. The only times I've ever had a problem is when the buttonholes close up - it's only happened twice - and then I have to do a sharp stick, which can be a little nerve-wracking. As to your second question, I'm not sure what would determine whether or not they leave in the fistula; I guess that would be another of those things that has a lot of individual variables. I know my father's fistula was still buzzing along 15 years after he got his transplant.
Hi, Sammiejo,My husband was the one on dialysis, but we did treatments at home without button holes. I learned how to stick him and was always very careful. I only "nearly" infiltrated him once in two and a half years. I went away for a week and he went back in-center (with our NxStage machine). He had said that he might want to learn to cannulate himself so the first day he was back, they gave him a needle and he just did it! He had seen me do it often enough! LOL!As for how much it hurt, we used lidocaine for the first year or so, but his skin was getting tough from it, so we stopped. Many times the sticks did not hurt at all, unless I was using a more virgin area of his fistula. And as far as whether you keep the fistula, after his transplant earlier this month, the surgeon told him to continue to care for it as always, but if it should ever fail, they would not try to restore it. And we are certainly hoping that we never have to use it again. Aleta
sammiejo, it's great to be young, but one advantage to being older is that by the time you reach my age, you don't really care what other people might thing of the access through which you receive life-saving treatment.Fistulas are freaky. It's true. And they are not so pretty. But I promise you that in the grand scheme of things, your friends are not going to care. They are not going to be thinking about your fistula when they can be thinking about boys and music and more fun things. I don't like the fact that I have to have one at all, but I don't waste my time thinking about the opinions of others. I know that is not as easy to do when you are young and self-conscious, but if you can just remind yourself that your fistula is not at the center of their world, you will feel much better. There are a couple of IHD members who like to scare little children with their fistulas and with how they feel so buzzy. hahaha! That sounds like something I'd do!After transplant, once they're pretty certain that you're stable, they won't think about removing your fistula unless it is causing you problems or is increasing blood flow to your heart to the point it is damaging. I did see some research in that regard; I will try to find it and post a link to it for you.Edited to add....one of our IHD members is Bill Peckham who has a blog titled "Dialysis from the Sharp End of the Needle." Here is a link to a conversation about this very topic started by our own Meinuk (Anna Bennett).http://www.billpeckham.com/from_the_sharp_end_of_the/2009/02/your-fistula-after-transplant-to-keep-or-not-to-keep.html
Hi Sammiejo, I can honestly say that even though I've been poked and prodded my entire life thus far, when I saw the size of the needles they used for dialysis I got scared. I don't use buttonholes because of the way my clinic is run, I never have the same nurse when I go in. Needless to say I had a few problems being stuck when I first started using my fistula but with time it got better, they have no problem sticking me now. I used emla cream to begin with but then I switched to using a numbing spray, ethyl chloride. There have been a few occasions when I had to go without anything and just went au natural, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, it hurt, but going back to being in the hospital I'll take being stuck with dialysis needles with no numbing over having an arterial blood gas test done any day.I was told I could have mine reversed but given I'm having a second transplant I might want to keep it just in case. Sure it's a little unsightly but if worse comes to worse, is worth worrying about what people think of it? I don't think so. Though I know what it's like to be self conscious and over the summer I got some sweat bands and started wearing them over the area, mines right above the crook in my elbow. I stretched them out of course to make sure they weren't too tight. Not exactly a fashion statement but hey, it worked.
I hope I can get to that point too, then. No pain sounds like a much better option. Did it take a while for the buttonholes to not be painful? Or did you just never experience any pain?
Finding Neverland, that's good to know, thank you very much for your input! If you don't mind me asking, what is an arterial blood gas test? That sounds terrible... =/ You can have it reversed then? That's interesting. I know it's not worth caring what other people think about it, but it's hard to ignore what I think about it, ha. I know that it's worth it for my life though, and eventually I'll get over it. I might try the sweatband thing though, that doesn't sound too bad. Heck, maybe I'll make it a fashion statement! Hahaha.
No problem! It's a blood test done to measure the PH of your blood, they have to stick a needle in your artery, generally in the wrist, to get the sample. Not fun. That's what my surgeon told me before he created my fistula but said it would be wiser to leave it. I know, it's easier said than done. It's hard to ignore the thought of people staring at it and possibly getting grossed out. Hey there you go! That gives me an idea, designing arm bands and they'll be called Fistula camouflage...
I Hate Dialysis Message Board
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