Advice on Picking Scabs Off Buttonhole Sites

[TaylorMN]

My husband says it's getting harder for him to pick the scabs off his buttonhole sites, and it's painful.  He's been on hemo for two years.  What tricks do you all have in your bag to help him get these scabs off?  Thanks for your help!!   

[big777bill]

  Ask your neph for lidocaine creme. It will help with the pain and also soften the scabs for easy removal.

[Desert Dancer]

Eh, sometimes I think the scab-picking is worse than the cannulation. I think you just have to try everything you can think of until you hit on something that works.

For me, that means allowing the buttonholes to dry before I start picking them off; if they're too wet from the antiseptic they tend to liquify and then it's a real bitch to get them out.

I always used to pick my scabs in the opposite direction from cannulation, i.e., away from the buttonhole and toward my wrist. That stopped working so now I come at them from the sides and that's been working well for quite a while now.

I try always to get the scab off with just the pick but sometimes it just isn't possible, especially if the sucker breaks up into pieces. (Grrrr!) For those times I have a set of surgical stainless steel tweezers I use to grab the part(s) I've managed to pry up and pull straight up on them.

What kind of pick is your husband using? I used to have really, really good picks that came with my MediSystems cannulae but then Fresenius got cheap (what they do best, it seems) and switched to the JMS Harmony brand. I might just as well have tried picking my scabs with a child's wooden block. There was no taper, no point that could be wedged under the scab. I solved that by saving about a dozen of the 'good' picks and they have a permanent home in a container of Alcavis that gets changed out weekly when I bleach everything.

One of the other things I did was invest in a 7X magnifying florescent lamp; I can see the scabs very, very clearly to make sure I get all of the pieces. And THAT is crucial.

Hope you find something helpful in this. Best of luck to you and your husband; it can be frustrating at times!

[amanda100wilson]

I like the lodocaine cream but  I have unfortunately  developed an allergy to it.  Haven't come up with a better solution to this problem.  Using saline swabs never seems to work.

[cassandra]

I soak mine with saline soaked gauze, and wrap plastic around it for an hour or so, and pick it with a blunt fill needle

[noahvale]

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[amanda100wilson]

Emla cream is lidocine cream.

[PatDowns]

Emla cream is lidocine cream.

Actually, it is 1/2 prilocaine and 1/2 lidocaine.

http://emlacreams.com/

[noahvale]

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[bevvy5]

Hubby just started using Emla cream about a month ago and loves it.  Much less pain, especially on those nights where I just can't get it first try and have to poke him a few times - hate that.  And yeah, he puts it on about two hours ahead and the scabs just peel right off.

Prior to that,we were using the sure seal bandages.  He said they seemed to make the scabs easier to pick off, but I found them a  bit of a trick to get used to.  Now we're just back to gauzes.

[NDXUFan]

My husband says it's getting harder for him to pick the scabs off his buttonhole sites, and it's painful.  He's been on hemo for two years.  What tricks do you all have in your bag to help him get these scabs off?  Thanks for your help!!

Scab removal does not have to be painful, call me and I will give the Indiana University guidelines, they do not hurt and they are outstanding.  You do not have to use tweezers and it does not have to hurt!

NDXUFan
513-843-4095