Cycler phobia - words of comfort?

[goofynina]

The cream is called gentamiacin or something like that.  It needs to be put on daily, preferrably after you shower.  You really need to get that, when they asked me if i was using it, i told them no one ever told me or gave me a prescription,  they got all crazy on me, lol,  so by all means, make sure you mention it to them A.S.A.P

[mmmmdeedee]

Thanks Goofyina:

Another question. They never mentioned anything about creams, etc. They do have me "clean" my site with warm compresses of saline left on for 15 minutes. Does anyone else do that? It just doesn't seem like warm saline compresses would kill any bacteria. Of course, I'm not the nurse!

[Ginger]

DeeDee,
I have a prescription for 'Bactroban', which is an antibiotic cream. I only use it if my site looks red and is a bit sore. There is another nurse who has been on PD for going on 6yrs and she uses Gentamicin eye drops on her site daily after showering. It often depends on what treatment you can get your Neph to order for you. You really do not want to use vaseline based ointments on the site as they may damage the tube if used for a long time. The saline soaks can 'draw' infection to the surface maybe? Otherwise can not see a reason for it, except that it probably feels kind of nice when warm on sore spots. The site should be kept clean and dry. You can even use a hair dryer to dry the site carefully after a shower. Personally, I have never used saline or the hair dryer on my site.

[goofynina]

The only thing they told me to do was to wash around the site with antibacterial soap, do not dry with a towel, pat dry with a sterile gauze and/or use a blow dryer, then apply the cream with a q-tip and then dress it.  I never heard anything about warm compresses.

[angieskidney]

Ya I used Bactroban

[JerseyGirl]

I too never heard of warm compresses.  When you find the rationale for that, please let me know.  For my patients I teach them to shower, clean the exit site with antibacterial soap, rinse well, then pat dry afterwards when you are finished with a clean white washcloth.  I teach all my patients to use exsept, and make sure the exit site is completely dry before applying an island dressing.  Most of my males don't use a dressing at all, most women prefer it.

[Rerun]

JerseyGirl, any words of wisdom for chest catheters in hemodialysis?  I love showers and take them against all advise.  Why can PD patients shower and catheter people on hemo can't.   

[angieskidney]

In Canada hemodialysis chest catheters can be showered with once they heal but the patients have to be taught the "shower technique" and at first with special medical soap.

[Rerun]

Well, that is one thing Canada has over us US (hey us is U.S.)   I keep telling them "Don't tell me not to shower, show me how to do it right."

[angieskidney]

Well, that is one thing Canada has over us US (hey us is U.S.)   I keep telling them "Don't tell me not to shower, show me how to do it right."

I think they are just too afraid patients will screw it up and get infected. I think they just rather take care of it themselves.

[JerseyGirl]

Rerun that is indeed a true dilemma.  I always felt pretty helpless when asked this question because the catheter used for hemo is directly into your right atrium and you need to be pretty careful about it.  It's a no win situation there.  I can't imagine not being able to shower b/o a hemo cath.  Do you have a tunneled cath - like a permcath?  The only thing I can recommend is going to CDC website and reading about care of tunneled hemo caths and care.  They really don't have much there either except recommendations for cath dressings with a tunneled vs temporary (Quinton) caths.  I am sorry I am not much help here, but can't in good conscience tell you to go ahead and shower.  I've seen too many infections from catheters to do that.  Sorry!

[angieskidney]

mine is a tunneled one but I have been trained on how to care for it. I as well could not say in good conscious to shower with it as you need training if your hospital allows showers to be done. (sorry if this wording sucks)