The old nerve conductivity tests

[LifeOnHold]

Does anyone remember the old NCT?  (Nerve Conductivity Test)  This thing was straight out of a horror movie!

It was a machine with a monitor and had several electrodes which were attached to the patient's wrists and legs.  The technician sent electrical impulses through the electrodes and the machine recorded how long it took the signal to go from point to point.  The one thing they didn't tell the patient was that it was going to HURT!  During one of these tests, my wrist was burned! (And yes, I did yell!) There was a black mark where the electrode had been... I showed it to the technician, who got flustered and said 'that shouldn't have happened!'  About an hour after the test, I developed a horrendous case of Restless Leg that stayed with me for almost a week, making it impossible for me to sleep until I was exhausted.  I told my charge nurse that there was NO WAY IN HELL that I was ever going to submit to that test again.

A year later, here comes the technician with her nerve conductivity machine again, and I told the charge nurse, "Hey, I'm not having that done again!  She burned a hole in my wrist the last time and my legs wouldn't stop twitching for a week!"  Several other patients also refused the test because of similar problems.  Thankfully, the test was discontinued at my unit.

I felt as if I was being given shock treatment, not a helpful test!  I understand the need to investigate possible nerve damage, but a test shouldn't make you want to make you want to  physically assault the technician administering it!  I feel there's enough pain already involved in dialysis, and this went over the line.  Thank God this thing is no longer being used-- the literature I've read listed 'aversive stimuli' as the main reason for it being shelved... well, duh!  If patients hadn't complained, they'd still be shocking the crap out of us.


(Note: Nerve Conductivity Tests are also called Nerve Conduction Velocity tests, or NCVs.)

[Epoman]

I guess I was lucky at the time, I remember people getting those tests at my center but they always passed by me and I finally noticed it was never my turn to get the test. Well one day I asked how come I don't get that test. Well they said your insurance doesn't cover them. I was pissed at the time but I guess I was better off.

[LifeOnHold]

Yes, you were lucky... Medicare/Medicaid pays for all the invasive crap... but they don't pay for Doppler testing of accesses.  They think it's cheaper to have a graft ripped open than to be able to see problems starting, so now thousands of elderly people get to have angio balloons jammed up their arms when the trouble-spots could have been noted by ultrasound and avoided by the nurses.

You'd think they get paid by the scream!  I guess they think dialysis patients have no sense of pain.

[ohhmygolly]

 
question 1. why do we need this kind of test ??
question  2. why will insurance not pay for it  ?? or why will they ??
question  3. is this test needed - for my health?? for the dialysis company pocket?? or for the patients health??
as a dialysis employee will this test help my patient or is it trash
i do wish more patients would ask questions like this of there drs. and nurses

[Bajanne]

Please tell me what happens to your nerves.  My brother who was on dialysis (he died last November) was also blind -  another end-product of his diabetes.  After a time he was unable to read the Braille without difficulty because his finger tips had nerve problems.  I thought that was just something that happened to him because of the Braille and a problem that he had had with his fistula (he had to have a new one done, I think)
IS NERVE DAMAGE A POSSIBILITY WITH DIALYSIS?

[LifeOnHold]

Nerve damage is almost a given with diabetes... it can happen because of dialysis, too, but it's much more likely to be from diabetes. 

(I don't think the Braille had much to do with it.)

[Panda_9]

When I was a teen on dialysis I had a nerve test where they stuck acupuncture type needles into my legs and feet and sent a pulse through them. OMG!! I was bawling my eyes out, it was just awful. And Im not normally one to cry! That is one test they can stick up their arse!! Im getting a bit less pain tolerant as time goes on, I thought you were meant to get better?