I Hate Dialysis Message Board
Dialysis Discussion => Dialysis: General Discussion => Topic started by: Amanda From OZ on August 13, 2006, 06:28:33 AM
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Hello!!
Thank you its great to finally have somewhere i can chat to people who really understand.
Well a few of you were asking why we call Australia oz?? to tell you the truth i wouldn't have a clue!! ha ha I was told it has something to do with the world Aussie?? it sounds like oz??? ha ha i will try to ask around! ;)
BTW i wanted to know the state of everyone fistula... i have seen many other patients and (no offence) their vein looks all bumpy, and huge and not very attractive?? is this what happens after many years of dialysis... ? i would really like to know. i have been on dialysis for 2 and a bit years and you can hardly see it.. i would like to know if it will change??? I work in a industry were my appearance is important.. i know it might sound shallow, but being so young i am worried about the changes kidney disease could have..
Would like to know what you think.
Amanda
xx
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This is my fistula, a little over 5 months old. I would think, by now, if you were going to see it, you would. Though I think too, it depends on how the fistula is being "stuck".
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Thanks for the picture!! your fistulas isnt as big as some of the other people i ahve seen..
i guess the good side of it is... the bigger the vein the easier it is to find the vein. :)
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Your welcome, and thanks for the compliment. You'd be surprised at certain people not finding that vein. There are 2 at my clinic now, I wont let near me with the needles.
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Wow that is a REALLY good pic of your fistula Joe Paul!!!
I have been trying to take a god pic of mine but it just seems like all everyone sees is the start that they don't stick the needle into ..
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Just last dialysis day, I got a look at a guy who has been on dialysis for 9 years. That thing on his arm is huge!! You couldn't miss it with a cannon ball! I don't have a fistula; I have a graft, and all that I have is keloids marking where I get stuck.
I think Australia is called Oz because that is how you guys pronounce your first syllable - Oz-tryl-yah! I just love the Australian accent. Crocodile Dundee was a big hit in my country. We are very accustomed to the Australian accent because of the cricket commentaries, and because of the radio serials when I was young, though we used to think the people were British!
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I've seen some woman over the years use the upper leg instead of the arm for placement of the a/v fistula.
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I´ve had my fistula in use for a year and a half and have no bumps or lumps at all. Thank God ::). Just marks where they stick me. My doctors said that it all depends on the vein. So keep squeezing that ball ;D.
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Angie:
OUCH! That looks painful!
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wow thanks forr the replys and the photos
i will try to take a pic of my arrm tonight!!!
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Not much point in taking a pic of my arm the fistula is only about 2 inches long now, had it in since 1980. Plus no bumps on it, just a scar from my wrist to my shoulder. Where the Surgeons tried, and failed to restart it >:(
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Not much point in taking a pic of my arm the fistula is only about 2 inches long now, had it in since 1980. Plus no bumps on it, just a scar from my wrist to my shoulder. Where the Surgeons tried, and failed to restart it >:(
Damn, I thought mine was old. I've had it since 1985 and it's ugly but it still pulls 450. It's in my lower arm and I cut the top 5 inches off of athletic socks and wear it as a sleeve to protect the aneurisms.
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Mine is about a year old, but it was only used about 2 months and then they decided to do a fistula gram and blew it out. The Radiologist saved it with a stint, but they had to put the catheter back in my chest so now I've got them by the balls. They are not using my fistula until my catheter falls out. They do not give me any shit about it either. The way I see it, I'll use the fistula for the rest of my life, why push it. Use the catheter while it is there.
Back to your question.... mine is pretty big with a pseudo aneurysm but no one says anything.
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I am like Rerun :-\ (OUCH! That hurt to say that ;D) Will only let the nurses use the caths in my neck, the two that are in now have been in since October 2003. Only trouble is I can not get a pump speed of more than 250 more often than not, the speed is less than that.
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Mine is about a year old, but it was only used about 2 months and then they decided to do a fistula gram and blew it out.
Woah! That can happen?? Because of the problems with my fistula I am now scheduled for a Fistulogram for Aug 21st! Should I be worried?? I want to stay on top of things! :-\
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I have had a fistulagram a couple of times and all went well...... there are rick with anything you do... but i'm sure you will all go okay :)
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Thank you! I can't help but be scared of things I haven't yet been through. You would think by now I would have been through it all already ::)
I will post how it goes ;)
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I would say most of us pronounce it sort of like Oz-Tral-ya and then you've got Aussie, which is pronounced "Ozzie", and thus you have "OZ".
My fistula is pretty big but it looks more like a muscle than a bulging vein since the aneurysm reduced in size. I have a nasty scar though.
What is a fistula gram? Is that like an angiogram?
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Mine is about a year old, but it was only used about 2 months and then they decided to do a fistula gram and blew it out.
Woah! That can happen?? Because of the problems with my fistula I am now scheduled for a Fistulogram for Aug 21st! Should I be worried?? I want to stay on top of things! :-\
I have had a couple of them and had no problem. They will take a look to see whats going on with your fistula. Any narrowing etc. Being that you are hard to stick make sure to ask them for a copy of one of the x-rays. That way you can show the x-ray to the those that stick you and it should greatly help them out to see just what your fistula looks like and where the best spot is to stick it.
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I have had a couple of them and had no problem. They will take a look to see whats going on with your fistula. Any narrowing etc. Being that you are hard to stick make sure to ask them for a copy of one of the x-rays. That way you can show the x-ray to the those that stick you and it should greatly help them out to see just what your fistula looks like and where the best spot is to stick it.
Oh wow! That is an excellent idea! I just hope they will comply!
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Helloooo whats a fistulagram?
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Helloooo whats a fistulagram?
A fistulagram is where they do a x-ray study of your fistula. It is used to detect problems such as a clots or narrowing area in the fistula and vein. They inject a dye and take x-rays to see how the dye is flowing in the fistula. If an area is narrowing or there is a clot they can stick a wire with a balloon into it and expand the narrow area or break up any clots.
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So...tell me where does the dye go. Do your kidneys filter it out??? Good luck on me, they are not filtering squat lately. So where does the dye go? Has anyone asked the doctor or are we all going to glow in the dark when we ar 50 or so from dye? I had so many IVPs done as a kid , at least two a year, I am not surprised the kidneys were having problems. Now they are avoiding IVPs in kidney patients.
Hmmmmm I will probably glow when I am 50, if I make it the next seven years!
Preglowing over here.
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Thanks for clearing that up. Cant say Ive ever had one. We have dopplers to check for narrowing and blood flow. The dye passes out through the bowel over several days. Im not sure if all dyes are the same though.
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Helloooo whats a fistulagram?
A fistulagram is where they do a x-ray study of your fistula. It is used to detect problems such as a clots or narrowing area in the fistula and vein. They inject a dye and take x-rays to see how the dye is flowing in the fistula. If an area is narrowing or there is a clot they can stick a wire with a balloon into it and expand the narrow area or break up any clots.
Oh then I may have had one before! Because they stuck something in and someone said it must have been this balloon thing. It helped this one as I did have blockage. But there seems to be more problems. Hopefully they can get this working better with this next fistulogram but if they see nothing then there will be nothing they can do to make it better I guess :(
to kitkatz... I have no kidneys to filter the dye out :(Thanks for clearing that up. Cant say Ive ever had one. We have dopplers to check for narrowing and blood flow. The dye passes out through the bowel over several days. Im not sure if all dyes are the same though.
Don't sometimes they give you someting to make you .. uh ... "go" because of how our only way for getting the dye out is through the bowels??
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There are a few different machines on the market.
One of the functions on the crit-line machines is the ability to measure blood flow through the fistula. They measured ours several times to establish a base line of blood flow through the fistula. If problems arise such as Kt/V dropping or problem with sticks they can use the machine to again measure blood flow to see where it compares to the previous measurements. If there is a drop they usually recommend a fistula gram. Mine usually maxes out the machine. It usually say greater than 2000 or 3000. Cannot remember which right now. ??
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I am not clear what crit-line is but have seen it mentioned before. I don't know if my machine does that but they put special lines on that day where it looked like a small disk that when the machine beeped and displayed a message that told them the first test was done they had to turn the disk to reverse my lines and it did some 2nd test. I don't know what that was. They tell us nothing! :(
I don't know what Kt/V stands for but that is basically clearance right? :-\
Sorry if these are dumb questions..
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The machine may not be a crit-line but it is doing the same thing.
On days they are switching the lines they are measuring the blood flow through your fistula. I am not sure what the least recommended flow rate is but I can ask at the unit next time. Kt/V is another way to adequacy of dialysis.
* K stands for the dialyzer clearance, expressed in milliliters per minute (mL/min)
* t stands for time
* Kt, the top part of the fraction, is clearance multiplied by time, representing the volume of fluid completely cleared of urea during a single treatment
* V, the bottom part of the fraction, is the volume of water a patient’s body contains
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Thank you BigSky! That is very informative!! Thank you! :D
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I know this is an older post, but I just read it.
My fistula is about 3 years old and I've been using it for about a year now. I was told that it will get bigger, but since I started dialysis I have done it at home and have run at a lower speed than recommended by my clinic. The doc said I can run at whatever speed I want as long as I get the fluid off, it just takes longer. The clinic doesn't like it though. However, my fistula just looks like I workout with one arm more than the other and I have two little dots where I do the button hole. The slower speed is keeping my fistula from expanding faster. Also, while I workout or do anything strenuous with my fistula arm, I put sweatbands on it, one over each hole. My fistula is located on my left forearm.
Hope this helps,
Jaybird
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jaybird what pump speed do you run at?
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I try to run at 300-350.
I run at 300 when I have the time to go slow, if I want to speed up I go at 350. I'd go slower if I could, but I start getting alarms at less than 300, and everyone hates the alarms! I've went as high as 420 before, but I had to take my son to an appointment that day. My access is big enough to go at the max, but the more pressure you put on your access the bigger it will get over time (Much bigger than it needs to get).
Hope this helps.
Here's a recent photo of my access arm, its my left arm. Its not the best shot, but all i could find of my arm. You can hardly tell I have a fistula in it, Thats the way I like it!
Jaybird
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They tell us nothing! :(
Sorry if these are dumb questions..
there is no such thing as a dumb question! if you don't know, ASK!!! and keep asking till you get an answer. if they don't like questions, too dam bad! this is your life and you have a right. the squeaky wheel gets the grease. keep squeaking!!!
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Adam, i never run higher than 300... my fistula is not that big either, your arm looks great you can't even notice you have one.
Here is my fistula.
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Wow Amanda. You can't even tell. I never knew fistulas could stay that small. If you were in clinic would they make you run at a faster speed? Does the slow speed help keep the fistula size down or is it just a luck thing? ???
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Well if i turned my arm around you could probably see a little bulge, but its not that bad.
I think there might be a few reasons why it has not grown much.. firstly in the first 2 years my fistula didn't work very well so i couldn't do a very h high pump speed, and now i choose not to go any higher because i don't want to put pressure on my veins.. as they are "crap". And because of the position of the fistula; it seems to be getting a lot bigger but growing in-wards instead of protruding out of the skin.
Is your fistula large? and what pump speed do you run at wattle?
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I am on PD Amanda. So I don't have a fistula. But, I have just spent four days in hospital and know that PD may not last me until a transplant comes along. Haemo may not be that far away, so I want to know my options ahead of time. I was hoping to do PD until a transplant but I have now been told it could stretch out to a 7 year wait. I am unsure if PD will take me that far.
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Silly me! sorry i forgot..! not all fistulas get big.. so if the unfortunate happens and pd no longer works for you. Then trust me hemo is not bad at all... i would prefer the fistula than the tube in my belly
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I don't want to be misunderstood...I am NOT concerned about having a fistula or the look of it. I just want to be educated on the care of my veins and fistula. The reasons for running at a lower pump speed etc. O.k the sticking freaks me out a little (maybe alot) but I will get over that :P
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this is my fistula only been used for 10 weeks my pump speed is 325.