I Hate Dialysis Message Board
Dialysis Discussion => Dialysis: General Discussion => Topic started by: MooseMom on December 23, 2010, 11:14:19 PM
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Just a quick question as I need a bit of reassurance. I just got out of the shower, and I happened to notice how pronounced my veins are in my left arm and up into my shoulder and onto my chest. My fistula is in my upper left arm. It looks as if someone has taken a thin paint brush and has painted light blue lines all up my arm, AND the lines are in 3D. Is this normal?
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First, make sure you don't have two pairs of glasses on. My veins are definitely more pronounced on my fistula arm.
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It is totally normal MM. They get more pronounced since they are rerouting the blood due to the fistula creation. The main fistula vein will develop even more as it is used and mine is quite large. As hard as it is to do, I try to befriend it and view it as my lifeline which of course it is when we're on D. Mine shows no sign of going anywhere despite transplant almost two years ago. :cuddle;
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Yup, normal. I've still got a place below my collarbone on the left side that everyone thinks is bruised since there are so many extra veins just below the surface.
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Thanks so much for the reassurance! I figured it was normal...it makes sense that if the whole point is to enlarge your veins to make access to the bloodsteam easier, then that blood path is going to be enlarged. But I'm still relatively new at all this, and the occasional word of reassurance means a lot.
I don't really care how it looks. My mother's fistula got enormous, and it looked particularly big since she was a very tiny woman. I know she was bothered by how it looked, but for me, I don't care...I just want it to work.
Again, thanks.
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First, make sure you don't have two pairs of glasses on. My veins are definitely more pronounced on my fistula arm.
Same here and hospitals would love to use that arm till they find out that there is a fistula and a graft.
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yeah, it's normal. I have a spot in my upper arm, close to my shoulder, where the vein is rather close to the surface, and it looks like it's bruised. It hasn't been needled yet, but I'm sure that when it is, it will be one heck of an access point.
I have one of those lovely psuedoanyerisms near my elbow. From time to time it will pulsate, and I can actually see it pulsate. It freaked me out the first time I saw it, so I kinda did what you did, and went to twitter. Within a few minutes, I was told by several people that it was normal.
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Yes, this is normal. I have an upper arm A/V graft and I have three or four big, blue raised veins going from my chest to the front of my shoulder. Our vascular nurse said they were big enough to needle if need be.
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I have one of those lovely psuedoanyerisms near my elbow. From time to time it will pulsate, and I can actually see it pulsate. It freaked me out the first time I saw it, so I kinda did what you did, and went to twitter. Within a few minutes, I was told by several people that it was normal.
I think I have a pseudoanuerysm, too...sort of a knot adjacent to my scar that I can see pulsate. Creepy.
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It's always something you can scare kids with, though. :beer1;
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It's always something you can scare kids with, though. :beer1;
When I was a kid, I used to have line ups of kids wanting to feel my fistula.. they thought it was the coolest thing.. *L*
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Captains Log; Stardate 29th December 2010. The collective have decided you cannot be BORG for although you share the group ideal you do not have any tubes protruding from any body parts ..LIKE ME ! :rofl; I am therefore BORG but you may be Klingon ? :rofl;
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I thought Klingons had a fistula in their skull... :blank:
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Hey KS.. I think we still qualify as Borg with just a fistula.. we still need to regenerate at regular intervals....
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I am sending this communication as a direct download as we speak. I am in my station re-charging .. :rofl;
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I remember a vascular surgeon seeing my wife's big veins on one side of her upper chest on the fistula side and asking if her breast had gotten bigger on that side too. It hadn't. He was so dorky the way he asked too. I didn't know if I should laugh or get angry.
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Laughter is healthier! :rofl;
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Nah Assimilate him ! :rofl;
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If I didn't know better I believe Q hand a hand on all our problems and if I know him it has to do with mankind. Live Long and Prosper
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Make it so ....
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Make it so ....
ok it will be no tribble at all :rofl;
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I suppose Resistance is Futile. :(
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Make it so ....
ok it will be no tribble at all :rofl;
NO TRIBBLE!! NO! cute, fuzzy, nasty beings... although, when my cat lays the right way, he looks like a large, orange tribble