I Hate Dialysis Message Board

Dialysis Discussion => Dialysis: General Discussion => Topic started by: Rerun on February 27, 2016, 09:37:46 AM

Title: Graft Clotted
Post by: Rerun on February 27, 2016, 09:37:46 AM
I have 2 accesses.  A left arm fistula and a right lower arm loop graft.  My right loop graft clotted and here it is the weekend.

Anyone know how long a graft can go before a declott procedure will still work?

I am not an emergency because I still have a working access.  But, I'm stressed that I may lose the loop graft if they don't get on this.
Title: Re: Graft Clotted
Post by: cassandra on February 27, 2016, 10:26:04 AM
Jeeeeezzz sorry Rerun, can't help you, but wishing you strength and all the love and luck in the world, Cas

     :grouphug;
Title: Re: Graft Clotted
Post by: Vt Big Rig on February 27, 2016, 10:58:58 AM
Go to ER and have them call vascular. Don't take chances. Good Luck.
Title: Re: Graft Clotted
Post by: Simon Dog on February 27, 2016, 11:17:41 AM
Quote
I am not an emergency because I still have a working access.
As VT Big Rig mentioned, this is an emergency.
Title: Re: Graft Clotted
Post by: Rerun on February 27, 2016, 11:38:23 AM
They don't consider this an emergency because I can still get dialysis through my other access.

A vascular surgeon called me and he said a graft can go 2 weeks and still be declotted....??   I wanted to say we wouldn't even live 2 weeks how the hell do you know it can go 2 weeks.

They said they will get me in on Monday.

Title: Re: Graft Clotted
Post by: PrimeTimer on February 27, 2016, 04:03:12 PM
Question for anybody: If a fistula or graft becomes clotted, isn't there a risk that clots may break off and travel through the blood stream? 
Title: Re: Graft Clotted
Post by: Rerun on February 27, 2016, 04:27:27 PM
They said they were not worried about that.

But YEA I am worried about That!           :waiting;   :pray; 
Title: Re: Graft Clotted
Post by: PrimeTimer on February 27, 2016, 06:25:52 PM
They said they were not worried about that.

But YEA I am worried about That!           :waiting;   :pray;

I'd be worried about that too. Interesting. Wonder what their reasoning is, unless you're already on some sort of blood thinner or aspirin therapy for something else. Hope they fix you up nicely Monday.
Title: Re: Graft Clotted
Post by: Charlie B53 on February 27, 2016, 06:27:59 PM
Pardon my stupidity, I am on PD an know little about hemo other than what I am learning here from all of you.

Rerun, you have BOTH arms with access',  I was under the impression that you could NOT have blood draws, needle sticks, blood pressures, etc., in the arm that has the access.  Yet you have BOTH arms made available.

Read me as confused.

Thanks,

Charlie B53
Title: Re: Graft Clotted
Post by: TheLivingWater on February 27, 2016, 10:11:32 PM
Do people who have AV graft take blood thiners such as plavix or coumadin?
Title: Re: Graft Clotted
Post by: Michael Murphy on February 28, 2016, 04:51:26 AM
Charlie B53. The one good thing about hemo is blood draw are usually taken from the tubes connected to the needles in the machine.  I haven't had blood taken directly from me in three years.  Just from the ports put in the blood tubes.
Title: Re: Graft Clotted
Post by: Vt Big Rig on February 28, 2016, 06:04:11 AM
They don't consider this an emergency because I can still get dialysis through my other access.



Only an SOB that does not worry about the frailties of a fistula or any access would say that. :Kit n Stik; :Kit n Stik;
Title: Re: Graft Clotted
Post by: Rerun on February 28, 2016, 11:55:05 AM
So, I have BP cuff on my leg and any blood or IV stick in my hands.  No BP cuff on either arm or arm draws. 

I am still alive and it is Sunday.  I am also trying to get over a bad cold.  It seems like my life runs just above water and any one thing just sinks me.   :P
Title: Re: Graft Clotted
Post by: cassandra on February 28, 2016, 12:29:27 PM
It's about bedtime here. Thinking of you and wishing you all the best for tomorrow.

Love, Cas
Title: Re: Graft Clotted
Post by: Rerun on February 29, 2016, 03:45:28 PM
Tomorrow, (Tuesday) check in at noon with the Vascular Surgeon that I want. 

This just started here but my Nephrolorist group no longer has priviledges at the hospital that does vascular surgery or transplants.

Creates quite the bottleneck...

          :flower;
Title: Re: Graft Clotted
Post by: cassandra on March 01, 2016, 12:59:50 PM
How are you?

Love, Cas
Title: Re: Graft Clotted
Post by: Rerun on March 02, 2016, 04:45:54 PM
It was a bigger surgery than I thought.    :P  but it is working.    thank God.  :pray; 
Title: Re: Graft Clotted
Post by: PrimeTimer on March 02, 2016, 08:43:35 PM
Glad to hear the good news! Vascular surgeons are excellent plumbers!
Title: Re: Graft Clotted
Post by: Vt Big Rig on March 03, 2016, 04:51:58 AM
Good to hear Re run .... A sigh of relief!!! :clap; :clap;
Title: Re: Graft Clotted
Post by: Michael Murphy on March 03, 2016, 10:24:04 AM
I am happy it went well,  it's good to hear good things about good people.
Title: Re: Graft Clotted
Post by: cassandra on March 03, 2016, 03:04:03 PM
Good news, that it's working

Love, Cas
Title: Re: Graft Clotted
Post by: Charlie B53 on March 03, 2016, 06:29:35 PM

Finally, GREAT news.

Glad the scary wait is over.  That constant worry "what if..." has got to be one of THE worst things that many face.  I don't doubt you had your times till it was finally completed.  I know my blood pressure would have stayed at least 30 points higher all the time.

(big sigh of relief)!

Keep taking Care,

Charlie B53
Title: Re: Graft Clotted
Post by: Rerun on March 04, 2016, 01:18:12 PM
Thanks guys.  I am really tired and no energy.  I guess it will come back one day at at time.  As the song says.
Title: Re: Graft Clotted
Post by: kitkatz on March 05, 2016, 01:08:19 AM
I do not like it when they have to roto rooter the fistula or graft.  No matter what they tell you it is painful and you tend to not bounce back as quickly.   I hope all is better soon Rerun.
Title: Re: Graft Clotted
Post by: Charlie B53 on March 05, 2016, 12:43:34 PM

Now you got me curious as to how they do clear that.  A physical 'reamer' or a chemical cleaner to desolve the clot.


When I had a total blockage of my right iliac, shutting off all flow to my right leg I was in HELL. for FIVE days. Well, actually ten if you counot the five days at home and work as it was plugging up.  But onoce ono the table Dr weent in the left femeral and ran a solid wire up over the left iliac across into the right, poked a hole through that mass then went on down inside the femeral to the right knee where another portion of the mass had broken off, traveled down and plugged it off again.

I spent five days in ICU with a TPI drip, that chemical clot desoling drug.  That was administered through the same route as the wire through a hose put in immemdiately after the wire was drawn out.

I swear, this procedure was a whole new torture designed to get me to confess to the murder of JFK, or something.

FIVE whole days, and nights, of torture.  It felt like they had buried my whole right leg in a barbecue pit piled high with charcoal, and set it on fire.  Every few hours adding a few more bags of charcoal.

But it worked.  And they saved my leg instead of cutting it off, as they said would have happened if I had gone ahead and gone home that Friday, it would have been cut off long before Monday.

So I am Thankful.   Since then they have had to go back and placed stents in both lilacs to keep them open as they have kept trying to close up.

Any clot always has a potential for serious problems and must be treated carefully, and speedily.

Title: Re: Graft Clotted
Post by: Simon Dog on March 05, 2016, 01:10:11 PM
Quote
I spent five days in ICU with a TPI drip
Did you mean TPA?  If it is "TPI", what was the full name?

Congrats on saving the leg.  Beats having to hop to dialysis.
Title: Re: Graft Clotted
Post by: Charlie B53 on March 06, 2016, 10:06:50 AM

It was  one or the other.  My memory could be faulty.  They were pushing a LOT of morphine in me, and it didn't work very well.

I sweated a LOT.  They wouldn't let me eat or drink anything as always had to be ready to go back on the table.  They must of been worried that the meds used during the procedures would make me sick.  So I was getting pretty dried  out.   On the second day the Nurse said  they wanted a urine sample.  This was a few years before Dialysis, but I was so dry there was no way.  Nurse told me I had 15 minutes to produce or she would use a cath.  But she did finally let me have two of those little cup things of apple juice..   She wasn't happy when I managed to roll onto my side, but I did make barely enough sample.

Done remember much else of those few days.  Well, somehow I managed to pull out one of the IV's, made quite a mess of the bed and the floor.  I still don't know why I had had to have IV's in both arms.  Especially when they had that huge on going in my leg.

I was a mess.