Think he killed my fistula

[pdpatty]

Yesterday ,Wednesday, Jim hooked me up. He has been  one of the best techs we have. Arterial went in fine,good flow but he had trouble with the vieinus. He thought he had it but no. It started hurting and I told him this. WEll something happened ,vein moved and he had to dig around to get it.
He finally found it and it flowed goot. Pressure was good BUT it hurt and continued hurting 3.5 hours.

I only felt this pain one other time when I had to take potassium by IV.

When he set me up,it hurt worse. It hurt while I held it and when he bandaged it. it was hurting so bad I could not fold my cover.
This was around 9:30am and it is still hurting and swollen. I put an ice pack o it then moist heat but I cannot feel the buzzung in the vein ,only at the artery.

I don't think the swelling is blood . Wonder what he could have done that caused this. It even hurts on the back of my arm

He said he thought he hit a nerve. Could hitting a nerve cause this?

[pdpatty]

Update,the arm is still swollen ,so much it hurts to bend elbow,hurts to touch it. Am starting to be able to feel thrill but it isn't like it was before Wednesday. My whole arm looks a little swollen with most above elbow.
Hope it goes down before tomorrow or they will have a hard time sticking it.

[tyefly]

  I too had this problem last week...  I start D last tuesday the week before... first stick was great did two hours no problems..... on thursday  they had a harder time and my arm infiltrated.... pretty big and swollen which turn my whole upper arm into one big  big  bruise.... very hard tissue and hurt to bend.... I let it rest untill the next week and skipped a D session....  The on Monday  I went in and they had no problems sticking me and everything was flowing well   and then 1.5 hours into the session   it infiltrated all by it self.... So  arm is sore again.... and my doctor told me to rest for two weeks......  Still very black and blue... and stiff and all of that ....  it seems like when it is swollen the thrill is a little less I think that may be due to tissue pressure but it has since then reduced in swelling and the thrill is working just like it did before.....So I think from what everyone has told me  is that we just have baby fistulas and then need to toughen up...and time and use will help......  I hope yours works well for you soon....................kathy

[paul.karen]

Sorry to read this.  I hope there is no serious damage done to either of you.
Hope the swelling goes down and the thrill comes back strong as ever.
PD can you skip a day??

[pdpatty]

I don't know. I have never missed a treatment in the more than two years on but if they can't do it tomorrow ,I just may have to. I no longer have the chest cath.

Odd,but this a not infiltrated. There is no brusing ,none. It is swollen and hurts bad. This thing has never happened to me before. Arm even hurts on backside. I don't know what he did ,but he screwed it up good this time.

[YLGuy]

When I moved my arm and infiltrated I did not show any bruising until days later.  The other symptoms sound similar to what I felt. 

[pdpatty]

Well,it has been 6 days and the arm still hurts. Guess it was a slow leak ,evidently he went through the vein. It works ok so guess everything is ok but wish the swelling and pain and itchiness would hurry up and go.

[Rerun]

You might want to call you Vascular Surgeon to see if he wants to schedule a fistulagram just to see for sure what is going on.  It may be a narrowing that is causing the back-up and swelling.

[Ken Shelmerdine]

I had a similar problem when the nurse putting me on not only blew the vein but hit a muscle in my arm. The pain was pretty bad and over the next few days the whole of my upper arm went black and blue with bruising lasting about 3 weeks. But apparently fistula blows on a young fistula are quite common and it is said that can be  beneficicial in that is makes the vein more robust and sturdy.

[pdpatty]

Then mine must by this time be very robust and sturty.

I saw the vasular surgeon last moth and they did an ultra sound on it. No narrowing ,great blood flow. Think the tech was having a bad day. Everyone who has hooked me up since has not had any problems.

Had one of the best today,he said he couldn't believe they still had me on the med size needle. Can't remember the size but he said if they started using larger needle ,I could get my time shortened. That sounds like a winner.

[hurlock1]

Yesterday ,Wednesday, Jim hooked me up. He has been  one of the best techs we have. Arterial went in fine,good flow but he had trouble with the vieinus. He thought he had it but no. It started hurting and I told him this. WEll something happened ,vein moved and he had to dig around to get it.
He finally found it and it flowed goot. Pressure was good BUT it hurt and continued hurting 3.5 hours.

I only felt this pain one other time when I had to take potassium by IV.

When he set me up,it hurt worse. It hurt while I held it and when he bandaged it. it was hurting so bad I could not fold my cover.
This was around 9:30am and it is still hurting and swollen. I put an ice pack o it then moist heat but I cannot feel the buzzung in the vein ,only at the artery.

I don't think the swelling is blood . Wonder what he could have done that caused this. It even hurts on the back of my arm

He said he thought he hit a nerve. Could hitting a nerve cause this?

Could it be that it was infiltrated? When the positive side needle slips out, gets crooked or whatever the pump on the dialysis machine keeps running. The blood has to go somewhere, so it goes into your arm. The first time it happened to me, was early durung the use of my fistula. I wasn't used to it and for whatever reason there were alarms going off all over the place. It was hurting and the caregivers were jumping around like a bunch of ninjas taking care of other patients. Finally I had the nerve to speak up. It turned out that I was infiltrated. Either a needle slipped out or was never in. My arm was black and purple for months. The amount of blood in my arm "insulated" the "thrill" from feeling it outside.