Just curious----Does anyone here wear gloves? >>>

[RhondaQ]

Other than the experience I had as caregiver for my father who just recently passed away, I am clueless when it comes to side effects from dialysis and/or kidney disease.  Years ago I worked with a young man that always wore gloves to hide his hands because he was embarrassed for people to see them.  He mentioned that he was on home dialysis 3 times per week.  Is there a connection here?  Can the disease or treatment cause a problem like this? 

Just curious.....I have had this man in my thoughts for a long time now.  Hope he is doing well...

Thanks for listening...

[angela515]

I don't wear gloves... except when it's snowing outside and my hands are cold.  Idunno what could be wrong with his hands... I got some little scars on my hands from IV's, but that's because I heal very slow and bruise easily, so when they take out the IV if it don't start to heal right away, it's most likely going to be there awhile and leave a scar.

[MattyBoy100]

Now winter is fast approaching, I will be wearing gloves outside all the time.  I have noticed that my left hand (my fistula is in my left arm) gets cold quickly and my fingers turn blue and I can't feel my fingertips.  It is not a nice feeling.  Some people in my renal unit wear gloves all the time.  They are mainly elderly ladies who are quite frail.  I am assuming they don't have very good circulation and wearing gloves helps combat the effects of becoming too cold.

[Rerun]

I should wear gloves.  My hands are ugly.  Years of IV's and then having been immune suppressed I get skin worts and crap that I'm always getting burned off.

[Fighter]

Nothing wrong with my hands, but I usually wear long sleeves to conceal the fistula scar on my wrist. It's not really that ugly (well, on second thought it is kind of ugly...) but it really looks like what it is - a surgical scar - and that means that whoever sees it and doesn't know about my kidney disease will invariably start asking questions. And then I either have to lie or tell a looooong story. 

[kitkatz]

I do not give a crap what other people think about my scars or whatever they see related to the kidney disease.  I am wearing sleeves down to my elbows becasue I do NOT want to scare the children I work with, but if they ask I tell them I have had surgery on my arms.  The scars are battle wounds and I am in the good fight!

[jedimaster]

I don't wear anything in my hands as my access site is in my upper arm...same here, not ashamed...those are my battle wounds. Now...what i DO wear is a mask....not because I'm ashamed but because I'm ugly!!

[kevno]

I do know a couple of patients on the unit who ware gloves, the fistula can sometimes use the blood supply for the hand so can make the hand feel cold. It's called steel syndrome. My hands get cold very quick even on hot days (UK ) But have never worn gloves. In my case it's calcification of the veins, so little blood gets through to the hands. Thinking about it My finger tips have gone cold now

[MattyBoy100]

I'm so ugly, I wear a bag over my head! 

[Bajanne]

No gloves - nothing wrong with my hand.  And as I am in the Caribbean, of course, no one wears gloves, except latex, rubber, or gardening gloves!  I put a glove on one hand as I hold the spot to stop bleeding after dialysis.

[RhondaQ]

So strange!  It seems he told me that the skin on his hands appeared scaly or maybe it was that his hands felt cold all the time??.......I don't understand it, but remember him saying that it had to do with his dialysis treatments.  Odd I say! 

Well, thank you for responding.  Guess we'll never know for sure where the gloves came into play...