A/V fistula incision looks weird...REVISED!

[MomoMcSleepy]

REVISION:
Ok, so I feel kinda dumb, but what I thought was weird looking skin might be surgical glue.  I've had mostly abdominal surgeries and haven't seen the glue before.  It looks like scabby skin.  Now that the blood scabs and glue are dropping off, I see a nice clean incision.  I do have a weird bump near my elbow, but I think it's part of the fistula with swelling around it.  The doctor wants to look at it, I emailed pics, hopefully that's good enough.  I had this done a week ago, and for posterity, the underside of the bottom half of my arm was numb and cool post op.  Not cool anymore, normal temp.  Hand always felt fine.  Now a week out, starting exercises since it doesn't hurt much anymore.  Arm still stiff, still swollen and has to be propped.  Still cannot fully extend my arm.  Also, feeling is returning in my numb areas, and it feel tingly, I'd like a burning, or sometimes I feel like my arm us wet, but it's not.  Primarily a burning sensation, or like someone is scratching my arm for me, not bad.  I also had weird sort of muscle spasms in my left chest muscles near my shoulder, I think from propping it funny. 
END REVISION
   
Hey guys,
Just wondered if anyone else noticed their incision looked nastier than other incisions, cause I took my bandages off of my upper arm, and mine looks unlike any I've ever had before
It is not red or swollen or draining or warm, doesn't look infected.  It just looks  like a giant "L" that was drawn by domineering with palsy or something.  The skin on either side is a but raised and white/pale.  It is raised, but doesn't look wet.  It looks almost like it was wet and then got really dried out.  It looks like something Frankenstein's monster would have, and there weren't any steri strips.  I have been cut open dozens of times and have beverages seen such an ugly scar.  It doesn't seem infected, though.  Is arm skin harder to cut nicely or something?  Or does thus doctor just suck at making clean incision lines?  I find it insensitive to be so careless, if that's the case.  Maybe it will improve over time?

I asked my husband to take a picture so maybe I can post one soon.  He ashes me  to never show it to him again, though.   Not to freak anyone out, maybe  he had a hard time, I have a thinner build, maybe I'm not doesn't enough?  I don't  like it!

[Rerun]

I remember looking at mine for the first time and thinking..... "Who let Jack the Ripper out?"  When you go back in you may ask him what the hell he was drinking before your surgery.  But, yeah, mine was horrible looking but it got better.

[MomoMcSleepy]

Thanks, Rerun.  Hopefully it's just cause it's fresh .

[cattlekid]

Mine look like hell.  Four (!) big honking pink scars about two inches long each and a quarter inch wide.  Even DH (veteran of dozens of surgeries, including two brain surgeries) was taken a bit aback when he saw these.  Eight months later and they aren't really getting any better looking. 

[wvgirl]

Mine was like that too. Just horrible looking and I had 2 of them. One at the wrist and one on the inside of my elbow. They tried the wrist first but my veins were too small. I was afraid everyone would think I had slit my wrist myself the way it looked!! It did get better. I do have scars, but they aren't nearly as bad as they were. It took quite a while to look better, maybe 2 or 3 months.

[Sue]

My scar is on my wrist, just over an inch long and is a thin pink line. I had it done about a month ago.

[amanda100wilson]

Has it got vascular tape on it?  Looks a little like flimsy masking tape.

[amanda100wilson]

Has it got vascular tape on it?  Looks a little like flimsy masking tape.  It should improve although mine is so ugly because I overscan.   A wrist scar should never look like someone has cut their wrist, since the scar goes down and not across.  Think of it logically.  No-one cutting their wrist would go that way, they would cut across.  My husband reckons that I should make my upper arm scar story more dramatic and say that it was shark attack!

[mamagemini]

You think thats bad, my son looked at it and freaked! He said "Mom, it looks like........................foreskin!!" 
When I mentioned that to the ladies drawing my blood last week they laughed so loud....my son is a nut.

[Sue]

Amanda ( sorry this is a bit off topic)  the sad fact is that a person who wanted to complete a suicide by cutting their wrists would in fact make vertical cuts rather than horizontal

[amanda100wilson]

Interested to know why.  Wouldn't it be easier to cut across plus you ate cutting across visible veins?

[Sue]

self harmers usually cut horizontally however if a person is serious about cutting their wrists with the intention of ending their life cutting veins vertically is more efficient as it is harder to stem the bleeding , and is quicker

[Wildrose]

My first one looked horrible too and they used the glue also. It was very 'puckered' and uneven looking. I seriously thought the Dr had done a messy job.... until I finally asked him how it would look when it healed and he told me that it would heal into a nice pale line, which it did. This was on my wrist about a few inches, it was done March 2nd and I've had permanent pain since then. I don't think my lower arm will ever be the same.
The second fistula was done on March 14th on the inside of my elbow and the scar was a lot cleaner looking to begin with, a lot less painful and healed quickly. It also worked that time as the first fistula did not as my veins are small and deep.

Good luck with yours, I'm sure it will heal nicely and it most likely looks bad now because of the glue!

[MomoMcSleepy]

Wildrose, has the sensation improved at all?  Mine feels sort of like when you have an IV line in your lower arm, on that sensitive skin underneath.  That kind of sharp pain and soreness, plays the burning, and still some numbness and tingling.  Mine is in my upper arm, though.  It has gotten less numb, pain I. Wrist and stuff now, but better when I elevate it.

I hope it improves!  What a bummer that it didn't take.  I have tiny that have been poked a lot myself, they are hard to start lines with.  I'm just glad to have a fistula and not a graft ::knock on wood::

oh, and for posterity's sake, the bump at my elbow is inflamed tissue and swelling, has gone down and doc thinks it will soften up over time,  that's exactly what I thought it was at first, I had that on my tummy once, but this was such a large area that I wasn't sure.  I can,t extend my arm all the way yet, and using it rooming or not elevating it makes it hurt.  I am temperate it another week or two.  It also feels "tight" and that is normal. 

[frankswife]

My husband's fistula looks really awful to me. Worse than any other incision I've seen, but his primary, neph and surgeon all say it looks perfect! Guess I dont know much!

[MomoMcSleepy]

update: fistula narrowed and thrill got frighteningly weak.  Scar not bad, but itches now.  I have bee. Using a vitamin E salve on it.  Still some numbness and weird nerve pains (burning, tingling) in lower arm--all normal stuff for healing.

Got an angioplasty for fistula on Tuesday the 14th (2 days ago) and am buzzing away (yay!).

Not too painful, but stayed home day after just in case.  Still a little sore but it's amazing how fast you heal.  Incision was very tiny, middle of my upper arm.  Stenosis was near my elbow.  When they put the use into my arm, it completely included blood flow, because narrowing was very bad at that point. 

only real inconvenience was NOBODY wants to remove the stitch.  I am not on the D yet, and usually the dialysis clinic nurse removes the stitch at your next session.  My regular doc and nurses were too afraid of the unfamiliar, so I drove 40 mins back to the hospital the next afternoon to go to the acute inpatient dialysis area and get the charge nurse to take out the stitch.  She was super nice, though I hope to never see her again!

Procedure: They did a fistulagram first, which I had to be awake for.  I had oxygen through a tube around my nose (like in soap operas, or on people who use O2 tanks).  The smell bothered me, but got better. I have a thing about smells, and masks or tubes in my nose.  Bad times when I was little.  Anyway,I was not sedated until they looked at the fistula and saw that I needed an angioplasty, which we all thought would be the case based on Ultrasound two weeks ago.  I was disappointed to not be sedated throughout, but there was very little pain, just lidocaine injections to numb, and a bit of pinching.  They gave me a twilight anesthesia, I slept a bit but woke up, and doc ordered more (I would wake and start demanding information) and some Versed (Verr-Sed) which makes you forget things (but just the procedure, it's an anti-anxiety).

They told me risks were the usual: bleeding, infection, they could blow out my fistula (which would mean having to get a new one, but wouldn't kill me or anything) and dislodging a blood clot (it would probably go to my lungs and dissolve there.  They said they'd know right away and treat it).

Okay, so now you know, if you need it!