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Author Topic: I AM BORG!  (Read 4085 times)
MooseMom
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« on: December 23, 2010, 11:14:19 PM »
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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"Eggs are so inadequate, don't you think?  I mean, they ought to be able to become anything, but instead you always get a chicken.  Or a duck.  Or whatever they're programmed to be.  You never get anything interesting, like regret, or the middle of last week."
YLGuy
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« Reply #1 on: December 24, 2010, 03:51:53 AM »
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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monrein
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« Reply #2 on: December 24, 2010, 05:03:40 AM »
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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Pyelonephritis (began at 8 mos old)
Home haemo 1980-1985 (self-cannulated with 15 gauge sharps)
Cadaveric transplant 1985
New upper-arm fistula April 2008
Uldall-Cook catheter inserted May 2008
Haemo-dialysis, self care unit June 2008
(2 1/2 hours X 5 weekly)
Self-cannulated, 15 gauge blunts, buttonholes.
Living donor transplant (sister-in law Kathy) Feb. 2009
First failed kidney transplant removed Apr.  2009
Second trx doing great so far...all lab values in normal ranges
jbeany
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« Reply #3 on: December 24, 2010, 08:49:25 AM »
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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MooseMom
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« Reply #4 on: December 24, 2010, 08:58:23 AM »
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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"Eggs are so inadequate, don't you think?  I mean, they ought to be able to become anything, but instead you always get a chicken.  Or a duck.  Or whatever they're programmed to be.  You never get anything interesting, like regret, or the middle of last week."
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« Reply #5 on: December 24, 2010, 04:24:25 PM »
Quote from: YLGuy on December 24, 2010, 03:51:53 AM
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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Diabetes -  age 7

Neuropathy in legs age 10

Eye impairments and blindness in one eye began in 95, major one during visit to the Indy 500 race of that year
   -glaucoma and surgery for that
     -cataract surgery twice on same eye (2000 - 2002). another one growing in good eye
     - vitrectomy in good eye post tx November 2003, totally blind for 4 months due to complications with meds and infection

Diagnosed with ESRD June 29, 1999
1st Dialysis - July 4, 1999
Last Dialysis - December 2, 2000

Kidney and Pancreas Transplant - December 3, 2000

Cataract Surgery on good eye - June 24, 2009
Knee Surgery 2010
2011/2012 in process of getting a guide dog
Guide Dog Training begins July 2, 2012 in NY
Guide Dog by end of July 2012
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No two day's are the same, are they?
Riki
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« Reply #6 on: December 26, 2010, 03:58:25 AM »
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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RenalSurvivorDotCA
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« Reply #7 on: December 26, 2010, 08:35:47 AM »
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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Your life IS worth living. Fight for it!
MooseMom
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« Reply #8 on: December 26, 2010, 09:16:06 PM »
Quote from: Riki on December 26, 2010, 03:58:25 AM
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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"Eggs are so inadequate, don't you think?  I mean, they ought to be able to become anything, but instead you always get a chicken.  Or a duck.  Or whatever they're programmed to be.  You never get anything interesting, like regret, or the middle of last week."
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« Reply #9 on: December 28, 2010, 04:27:18 AM »
It's always something you can scare kids with, though.   :beer1;
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Riki
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« Reply #10 on: December 28, 2010, 06:53:17 AM »
Quote from: Aubrey on December 28, 2010, 04:27:18 AM
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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dialysis - April 2001-May 2001
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KICKSTART
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« Reply #11 on: December 29, 2010, 10:31:20 AM »
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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OH NO!!! I have Furniture Disease as well ! My chest has dropped into my drawers !
Stoday
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« Reply #12 on: December 29, 2010, 02:24:56 PM »
I thought Klingons had a fistula in their skull...  :blank:
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Diagnosed stage 3 CKD May 2003
AV fistula placed June 2009
Started hemo July 2010
Heart Attacks June 2005; October 2010; July 2011
Riki
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« Reply #13 on: January 06, 2011, 07:10:49 PM »
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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dialysis - April 2001-May 2001
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« Reply #14 on: January 07, 2011, 09:49:41 AM »
I am sending this communication as a direct download as we speak. I am in my station re-charging .. :rofl;
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OH NO!!! I have Furniture Disease as well ! My chest has dropped into my drawers !
Zog
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« Reply #15 on: January 10, 2011, 01:30:12 PM »
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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My wife is JDHartzog. In 1994 she lost her kidneys to complications from congenital VUR.
1994 Hydronephrosis, Double Nephrectomy, PD
1994 1st Transplant
1996 PD
1997 2nd Transplant
1999 In Center Hemo
2004 3rd Transplant
2007 Home Hemo with NxStage
2008 Gave birth to our daughter (the first NxStage baby?)
MooseMom
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« Reply #16 on: January 10, 2011, 02:32:26 PM »
Laughter is healthier! :rofl;
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"Eggs are so inadequate, don't you think?  I mean, they ought to be able to become anything, but instead you always get a chicken.  Or a duck.  Or whatever they're programmed to be.  You never get anything interesting, like regret, or the middle of last week."
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« Reply #17 on: January 10, 2011, 03:13:08 PM »
Nah  Assimilate him !  :rofl;
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OH NO!!! I have Furniture Disease as well ! My chest has dropped into my drawers !
needlephobic
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« Reply #18 on: January 10, 2011, 10:32:34 PM »
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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KICKSTART
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« Reply #19 on: January 11, 2011, 01:42:43 PM »
Make it so ....
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OH NO!!! I have Furniture Disease as well ! My chest has dropped into my drawers !
needlephobic
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« Reply #20 on: January 11, 2011, 01:48:50 PM »
Quote from: KICKSTART on January 11, 2011, 01:42:43 PM
Make it so ....

ok it will be no tribble at all :rofl;
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MooseMom
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« Reply #21 on: January 11, 2011, 07:33:37 PM »
I suppose Resistance is Futile. :(
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"Eggs are so inadequate, don't you think?  I mean, they ought to be able to become anything, but instead you always get a chicken.  Or a duck.  Or whatever they're programmed to be.  You never get anything interesting, like regret, or the middle of last week."
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« Reply #22 on: January 12, 2011, 10:32:52 PM »
Quote from: needlephobic on January 11, 2011, 01:48:50 PM
Quote from: KICKSTART on January 11, 2011, 01:42:43 PM
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
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Dialysis - Feb 1991-Oct 1992
transplant - Oct 1, 1992- Apr 2001
dialysis - April 2001-May 2001
transplant - May 22, 2001- May 2004
dialysis - May 2004-present
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HD - Dec 2008-present
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