Fistula clotted

[kitkatz]

Sunday morning early, early, I discovered my fistula was clotted.  I ended up in the interventional radiology trying to declot it. The declot procedure took me up over my pain thresholds.  I was crying for them to stop after four hours of trying to declot it. Ended up back in the IR of Kaiser today and now have a catheter on the left side.  The insertion of the catheter was not too bad today.  Surgeon plans to take a look at what he can do to the fistula arm.

[Michael Murphy]

Kitkatz you will be in my prayers for a fistula revival.  Good luck I am rooting for you.

[Darthvadar]

The very best of luck, Kitz.....

Hope it's fixed really soon!....

Darth....

[iolaire]

Sorry, I hope the future goes smoother.

[Shaks24]

Hate to hear this. Do they not administer at least local anesthesia while doing this? I had a vein ligated off of my fistula Monday and significant pain was not an issue during the process due to local anesthesia. Its been sore for the last 2 days but they gave me a script for pain killers. Good luck and I hope they can save your fistula with no more pain.

[Paul]

My sympathies, hope they work it out in the end. But a catheter ain't so bad, and it means you can use both hands when on dialysis.

[PrimeTimer]

Sorry for your pain. Guess as you approach your 3,000th treatment something exciting JUST HAD TO happen.    Well, this is NO WAY to celebrate! I don't know but since you've been at this 19 years something tells me nothing can keep you from your conga line plans. Be sure to let the docs know that nothing is to interfere with that. Hope you feel better soon.   

[cassandra]

I'm sorry Kitkatz, I'm pretty sure they gave me morphine during that once. That helped.
I'll be thinking of you, and sending lots of positive, and healing vibes your way. Like Paul says: enjoy the positives for now, can't do much else.


Lots of love, luck and strength, Cas

[smartcookie]

Oh, Kitkatz!  I am so sorry!  I hope everything works out with your fistula!

[GA_DAWG]

Here they always use some sort of anesthesia for declots. They said it would be far too painful to perform without it. They even use a local before they insert the probe.

[Riki]

Well that sucks.. I hope they can get it figured out for you

[Charlie B53]

Mine is still too new for a clot, yet, but I'm sure my time WILL come.

The angio-plasty 'fistula-gram' was a surprise.  Initially didn't hurt as Dr used a good amount of local at the entry point.  HOWEVER, I felt a strangeness sorta like a big fat worm crawling up my arm inside the vein.  That wasn't so bad either.  It's when that worm puffed up like a blowfish that I really felt it.  Then the Anesthesiologist pumped a shot of fentenyal into my other arm IV.  Pretty quickly the burn didn't matter much.

Then the worm moved, and repeated everything.   About a dozen times.

All in all still not so bad I could withstand it again, if I had to, but I hope it won't have to be too soon.

Now that clod in the illiac area of my right leg is another story.  The TPI chemical drip Dr used to 'melt' it worked just fine.  But it was FIVE DAYS of laying there feeling like the whole leg was buried in the BAR-B-Q Pit in a mountain of coals turned up on Hell.   Dr had me full of morphine, but it was no where near enough.  Maybe should have used Fentenyal?

But I still have the leg so I guess I shouldn't complain too much.

[kitkatz]

Take your left arm , lie it flat and roll a steamroller of it once or twice.  That might approach the pain I felt during my procedure.

[cassandra]

          




Love, luck and strength, Cas

[PrimeTimer]

Take your left arm , lie it flat and roll a steamroller of it once or twice.  That might approach the pain I felt during my procedure.

I'm guessing on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the worst) your pain was at a 10 plus plus plus. That's the kind of pain that make a person feel like putting their head thru a wall....or someone elses head thru a wall. You need to get you and Victor a couple of Dammit Dolls. 

[kickingandscreaming]

Sounds just awful, Kitkatz.  Sorry you had to go through all that.

[kristina]

Sunday morning early, early, I discovered my fistula was clotted.  I ended up in the interventional radiology trying to declot it. The declot procedure took me up over my pain thresholds.  I was crying for them to stop after four hours of trying to declot it. Ended up back in the IR of Kaiser today and now have a catheter on the left side.  The insertion of the catheter was not too bad today.  Surgeon plans to take a look at what he can do to the fistula arm.

Dear Kitkatz,
I very much hope you are being sorted out as soon as possible and I feel for you!
Perhaps you could continue with the catheter? I had my chest-catheter for over three years and it works alright (and hopefully it continues like that ...)
Please take great care of yourself and I send you cyber-hugs and best wishes from Kristina.

[Rerun]

Well, SHIT HOLE, Anyway, I hope it all turns out.  At least you have a catheter in.  Even though I hate those.

[kristina]

Well, SHIT HOLE, Anyway, I hope it all turns out.  At least you have a catheter in.  Even though I hate those.

Hello again Rerun,
I was just thinking that maybe I had no problems with my chest-cath so far (touch wood it continues like that ), because, when it was inserted I was shaking all over my body so much, that perhaps the cath "was helped into the right position" by my constant shaking? To tell the truth, I was completely petrified at the time  ...
Best wishes and good luck from Kristina.

[Charlie B53]

Thankfully, I was totally unconscious when my cath was put in.

The day is coming that it will come out.  I am hoping to put that off for a while yet.  Wishing to be unconscious dr has already told me NOT..Qwap!

Fistula has only been used the last few weeks.  Many times already the 'upper' needle has failed and after repeated sticks have finally given in and used one side of the cath.  Nurse is calling Vascular trying to get me in ASAP for pictures and/or a rotor-rooter. 

Wanna bet Dr won't knock me out?   Qwap AGAIN!

I really REALLY LIKE my cath!

[Paul]

The day is coming that it will come out.  I am hoping to put that off for a while yet.  Wishing to be unconscious dr has already told me NOT..Qwap!

Taking out is not as bad as going in, or so I'm told. I've not yet experienced a dialysis catheter being removed, but I have had a pic line removed, which is a similar thing, and that was a lot easier than insertion.

[GA_DAWG]

Charlie, I did not even feel them taking the catheter out, just the feel of them working and knowing what they wete doing. It only took a few minutes and was done in the office, though the office was in an office building connected to the hospital. Anyway, did not hurt at all. A plus was that the after-effects of dialysis really did become easier, as I had been told would happen.

[lulu836]

+1

[Charlie B53]

I am more curious what causes a clot?  Is there, or are there, things we can do that help prevent clots?

My fistula isn't very fat, yet.  I've seen some that look like a kielbasa sausage buried in the guys arm.  That almost scares me as I'm sure the blood flow through there slows down much like a deep wide section of a river, g
That slow speed may contribute to the blood clotting, then needing to be 'cleaned' out.

We lost a Cat because of that.  The Vet tells me that all too often a very old cat heartbeat slows soo much while sleeping that the blood can, and will, clot while within the still heart chamber, then when the heart beats it shoves the clot out into the aorta and down to the inguinal 'Y', blocking off one or both sides.  The cat wakes up with the leg pain that I had when my leg clotted off, every muscle and nerve fiber starving for oxygen, screaming in pain.  No cure for the cat but the needle to let her go.  Vet proved this to me by cutting off one of her nails all the way back into the quick.  NO Bleeding because no blood supply.

So the idea of a very well developed fistula while good that it may be much easier to stick scares me of the possibility for clots.

Should we be taking Plavix?  Or would that make it too hard to clot off when they pull the needles after treatments?

[GA_DAWG]

A part of what causes clots is narrowing of the fistula or graft. Another they always tell me about is applying too much pressure or applying it in the wrong way after the needles are removed. The vascular people always emphasize using two fingers to apply pressure, something the dialysis center people pooh-pooh. My thinking is the center epoele do this because using two fingers prevents people holding both sites at one time, thereby slowing down the procedure. I have asked the vascular center several times, what causes these clots, and they will usually say there just is no one answer. One suggestion I do have is if the vascular center inserts a stent due to narrowing, ask them where exactly. There is little more painful than having a needle catch a stent the wrong way, and it can push the stent oout of position.