Heparin

[SweetyPie]

I asked my doctor about the pain meds he said they don’t really get washed out completely. I was thinking about skipping treatment.

[rcjordan]

<update on the heparin>

>Clinic says they'll likely cut my heparin dose by half once I'm able to use the fistula

I've started using the fistula and went straight to sharps instead of buttonholes. But I was having problems with the sites bleeding slightly even after waiting 16-18 hours before removing the dressings.  So the neph dropped heparin completely and put me on 81mg of aspirin 3 times a week.  That almost worked, except I began having a couple of clots form in the tubing of the NxStage cartridge every session. They never dislodged or caused a problem but they could, so the rx now is to add back 1 unit of heparin and see if that eliminates them.

[iolaire]

<update on the heparin>

>Clinic says they'll likely cut my heparin dose by half once I'm able to use the fistula

I've started using the fistula and went straight to sharps instead of buttonholes. But I was having problems with the sites bleeding slightly even after waiting 16-18 hours before removing the dressings.  So the neph dropped heparin completely and put me on 81mg of aspirin 3 times a week.  That almost worked, except I began having a couple of clots form in the tubing of the NxStage cartridge every session. They never dislodged or caused a problem but they could, so the rx now is to add back 1 unit of heparin and see if that eliminates them.

I found that if I left the bandages on overnight any scab would pull off the next morning leaving very light spotting afterwards (not strong bleeding but still worrisome).  Because of that I always exchanged the bandages for a tight Band-Aid before going to bed, about 3-4 hours after treatment.  I bought my own McKesson Bandage Adhesive Fabric Strip "Band-Aids" from amazon for this as they have nice flex and could be applied tight, don't come off with sweat, clotted nicely and overall seemed good.

[PrimeTimer]

My husband use to do home-hemo with NXStage too and buttonholes. He now goes in-center but still using buttonholes. He holds the sites for about 5 minutes and then they tape him up and he's good to go. He removes the gauze about an hour later. No bleeding. He learned the hard way about scabs sticking to the gauze if left on too long. That was an ugly stain on the carpet...Always uses Heparin at the start of treatment. He also takes low-dose Aspirin every day (diabetic with high blood pressure).

[GA_DAWG]

Even with heparin, twice recently I have had lines clot. That's a pain because it adds about twenty minutes more time to get the line replaced and everything going again.

[rcjordan]

We added back the 1 unit of heparin but still had some clotting in the pressure pod. Last night it caused trouble but a 100ml bolus got us through the remaining 45 minutes of the session.  Clinic said to try a bolus once every hour.