Chapter 12:Complications with my fistula
February 25th 2007 14:44
My fistula was getting quit the work over getting stuck with the 17 gauge needles three days a week going on six years straight. Towards the end of my third semester my fistula clotted off.
It started with my arm aching and swelling up. By the time I was rushed to Cleveland, where I was now at the Clinic instead of Rainbow babies and children, it was so painful no one could touch it without me screaming. I had a thrombosis. A fistula Thrombosis is a blood clot in the fistula. The sooner it is treated the more likely the fistula will still work.
In my case the fistula clotted off, but I still had to get dialysis. To get dialized that day they had to do a groin stick. You have to be naked from the waist down and the stick the needled in your groin. If you are not completely still the whole treatment or the site will clot off and they will have to stick you again. They did numb the site before sticking me, but it stung the whole time and my leg got numb from trying to hold it still for three and half hours.
I had to get another dialysis site so I didn’t have to go through the groin stick anymore. Plus they could only do this procedure in Cleveland so my mom was driving me to Cleveland every other day. I had my drivers license but didn’t feel good enough to drive after treatments.
I was 18 when I finally got my drivers license. My Uncle had taught me to drive a little just taking me around the block. Because I barely see out of my left eye I really had a hard time learning. When taking drivers education in high school my teacher got very upset that he could not recommend that I get a license. My turns where to wide and my reaction time was to slow. My mom completely agreed with him.
When I turned 18 I talked to my rehabilitation counselor. She set me up for some tests and a very patient driving school instructor and I passed my driving test the first time I took it. It was one of the biggest accomplishments of my life.
.
Now my mom was driving me back and forth to dialysis again. We had to wait until my arm was completely healed before doing the surgery to put a shunt in my upper arm. For a shunt instead of connecting and artery and a vein like the fistula an artificial tube is place in the arm. I had a fistula put in my upper left arm. So, now I have scares down my whole left arm that look like track marks you would see on the arm of an intravenous drug user.
While the shunt was healing I had a catheter put in my neck that could be connected to the dialysis machine. It was a little uncomfortable, but it was much better than the groin stick. The first one clotted off so I had to get a second before my shunt was ready to be stuck.
I didn’t have to go to Cleveland for the second one. My mom knew a great surgeon where she worked at Trumbull Memorial Hospital who did this surgery asap. He said it was difficult because I was so small, but things went well.
Things got back to normal, well normal for me, after the shunt was able to be stuck. It was back to balancing school and dialysis and having some fun nights out with friends.
It started with my arm aching and swelling up. By the time I was rushed to Cleveland, where I was now at the Clinic instead of Rainbow babies and children, it was so painful no one could touch it without me screaming. I had a thrombosis. A fistula Thrombosis is a blood clot in the fistula. The sooner it is treated the more likely the fistula will still work.
I had to get another dialysis site so I didn’t have to go through the groin stick anymore. Plus they could only do this procedure in Cleveland so my mom was driving me to Cleveland every other day. I had my drivers license but didn’t feel good enough to drive after treatments.
I was 18 when I finally got my drivers license. My Uncle had taught me to drive a little just taking me around the block. Because I barely see out of my left eye I really had a hard time learning. When taking drivers education in high school my teacher got very upset that he could not recommend that I get a license. My turns where to wide and my reaction time was to slow. My mom completely agreed with him.
When I turned 18 I talked to my rehabilitation counselor. She set me up for some tests and a very patient driving school instructor and I passed my driving test the first time I took it. It was one of the biggest accomplishments of my life.
.
Now my mom was driving me back and forth to dialysis again. We had to wait until my arm was completely healed before doing the surgery to put a shunt in my upper arm. For a shunt instead of connecting and artery and a vein like the fistula an artificial tube is place in the arm. I had a fistula put in my upper left arm. So, now I have scares down my whole left arm that look like track marks you would see on the arm of an intravenous drug user.
While the shunt was healing I had a catheter put in my neck that could be connected to the dialysis machine. It was a little uncomfortable, but it was much better than the groin stick. The first one clotted off so I had to get a second before my shunt was ready to be stuck.
I didn’t have to go to Cleveland for the second one. My mom knew a great surgeon where she worked at Trumbull Memorial Hospital who did this surgery asap. He said it was difficult because I was so small, but things went well.
Things got back to normal, well normal for me, after the shunt was able to be stuck. It was back to balancing school and dialysis and having some fun nights out with friends.
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