Two Sticks Down…Many, Many to Go

Well, what I was dreading about doing home hemodialysis has become part of our dialysis routine...I did the two needle sticks for using his graft...with the nurses hand behind mine. So in truth I haven't really done the sticks yet. I did pull out one of needles by myself with Woody doing his job of holding the gauze on top of the place where the needle goes in. Our nurse showed me an easier way to remove the needle and I will be going with that method. After the needle is out, Woody holds the gauze on top of the place using pressure for at least five minutes and maybe more if he hasn't stopped bleeding. But he seems to clot off by the time the five minutes is up. The treatment seems to run very smoothly using the graft...not much to do during the three hours except for watching his arterial and venous pressures and taking blood pressure and doing iron infusions. We did another iron infusion today and drawing up the iron from thr visl did go much easier...of course our nurse was right there. But I think that I've got it now! Guess I will be tested on Friday, when I draw it up again. Tomorrow I also "get" to give him his subcutaneous injection for anemia. That injection no longer bothers me the way it did at first. That gives me the indication that these needle sticks for dialysis will eventually not bother me. His last blood work was showing improvement in all directions...so that is good. They continue to be impressed with how well his blood is being cleaned...a very good thing. Tomorrow we graduate up to larger needles for his dialysis...oh, boy! I do think that the numbing cream worked better today...I put more on it. He still jumped when we were putting in the first needle...not a good thing. Because his graft is a loop, I have to change the direction that I put the needles in. The arterial needle goes in how you would exoect it to go in, but the venous needle has to come downward from the top of the loop. Each day I have to stick in a different place so to not weaken the graft. So I move about a 1/4-inch away from the places he was stuck the day before. They call this using a ladder effect. Going up the ladder from the bottom for the artery and down the ladder for the vein. This allows those places to heal before I get back to them. The needles have to follow the flow of the blood. The surgeon "mapped" out the direction of the flow at our nurse's request. The way he mapped? He got a red sharpie and drew arrows on Woody's arm in the direction of blood flow! The red marks have worn off but we have the direction memorized. My first needle stick this morning did do what I feared I would do...went through the other side of the graft (tube that we are attempting to pierce and put the needle down the middle of...Woody's artificial artery/vein). I won't take all the responsibility for that since the nurse was pushing more than I! She said it was no problem...just pulled the needle back amd guided to where it was supposed to be. (Insert many eye rolls!) Oh, well, he survived another day of being stuck and I survived my first day of sticking! Tale to be continued tomorrow and the next day and... Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!