3 needles

Well, the day went downhill REAL fast.  I arrived at Dialysis and found out I had one of my favorite attendants, a young Filipino woman who recently became a US citizen.  She is very sweet and always sharp and on her toes treatment-wise.  Unfortunately she didn't move fast enough for another attendant who decided to jump in and help her by sticking my arm and hooking up my "plumbing".

Now dialysis is simple enough.  They put a needle catheter in my arm and tap my bloodstream to take blood out and send through the filter.  Then they put a second needle "upstream" where the blood goes back into my system.  Simple as long as it's done correctly.

If the arterial needle (the line out or the suction line) isn't correctly positioned the machine alarms because the pressure it monitors isn't correct.  For that, I don't feel a thing.  However, if the venous needle (the line in or pressure line) isn't correctly in the blood vessel you get what's called an "infiltration".  An infiltration occurs when the opening of the needle is not in the center of the vein and the returning blood is pumped into muscle tissue.  The results include the creation of a "knot", bruising, terrific burning sensation followed by a not so dull ache.  The burn is the first indicator and I quickly let them know there's a problem.  This is followed by by attempts to re-position the needle location but most often, such as today, they abandon that needle and add a third needle to do the job.

So, today I have the unique arm in the clinic; the one with 3 needles in it.  An ice pack has helped the swelling but the ache lingers on, and on, and on.