Hi All, have not written in a while but do read eveyday.
My husband Ralph is on nocturnal dialysis. We had been having problems with his labs were stating to come back not so good. And I was having trouble canualting his venus button hold. So they did an Angio and ballooned the area right at the buttonhole. Things were ok for about 1 or 2 treatments but then I was having problems with the arterial chamber just draining when I tried to start the blood pump. The nurse and I decided to call it quite at 11:00 pm one night and he went into center for a treatment the next morning. She then had to fight with the radioligist to do another angio. We got to the hospital and the machine was down so we had to go to another hospital and that radiologist asked for the previous xrays. The first hospital did not give them to me so I went back to hospital #1 an got the xrays. The radiologist thank me several times because he was able to check them and determine that the radiologist at #1 hospital never check my hubby’s whole arm. Low and be hold he had a blocage (narrowing) at the elbow that was causing all the problem.
LESSON Learned. Make sure when the angio they do the whole arm not just where they think it might be.
Sorry this is so long but, it just goes to show that we as advocates whether the patient or the caregiver need to watch everything very carefully!
When he was in center they did a test where they drew blood at the exact time from both the arterial and the venus. That showed he was only getting a 50% treatment and if we did not catch this it could have been a much different story.
Thanks for listeneing.
Pat :roll:
Thank goodness he has you to advocate for him. I suspect he wasn’t feeling well enough to advocate for himself. I’m sorry you had to go all over town because the healthcare system wasn’t communicating very well. Thank goodness your husband is on nocturnal. If he would have been doing 3 times a week in-center dialysis treatments for 3-4 hours and only getting 50% of the value of his treatment his labs probably would have been even worse.
Thanks for sharing your husband’s experience. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone else benefits from it.
[quote="…LESSON Learned. Make sure when the angio they do the whole arm not just where they think it might be…
Pat :roll:[/quote]
Wow! :shock: What an ordeal for both of you! Thank you so very much for the “Lesson” as Hubby is having the pre-fistula surgery mapping done soon and that is VERY useful information.