I’ve never heard of any specific prohibition for lifting with the fistula arm, only a general prescription to avoid heavy lifting. However, I have been told by the vascular people not too “exercise” my fistula too much. A fistula can certainly get too big, and if you have aneurysms on it, you might want to be a little more careful. Tell you one thing though, specific instruction or not, I’m not taking too many chances with my only lifeline.
Pierre
Pierre: “Tell you one thing though, specific instruction or not, I’m not taking too many chances with my only lifeline.”
I got a chuckle from this line, Pierre, because just last night a tech told me I shouldn’t be carrying my PURSE in my dialysis-arm hand! Never thought of purse-carrying as risky behavior before. Thank goodness for the internet and all you dialysis veterans because if I listened to everything the techs tell me, I’d be living in a bubblewrap straight jacket.
Karen
Research is not there but evidence among patients is…In my own experience, I’ve known 3 patients where their fistulas burst…all caused by high pressure to the vein…
It’s just a matter of common sense.
The biggest immediate danger to a fistula is if it were cut or torn somehow. So, be careful around knives and other sharp objects, etc. If I were to work say as a chef in a kitchen, I would probably wear a guard over my fistula. I might not choose fencing as my sport, nor wrestling, etc.
A fistula can get too big (and the bigger it is, the thinner the vein wall and the skin over it), so, you don’t want to keep putting a lot of pressure on it by lifting heavy items. I mean, carrying the groceries home is probably Ok, but moving heavy boxes is not. I let the delivery guy stack my boxes of dialysate jugs, for example. Also, the bigger a fistula gets, the more it “steals” blood from the normal circulation, and that could potentially be hard on the heart, causing a kind of heart failure.
Clotting would be a big problem, obviously. To avoid that, you don’t sleep on your fistula arm, and you don’t put anything tight around the arm, not even the tape after dialysis (never wrap the tape all the way around, even though nurses do that). I still check for the “thrill” during the day from time to time.
Infection, less likely than with a catheter, but not impossible. It could be infection of the blood, or just infection of the entry site. Both would be a major problem. I take precautions when I’m taking myself off, as I fold the little gauzes I will hold with, ie. I don’t touch the surface which will go directly on the needle site.
Pierre
Living Proof infections not impossible. My fathers first fistula only lasted 2 years due to getting infected. The catheter lasted 5.
I started my present job in 1994 while on dialysis. I worked 9-5 I did have a transplant that lasted about 4 years but I have been 9-5 and on dialysis since 1999. Opp I had a short break for another transplant that lasted about 4 months.
Before all that I had three kids and worked some times two dif. part time jobs at night while the kids where still little. At that time I went to dialysis in the day time while the kids were in school.
I look back now and I don’t know how the hell I did it.
All though now even though I work 9-5 on my days off dialysis I am the caregiver for my elderly father. :roll: I think it was easier when the kids were little. At least when they didn’t behave I could send them to their room. LOL!
Well got to go sis want to use the computer and it is hers so I guess I’ll catch you later.
don’t know how this got listed under guest? I guess I wan’t logged in properly. :oops:
I did do banquet waitressing prior to having a fistula but I thought it was better to give it up as I carried the tray on my left hand and they could get pretty heavy
Between feeling ‘knackered’ post haemo, and all the appointments I have to keep, both for normal renal patient upkeep & as part of the nocturnal ‘experiment’, I don’t know how I could come off my 3-day week on to full-time again!!! IN the next month I have a night at the sleep disorder center (again); a bone scan (radio-active injection…hang around hospital for 3hours, drink lots - what a joke, when you are trying to restrict yourself - and back for the actual scan); a nurse home visit; echo-cardio and I think there’s something I’ve forgotten temporarily. And almost every x-ray, sonar or poke’n’prod session can only be done on Mondays & Wednesdays, so I can’t even schedule them for non-work days. Sigh :? :roll:
A lottery win (large!) would solve many of these probs. :lol:
I’ve worked out what I’d do with varying amounts from $500K to $3M. :lol: 8)
I do home nocturnal HD, but I dont work due to various reasons. Ive got the qualifications, but there are so many things that would make me an undesirable employee. I am tired 95% of the time, I dialyse around my other halfs crazy work hours, and even the smallest hiccup that may prevent you dialysing that night can be a huge inconvenience. I just dont think I could guarantee that I would be reliable.
Recently I have had a few problems that resulted in me missing treatments, and having to dialyse in centre. Without going into detail, I ended up very overloaded and quite unwell. I cant see any boss understanding this, and letting you have a week off with pretty much no notice. A once off might be ok, but you cant be sure that you are going to be smooth sailing all the time. I might be being a bit over the top, but it seems to make sense to me.
In regards to the setting up the machine, running on etc…if I do it reasonably quickly and without any problems along the way, it takes me and hour and a half, that is counting in half and hour to heat disinfect. Then you have to find time to cook dinner beforehand, and then there is all the extra machine maintenance that you have to do.
And then on top of that, you need to have a life too!
I am hopeful that nocturnal is going to improve my health so I can get into work and get off the pension. Because my fiance works, I only get a part pension, so that adds to the stresses of dialysis.