[quote=Rusty;13876]While sticking my veinous return a few days ago, the tech pushed the needle through the vein and into the muscle of my bicep (my arterial is all the way down in my wrist). This is a 23 year old fistula, but it’s in pretty good shape. I took the needle from her and pulled back until I felt it pop loose from the bottom wall, then re-threaded it properly. I then continued to bleed on and run with a BFR of 450… big mistake; duh! When I noticed my bicep swelling, I turned the BFR down to 350 and asked for an ice pack. Now, 4 days later, I have a painful hematoma and can’t straighten my arm or curl it to my normal range of motion. Did I mention it hurts like hell!?
I am on coumadin therapy and I was afraid my pro-time was high, so I only iced (no heat)for several days. I now know my pro-time is okay so I’ve switched to applying heat once in a while, and doing bicep curls with no weight a few times a day, just to keep the blood flowing. It’s still very firm to palpate around the whole bicep area, and beginning to turn purple.
Am I doing the right things? Am I doing the wrong things? Is there anything I can do to speed up the healing?
I really want to be surf fishing, flounder trolling, and catching bluecrabs in 2 weeks. I need to be re-starting my physical therapy excersises on my old arthritic shoulder in at least 1 week from now, so I’ll be able to do all that fun stuff.
HELP anyone knowlegeable about such things.
Thank you,
Rusty[/quote]
High Rusty, I had the same incident happend to me years back. The head nurse really stuck me quite bad and I yelled at her taking the needles away from her. It kep beeding inside my arm, getting bigger and bigger…worst of all the heparin just made it worse…as it got bigger the fistula is not visible anymore and the pain is quite hectic.
There was no point for me to continue dialysis and had them discontinue treatment. Without treating the swollen area, the swelling and pain does last quite long. For the next several days you need to limit heparin and asprin or any blood thinners. Other helpful things to lower swelling is to use peels aloe leaves and wrap it around the swelled area with a flexible bandage…not too tight…you do this overnight…and you will see the swell go down sooner, but the dark purple will remain a bit longer.
Now that I am home doing self-care those problems are a thing of the past. My suggestion is try learning to cannulate yourself, doing so will prevent these awful bad sticks from others…
Take Care,