I certainly hope that the dye study shows something that can be done so your father can return to peritoneal dialysis. I’m sure it has been very depressing for him living with pain every time he did dialysis. There is a social worker at the dialysis clinic who is trained to help patients cope with changes that come with kidney failure. I hope he takes advantage of this resource.
You say that he got a permacath for hemodialysis. I hope that if he is going to have to stay on hemodialysis, that the doctor will do vein mapping and evaluate him for a fistula or, as a second choice, a graft. Although patients like catheters because they don’t need to have the needle sticks for dialysis, catheters have the most complications and patients are at higher risk of getting infections, being hospitalized and even dying with them. Grafts have more complications than fistulas which are the type of access recommended for hemodialysis today.
If he chose a catheter because he’s afraid of pain from the needle sticks, he can numb his arm with a topical anesthetic such as Emla (prescription) or Topicaine and Less-n-Pain (non-prescription and cheaper) 45 minutes to an hour before treatment, wrap his arm, and when he gets to dialysis, wash his arm thoroughly to remove the anesthetic. I’ve heard that the numbness produced by these products relieves needle stick pain. Another thing that patients with a fistula say helps with needle pain is to use the “buttonhole” technique for needle sticks. You can read the hemodialysis patient message board and see what patients say there.