I heard about Less-N-Pain at the Annual Dialysis Conference. It is supposed to work like other topical anesthetics, but may be less expensive and work faster:
Hi y’all,
In addition to EMLA (a prescription blend of two local anesthetics–lidocaine and prilocaine), there are at least three similar lidocaine-only products you can get over-the-counter with NO prescription:
– Topicaine (http://www.topicaine.com/)
– Less-n-pain (http://www.sdaproduct.com/Less-N-Pain_Product.htm)
– Ela-Max (http://www.pdrx.com/elamax.pdf)
Please note that the buttonhole folks (Medisystems) suggest NOT using a topical anesthetic cream while forming buttonholes. Ask your nurse about that…
As always, thanks to all of you for the info…I’ll be sure to pass it on.
Jane, thanks for you honesty about your fear of needles and how EMLA really helped. I have mentioned that to him as I think that is his best bet as prep if he goes the needle route.
Gus, thanks for the info on the buttonhole. I don’t think he would want to insert his own needles right now, as you said maybe that will come with time.
Beth, I checked out the Less-n-pain site and that looks good too. I was excited to see that they make something to keep his cath dry so he can take a shower (once his cath is moved)!
Guest, thanks for the non-script cream info. We’ll have to check it out and see what is cheaper for him.
TARA
EMLA cream is the saviour for the first year of hemodialysis. After that, from repeated needling, the nerves seem to deaden. I don’t use anything now, but there is nothing that works better than EMLA (non-prescription in Canada) when you first start out on dialysis. It’s not cheap, but you don’t need much. Ask the nurses to keep and collect the plastic caps from the heparin bottles. What you do is you apply a dab of emla on the cap, and then just tape the cap down over the needle site (each one) with the same paper tape they use to tape the needles down. That way, you only have a dab of Emla where it’s needed, and you don’t have to mess with saran wrap. Putting it on even just an hour before dialysis seemed to worked fine for me. It totally deadened the area, and I wouldn’t even know the needle went in if I hadn’t looked.
Pierre
Hi Pierre-
Thanks for yet another EMLA tip! I will pass it on to my dad.
He has had another rough week and it is only Tuesday! He went in yesterday to have the meds delivered to break up the clot or whatever was making it run so bad and they discovered that he was missing a stitch on his cath… Ugh!! He had to go sit in the ER for over 2 hrs then see the Dr for less than 10 mins to get it fixed. Needless to say, he wasn’t very happy! No dinner, no drinks, nothing (other than ice chips- which Im sure he would have had more of If only he’d known what was going to happen!) from like 1:45 pm till 11:15pm! It just seems like everything is going bad for him. I can’t wait for things to start going as they are expected, and for his cath to be moved. He goes back in tomorrow during the day for another dose of the meds (for longer this time) and hopefully they can run it better after that.
So, are you all trained yet for nocturnal (? I cant remember if that was what you were training for…), or do you have some time left yet? How is that going for you? I read a post out here the other day and someone said that their dad was doing nocturnal via a cath. I thought that was interesting. I assumed that it was homehemo, but I’m not sure.
Thanks again for your input!
TARA
Hi Tara
Take heart. Over the time I’ve been on hemodialysis, I’ve seen many people have terrible starts on it, and then things settle down gradually and they eventually are no worse than anyone else. I hope your father will be one of these. Starting dialysis with a catheter is never the best way to start, as I’ve said before.
I’m on week 5 of my 6 week training. I’m conducting my own treatment from start to finish without any assistance, so I shouldn’t need any more training beyond week 6, but, you never know. Next week, they are doing the minor electrical and plumbing work in my apartment, and then I should do my first dialysis at home on April 11.
Pierre
Hi Pierre,
My hubby has been on nocturanl since 6/04 and it has made all the difference in him. He is a reather large man and the 3 x a week just was not cutting it.
Since he has a frozen shoulder and is not computer savy. I am the one that does the set up and brake down. He does the cleaning!!
His fistula is in his upper left arm.
We make a great team!.
You will feel so much better, your labs will be great, and the best part is you can eat what you want and drink what you want!!! Because you have a treatment 6 nights a week.
Good luck to you.
Pat
Wife of Ralph Hemo 5/03 in center
Nocturanl 6/04
Pat
Hi Tara, I was trained for noctunal but because of my situation I am doing slow runs for 5 hours every other day. This is by far the best I have felt in two years of being on dialysis 3X a week. I realize that cathaters have a bad reputation and are advised against but I’ve had one for the whole time and am perfectly happy with it. I’ve never had an infection and other then the first one having to be replaced because it started to fall out and the nick in the line that happened last week I have not had any trouble with my cath. Another man in my unit uses a cath also and he does very well also.