After app 5 weeks of in clinic training & 5 months of treatments 5 times a week at home, I still have trouble with successful “sticks”. Any advice on purchasing & using a vein finder? My husband has an AV fistula. No success yday with the venous site. Went to clinic this morning…no problem there. Apparently I was going too deep. Vein finder info, please!
is it a upper arm ? call me at 573-826-8237
So, here’s the challenge with the vein-finder idea, Sallym. We tried this once–I had someone who made a veinfinder bring it to our office in Madison, and we took it to a dialysis clinic to see if it would work. It didn’t. Why? Because a dialysis fistula is an arterialized vein, and vein finders don’t find arteries. :-(. You’d do better to ask nurses how they FEEL for the fistula. Or, better yet, your husband should be self-cannulating if he can see well enough, reach his fistula, and use his hands. HE is the only one who can feel both ends of the needle.
Wow. Doubted I would get a reply. I need to share this info w hub’s clinic. Dr. is looking into vein finders for their training clinics. Hub has severe neuropathy in his hands, doesn’t see well so he is not able to help at all. I have spent hours & hours googling vein finders…now I know it was all in “vain.”
Tech came to home again this morning & worked w my cannulation problems. Not sure how I came across this site, but I DO like it. Thanks!
You might want to give Stuart Mott a call. He provided his number in this thread. He’s the guru of fistula cannulation and has several techniques that he’s used to teach cannulation. Here’s something he wrote on cannulation several years ago. He can tell you if he’s found any techniques that work better. https://homedialysis.org/documents/pros/StuartMott_ButtonholeCannulation_06_19_17.pdf
well how did it work out?? you can CALL ME IF YOU WANT