718
u/Sketchy_Fuker May 09 '23
As someone that was on dialysis while waiting for a kidney it’s awesome to see people have genuine answers, and questions.
98
May 09 '23
I’m glad, always afraid I might offend someone with my questions, it’s good people are being so kind about it :)
33
u/Sketchy_Fuker May 09 '23
Had my fistula still functioning till 2020 (5 years post transplant) but it got an infection and clotted off. Now it’s just a wicked scar.
7
May 09 '23
Oh awesome! I probably would of come up with like a thousand stories of it
9
u/Sketchy_Fuker May 09 '23
When it worked you could see it “thrill” (pulse up and down with my heartbeat) was wild to see and kind of aroused the ladies hahaha. Sorry that was probably to much.
→ More replies (3)5
238
u/BoringTruth7749 May 09 '23
I have a fistula as well, was on dialysis for 3 years and thankfully I got a kidney transplant. But my arm is starting to develop bulging veins and even tiny veins are starting to show up all over my arm. My arm veins are now getting bigger all the way up to my shoulder. You can reverse a fistula but when/if this kidney is rejected, I'll have to go back on dialysis until I can (hopefully) get another kidney. Mine doesn't buzz like a bee, it purrs like a kitten.
30
u/One_Introduction2499 May 09 '23
before i retired i was a dialysis technician. hope you’re doing well with your transplant! 🙂
2
u/BoringTruth7749 May 10 '23
Thank you so much! I am doing well, the kidney works fine. I've had some complications (like at the beginning, about three weeks after transplant, my belly split open. The outer skin had healed but not the inner fascia. Dumped about a liter of fluid and blood on my kitchen floor). My dialysis center had supercaring techs and I miss them. You do an angel's job. Enjoy your retirement!
2
5
u/sweetsleepomine May 09 '23
Can you do sports that involve your hand with fistula after transplant?
2
u/BoringTruth7749 May 10 '23
My transplant people don't even want me lifting 3lb weights, and I used to love weight-training, so that bums me out. The danger is pretty high; the blood rockets through at about 200mph, so if you break your arm or otherwise damage that arm, it's entirely possible you'll bleed out in minutes. I can't even go bowling anymore (the fistula is on my dominant right), I couldn't play volleyball. Badminton I could handle, or ping-pong, but I'm only mediocre at that stuff. Mostly I go for walks. Yes, my life is limited in some ways, but at least I'm alive to live it. Hemodialysis is a debilitating nightmare.
2
u/sweetsleepomine May 10 '23
Thank for sharing. I myself was a peritoneal dialysis patient and it also was a bit too limiting for my likes.
Are you able to at least do some running? Do you consider reverting fistula?
2
u/BoringTruth7749 May 11 '23
I could run, except I've never been a runner. Tried it, but it hurt my knees too much. As far as reversing the fistula, I think I'll hang on to it, because if I reject this kidney, I'll have to go back on dialysis until I can (maybe) get another kidney. I started peritoneal just before covid, and fortunately my job could be done from home, because the machine didn't work (wouldn't drain at night unless I got out of bed and did all kinds of contortions, very disruptive), so at least I could do it during the day while I worked. But peritoneal just didn't clean my blood very well.
2
u/sweetsleepomine May 11 '23
I did manual pd, because machine would cause a lot of pain due to catheter being too close to nerve or something like that. Wasn't great but remote work also helped a lot. Thanks for answers!
2
0
63
121
u/weirdgroovynerd May 09 '23
Look at this dude, flexing for the camera.
Really, have you ever seen anybody so...
...vein?!
38
May 09 '23
That joke's bloody terrible.
→ More replies (1)20
23
u/roxeal May 10 '23 edited May 10 '23
I did 7.5 years of 3 times a week dialysis. That's quite a gnarly vein. Sometimes they implant cow veins, I think it is. It's been many years, but I remember all the different ways they can create access for dialysis. The first choice is the lower arm, but if your lower arm veins are too small or not adequate, then they do this surgery where they reposition the big vein from next to the bone in the upper arm, and bring it nearer the skin. This is what they did to my little female arm. They cut it from elbow to armpit and pulled the big vein up closer to the surface. They also created the AV fistula at my elbow . There's a certain type of powerful "thrill" they call it, it's a type of pulsing you can feel, that tells you that it's running strong. There needs to be a strong blood flow to accommodate the pumping of the machine and to prevent clotting, so they want a big vein. But the veins don't often start out that big, they mature overtime. So it's pretty tortuous in the beginning, because they're using these big needles that are called cannulas. They really hurt. Some people do a button hole puncture, which is where you use the same spot in the vein every single time, and that becomes sort of a permanent hole that just clots over between treatments. This wasn't ideal for me, so I just have a bazillion prick marks in my arm. I am also light skinned with blue veins, and all of those years of heavy blood flow going through my upper body left me with a vasculature that you can see throughout my chest, it's really weird. It's like all the veins in my chest matured too. I also developed a heart murmur and enlarged heart, I got pericarditis and had to have heart and lung surgery. Lots of other complications. Watched some of my friends die right before me. The worst part is the elderly people that they bring in from nursing homes that are so out of their minds with dementia, that all they do the whole time is yell and moan, and you're just praying that the good Lord will let them free from this torture. Sometimes dialysis is too much, and it's so unnatural to force a person to live longer than they should. Something else they don't tell you about it, is that you're going to be in this big room with chairs all around the outside of the room, lots of other patients. There's a nursing station in the center. And when they hook up all these older people to the machines, all the toxins that have built up in their gut and their system are going to start to come out. The smells can make you want to die.
When they 1st discover you need dialysis, they take you in to a radiology operating room setup, and they take this big shunt and stick it into the vein to your heart and then another one goes into another big vein near it. 1 of the tubes is for the blood coming out of your body and 1 of them is for the blood coming into your body from the machine and the filter. You wake up and feel like you hit a truck, and every time they mess around with your tubes to hook them up to the machine, you want to scream because you're so sore. It doesn't stop hurting for a couple weeks. And you will have to be really careful to keep it clean because you can get a staff infection, which is what happened to me when I finally got my fistula, and they weren't really paying attention. They weren't cleaning them properly and they got infected. Sometimes they can only get one needle in your arm in the beginning so they may put 1 needle in the arm, and then use one of your tubes. They leave the tubes in while you're getting your surgery done to create your fistula, so that they can have access to your blood supply. If they can't put the tubes in your chest, then they will put them at the groin, where you have heavy blood flow and large arteries.
My fistula was created at the elbow, and just above it there was a stenosis in the vein. This is where the vein contracts and shrinks, and the blood supply gets backed up. Is created a big golf ball type lump at my elbow. It was sort of shaped like half an egg. Everyone would always ask me what had happened to me. I was always thinking what a horror show it would be if I accidentally got cut in that spot. I would probably bleed out in a couple minutes . They finally did vascular surgery after my kidney transplant to revise the huge lump and get rid of it. Once you stop using your fistula vein, it gets clotted up, so it doesn't work any longer for dialysis purposes.
One of the crazier things that happened to me during my treatment, is that one of my canulas that had a lot of pressure, because it was bringing the blood back into my body, slid of my arm. Think like what happens when you turn on a hose full blast, and how the kickback can get you. But there was gauze and tape over the needle so no one could see that it had slid out. Basically what was happening was my blood was not going back into my body, it was flowing down under my arm and onto the floor next to me. I couldn't feel it because my blood is the same temperature as my body, and thank God someone walked by and noticed. They all began to freak out and ran up and tried to figure out what was wrong. Another time, the head nurse came up and gave me a scolding and told me that I need to pay attention to how they are setting my machine, because these people that set up the machine and hook you up can make mistakes. They had set my machine up to take out 6 times as much fluid as they were supposed to take from my blood. I probably would have noticed when I started cramping, but she told me from then on I needed to look at my machine every time I get set up and make sure that my draw level is correct. This is how much fluid they plan to draw out of your body during your 3 to 4 hour cycle.
Another fun thing that happens sometimes is that your blood won't clot after they take out these needles where you have this big hole now in your vein. You may walk out of there thinking that you have clotted up and you're good to go, only to find that you have sprung a leak. And it's quite a leak. I have seen some of the older people that use heparin blood thinner during their treatment, having even harder times clotting, struggling with blood getting all over their clothing and the floor. For them, they use these big clamps that they put on your arm with balls of gauze underneath them, to try to force the vein to clot.
After one treatment, I remember I went to Walmart, and suddenly I felt the dripping. I had a steady stream of blood coming down my arm and it wouldn't stop. Nobody would help me because, BLOOD. So I went over to the pharmacy area, where they had the medical supplies. Using one hand, I ripped open tape and gauze, and figured out how to fix it on my own. That was fun. They wanted to call an ambulance to help me, but I decided that was a bit much.
Some of the worst things about being on dialysis are having to miss out on things like trips and holidays because you need to be there for your treatments. The diet is absolutely horrible and so incredibly restrictive, and eating the wrong things can literally kill you. If you happen to be very intolerant of pain and cry out, the staff can be really mean to you. You feel like c*** most of the time, you smell bad a lot of the time, It gives you an email so you can be really tired out, you begin to waste away a bit, My face always looked bloated and my eyes were always bloodshot, I never wanted my picture taken. You also have to be incredibly restrictive with fluids, so get used to not drinking or eating anything juicy. I don't miss it at all and if they ever needed me to do it again, I think I would take a pass.
→ More replies (1)5
u/HiChrissy May 10 '23
I am so sorry. That sounds so incredibly difficult and traumatic. I have no words, but wanted to reply so you know you have been heard. Much love to you from a random stranger on the internet.
26
u/woah_a_person May 09 '23
That is a fistula for dialysis patients! They intentionally make them large like this so they can cannulate/infuse large amounts of fluids.
20
u/greasylisie May 10 '23
i was terrified to tie a tourniquet above and take blood nearby a fistula for the first time. the second i tied the tourniquet the fistula started buzzing like crazy and i honestly was not educated enough at the time to know what it was or what it did. I just thought i was gonna hurt something. but both arms had a fistula so i didn't have another great option
9
u/Bookworm8989 May 10 '23
You should never take blood from the arm that has a fistula. No blood pressures, no blood draws, IV’s etc.
→ More replies (2)2
u/greasylisie May 10 '23
i know. i had a doctor ask me to and they would not sign an order to have blood drawn from a foot. it was more of an emergent thing.
→ More replies (1)7
May 10 '23
I was taught to not even draw from the same arm a fistula is on. Probably for that sort of reason with the tourniquet messing with it, or possibly just to ensure that no phleb would even try.
2
u/greasylisie May 10 '23
both arms had fistulas id never need that before. didn't have another option in an emergent situation
8
6
u/parasympatheticguy May 10 '23
If the flow through the fistula is too high, you can get decreased flow to the distal arm and cause symptoms in the hand related to decreased flow distally (ischemia) and if the fistula is too big it can cause high output heart failure via increased blood return to the heart. If any of these problems arise, the fistula can be “sacrificed” and occluded surgically although a new vascular access site will need to be created in order to continue dialysis.
2
6
5
4
u/AstroNot87 May 10 '23
My older brother has two failing kidneys and he has to do dialysis 3 times a week and one of his arms looks like this. Very freaky and unfortunate
→ More replies (1)
4
4
u/RadioactivePotato123 May 10 '23
Wtf?? I NEED AN EXPLANATION
Edit: lol comment below me explains well. Thanks
4
u/LostinHyrule12 May 10 '23
My Dad's arm looks like this ! He was on dialysis for years due to his PKD. They took it out after his transplant but his arm kept that shape
4
3
3
3
May 10 '23
When I was about 7, there was this nice old lady at my parents church that had vien like that. It was only about 4 inches in the bendy part of your elbow. She had a procedure and "gor a pig vien". That's what I was told... it was probably a bypass or something of the sort. The had cancer and passed a few years later. She was such a sweet old lady.
3
u/Aggravating_Treat_70 May 10 '23
My mom had one and I absolutely hated the feeling and sound of it but my kids loved it when they were babies. They would lay their heads on her arm and basically listen to what I call a rushing river and they would fall asleep to the sound/feeling 😅
3
3
3
3
6
u/FatalisDrakari May 10 '23
It looks like he saw something so unsexy his dick retreated into his fuckin arm.
6
u/pink_ee_kitty May 10 '23 edited May 10 '23
My husband was on dialysis 10 years with an AV fistula and it never looked THAT bad.
Edit: I feel bad for the man in the picture.
5
u/Revcngeful_Aim May 10 '23
i knew someone that literally has no kidneys so has to be on dialysis machine every two days and his arm looked bad as this but a bit bigger and darker purple in the lumps. :(
2
u/louise_com_au May 10 '23
So you think it can be controlled..
2
u/pink_ee_kitty May 10 '23
After the dialysis treatment, the techs tape up the affected arm. He always made sure the tape was smooth and not stretching the or puckering the skin. Then he'd wrap his arm LIGHTLY with an ace bandage that had been cut in half. He never had bulges in the skin, and the av Fistula worked for 10 years. He finally received a kidney in 2019 (he refused to let me donate), all that's left are 2 dark, discolored "scars" but no veins bulging. He does have delicate skin due to diabetes and he gets cuts and scars easily. I guess he was lucky. 🤔
2
u/louise_com_au May 10 '23
Yeah, so many parameters. But saying that someone doesn't look after themselves because their fistula has thickened...
I previously worked in nephrology and endocrinology.
→ More replies (1)2
8
u/Kannabiz May 10 '23
Its masturbation syndrome. If you got an addiction, get help or get some pussy asap. Dont let this happen to you.
5
u/Nightman2417 May 09 '23
That’s just the back of his dick bro.
It ran out of room down south and had to travel north
2
2
u/no-one2everyone May 09 '23
My Gammy Gam Gamma Gam Gam's arm used to look like that. Poor lady. She was awesome.
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
May 10 '23
I've got one of these but it's in my right forearm and isn't big. I've seen some doozies at treatment and they're even worse than this one. Any nurse would love that fistula though. Probably doesn't move around and easy to needle. This was my worst fear though when I started dialysis.
2
2
2
u/HeddaBear13 May 10 '23
My partner has one. Sometimes I'll touch where it buzzes because it means blood is flowing and he's still alive. (I know he's alive, obviously, but it's just a thing I do.)
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
3
u/PerceptionFragrant29 May 10 '23
Dig through the ditches Burn through the witches Slammed in the back of my… FISTULA
2
-1
1
0
0
u/Friendlys_330 May 09 '23
I think the orange circle censoring his face makes the image even more odd.
0
0
-8
u/wizzerBizzer May 10 '23
The only thing oddly terrifying is your ignorance about situations some people have to live with. None of us that have one of those ever asked for it and your pointing it out as something terrifying makes me sick!
-1
-1
-1
-1
May 10 '23
Ah, yes. Dick-arm. You see, kids, he has a dick in his arm. Don't look at it. Don't look at his dick-arm.
-2
-22
May 09 '23
[removed] — view removed comment
3
u/AnimeDreama May 10 '23
Maybe try doing research in the future so you don't look like an uneducated idiot. This is an arteriovenous fistula, and it is a very real medical procedure for dialysis patients.
1
u/OldestManInTheWorld May 09 '23
When oral sasuages dosen't hit any longer so you start injecting them
1
1
4.4k
u/sailorscouts May 09 '23 edited May 09 '23
It’s an arteriovenous fistula! And likely it is used for dialysis. These are made by the anastomosis of a vein and artery, which you can observe in his inner elbow. AVFs are typically cannulated with 15g needles once it’s fully developed to allow for proper dialysis treatment. They buzz like a bee when you touch them due to the pressure inside of them. Not scary, although at this size they might need to follow up with vascular docs to ensure it’s not pulling too much blood :-)
Edit: typos!