They tried twice to use the fistula access after the last "de-clotting procedure." These procedures are essentially surgery. Done in a surgical setting, just no general anesthesia so I can drive home afterward. But the prep and the recovery are done in the post-op area. This one involved putting balloons through my veins and blowing them up so that they manually "mature" the vein, ie. force it to grow in size so that it'll handle more volume for the dialysis machine. Had I known it were this hard, I might have given peritoneal dialysis (PD) another shot but the hemodialysis (HD) port they've been using has been a breeze. And I honestly feel so much better since going on HD.
Edit 9/25/23- Last Friday, the nurse decided to give the arm a rest. That was probably a good decision, I realize now it was still sore from blowing up balloons inside my vein. But today was a success. They found my vein and it was big enough to accommodate the volume needed for the machine.
Sounds like no fun at all. Glad you are feeling better. Yay!!
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