Fistula Leakage??

When I went to the hospital on Monday to drop off my bloodwork, I had a chance to chat briefly with my nurse, Rose.

She asked me the general questions that I suppose a home dialysis patient is asked. Well, before I even get into that, when I walked into the office, Dr. Chan (nephrologist), Liz, and Stella (other dialysis nurses) were all there. Rose and Celine were with patients. Everyone commented on how good I looked. They all commented on my skin (hmm…is it home dialysis clearning up my skin, or is it obagi? I think a combination of both…but if I could place a percentage on it, I’d say it’s probably 70% dialysis and 30% obagi). I handed my blood to Stella and she began to print the appropriate labels.

When Rose walked in, she and I began to speak. She asked if she could see my fistula and my button holes. I took my hoodie off and Rose peeled my band-aids off. She said that my button holes looked great. She asked me about the second set of button holes that we had established. I told her that I pretty much abandoned that set of button holes as they constantly gave me problems. I’ve been doing pretty well with this single set. She told me that it was great that I was having good luck with my button holes, but I would need to establish a second set. She went on to say that if I didn’t, I’d start to experience “fistula leakage”.

Fistula leakage??

She told me that I could either use the sharp tipped needles to establish a site on my own, or I could come to the dialysis unit and establish the new button hole sites. I told her that I’d come there when I had time.

Now I’m sure that I heard or read somewhere that having one set of button holes was totally acceptable. I didn’t know that there was such a thing as fistula leakage.

Does anybody out there have only one set of button hole sites? Have you had problems with them after a certain period of time, namely “fistula leakage”???