I Hate Dialysis Message Board
Dialysis Discussion => Dialysis: News Articles => Topic started by: okarol on April 26, 2010, 05:15:59 PM
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Women turn somber dialysis center into caring community
By DAVE BAKKE (dave.bakke@sj-r.com)
THE STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER
Posted Apr 22, 2010 @ 11:30 PM
Last update Apr 23, 2010 @ 06:37 AM
Let’s be honest. Undergoing kidney dialysis is not a lot of laughs. But until a few years ago, dialysis was utterly somber at the RAI Care Center in Springfield
Two of the patients, Linda Collins and Ruth Zimmerli, describe how other patients would come in and sit, six chairs in one room and six in another. People would be hooked up to the dialysis machine and just sit there for two or three, sometimes as many as five, hours. They might read a book, sleep or watch TV. That was it.
“Nobody would look up,” says Linda, “nobody would speak. You came in and you went. After three months, it was driving me nuts. I sat next to Ruth. The two of us started talking to each other, and we were the only two who would talk. Then the nurses started talking to us.”
In September 2007, Linda and Ruth organized a surprise birthday party for a nurse. Everybody who was there, patients included, received party hats, had cake and sang “Happy Birthday.”
That was the beginning.
The first party opened people up, so another birthday party followed. Since they didn’t have official permission, they scheduled it for a Wednesday, when RAI medical director Dr. Merry Downer would not be there. As luck would have it, the doctor walked in unexpectedly during the party. But she was OK with it, to Ruth and Linda’s relief.
One of the male dialysis patients had lost both legs below his knees. The only family member they ever saw was his brother who came to Springfield once or twice a year. The patient never said much. He was irritable. But at the birthday party, he, too, put on a hat and sang with the rest of them.
“He really came out of his shell,” Linda says. “He was happy.”
Another patient was alone as well, no family in central Illinois. He was invited to one of the birthday parties, but nobody really thought he would come. He did. Linda and her husband, Jim, eventually invited him to their home. He has spent the last two Thanksgivings and last Christmas with the Collinses.
One party led to another. One personal connection led to another.
Downer suggested someone produce a newsletter. Ruth agreed to create “Dialysis Digest,” which comes out once a month and has news of RAI patients and their families as well as special recipes for renal patients. The first newsletter in January 2008 featured pictures of the surprise birthday party they threw for Downer.
“A couple of years ago,” says Ruth, “I noticed that the families were coming to pick up patients and sometimes they would have to wait. They could sit there for hours with nothing to do.”
Ruth was given permission to bring in jigsaw puzzles and tables for families who wait in the lobby. Downer bought frames for the completed puzzles. Patients earned tickets for accomplishments —don’t gain much fluid, you win a ticket; get a good lab report, you win a ticket.
They raffled off the framed puzzles last week. People used their tickets as bidding chits.
Linda and Jim throw cookouts for the patients and staff. The last one was in the RAI parking lot last week.
Linda brings in a sheet cake every other month and they celebrate the birthdays that have occurred the past two months. There has been a staff appreciation dinner, and workshops conducted by patients and their spouses that covered computer technology, cell phone use and digital cameras.
The patient who lost his legs below the knee has since died. That is the reality for some people who have kidney failure. Perhaps by establishing a personal connection with each other, it’s more painful when death comes. But that, Linda and Ruth both say, is no reason for remaining distant.
“This may not be the party we hoped for,” Ruth likes to say, “but since we’re here, let’s dance.”
One of those deaths spawned another idea.
“I asked the staff, ‘Do we have a memorial service?’” says Linda. “No, they said, they’d talked about it, but nothing ever came of it. So we brought a bunch of candles and had a memorial service for those patients who had died.”
Surviving family members were contacted by a social worker and invited. They brought pictures of their family members and placed them on a long table. Someone from the family spoke about each one. As the name of the person who had died was called out, the family lit a candle in his or her honor.
All of this has had a tremendous impact on the atmosphere, the people, and the staff at RAI. I asked Linda if she thought that the spirit of camaraderie could have even improved patients’ health.
“I think it has,” she says. “People are brighter, happier.”
Of course, says Downer, there is no way to prove that, but she suspects it has had an impact.
“As a physician,” she says, “I cannot say that this is a prescription for what they should do to feel better. But having a positive outlook helps with any chronic illness. I do think it’s beneficial.”
In her job, Downer, a nephrologist with Springfield Clinic, visits other central Illinois dialysis facilities. They aren’t the same.
“This is unique, very different from anything I’ve seen,” she says. “I’ve seen people out there, they help each other to the cars in the parking lot, they call each other to make sure they’re supported. They do all of this. Certainly Linda and Ruth do a magnificent job with it.
“Keep in mind, they aren’t the only amazing people there. Those patients are, on every level, the ideal population. They come in with a constructive attitude. They really just weather storms and face challenges and do it with a lot of grace and dignity.
“That’s something that’s prevalent out there. Linda and Ruth are certainly our cheerleaders. They do it extremely well.”
But nurses and patients have to be careful around these two. A nurse at RAI who was famous for always saying “I’m going to duct tape your arm down” whenever a patient’s arm movement fouled up the dialysis machine.
They had heard that so many times, they finally duct-taped the nurse to a chair.
Everybody has a story. The problem is that some of them are boring. If yours is not, contact Dave Bakke at 788-1541 or dave.bakke@sj-r.com. His column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. To read more, visit www.sj-r.com/bakke.
http://www.sj-r.com/health/x1394804893/Dave-Bakke-Patients-bring-new-attitude-to-dialysis-center
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What a great story and what a wonderful pair of ladies to do all of that for their fellow patients.