Treats For The Patient

[monrein]

halloween we got a small bag of pretzels

the pretzels were salty
and too late to request water or ice if you already drank your water
and I came as a bear
I have bear heads made out of chicken wire and fake fur
it looks like Yogi the Bear
I won nothing
but then I do not play Bingo with the crowd
so I am anti-social
the social patients won
but I am a bear, what do I need with a back scratcher

Twirl, I love this post for some reason because, for me,  it reads like a poem.  I really mean this seriously.  It reads like a great summary of exactly how absurd and bizarre the whole dialysis thing can be.  What I especially love is how much it says but in so few words .   

[Kitsune]

What I got for Halloween was an upper needle that didn't work and a machine that beeped for 15 minutes straight while the stupid tech I had ( Megan the incompetent rude fat bitch who feels the need to insult me to Angie, this one freako patient who finds any suffering I have to be immensely amusing) stood around debating whether to put in another needle, and when she did, the tech who did the non-working needle (Tracy, who I trust...hey everyone has their off-days) was on break so fat Megan did it, pushing the needle in like she couldn't get away from me fast enough. Well, the stupid bitch left the non-working needle in my arm (after I told her I would bleed if she did, but the stupid cow thinks she knows my access better than I do... ha ha ha.) and taped it up.

Everything went fine until I fell asleep and rolled onto my side. I was asleep for about an hour and a half when I woke up and saw blood on my bandages. I pushed the buzzer and about 5 minutes later Fatty McStupid arrived with a pissed-off look on her fat face and bellowed, "WHAT'S THE PROBLEM NOW!?!?!" I politely said, "There's blood on my arm and it's swollen. I think something's wrong, can you check it out?"

She took a one minute glance at my arm and said, "Oh, it's only a little leak and walked away. Well, it wasn't just a little leak since blood starting dripping down my arm. Well, I wasn't going to just sit there while my blood left my body and I pushed the buzzer again, to the disgust of Fatty who came back over and yelled, "Why are you so worried about a little leak, it happens all the time!!" I then got furious and yelled, "DOES THIS LOOK LIKE A LITTLE LEAK TO YOU??? DO YOU SEE THIS BLOOD DRIPPING DOWN MY ELBOW OR ARE YOU BLIND???" Her response was to get a gauze and wipe the blood off my arm and tape up the offending needle, as she told me I had 24 more minutes of treatment left and I had to finish it or I would be noncompliant. Well, the blood just kept gushing and Old Stupid finally wised up and realized there was a very real problem here and starting freaking out like she hadn't had any training and pushed three tiny pieces of gauze down on my arm as if that would stop me up. It didn't and the pushing dislodged my needle which flew out of me and the blood started spraying all our my tiny private room.

Well, Angie (freako patient) started laughing during all of this, referring to me as a "big baby" and asking why I was so scared of a little blood and Stupid Megan joined in, referring to me as a "crybaby" and laughing at me. Tracy heard this and told Stupid and her freako little crony Angie to shut up and that it wasn't funny and that I could bleed to death as she and a nurse, Liz ( a real savior during all of this) came over to help me. My blood kept spraying for about another two minutes as they tried to fix Stupid's damage (which they finally did, thanks be to Thor.). The room was covered in my blood and my blood pressure ended up being 92/82 thanks to this little episode. Fatty McStupid was told to go attend to another patient (my poor best friend, Patty) as Liz held my sites and Tracy cleaned up the mess. I was really dizzy after all this and given a glass of water and made to stay seated as Liz rechecked my blood pressure and deemed me okay to go home.

Patty sat outside for an extra hour just to make sure I was okay and gave me a Nutty Bar to stabilize me. If it hadn't been for Liz, Tracy and Patty I might be in the hospital right now instead of typing here. But then again, according to Patty the staff (with the exception of Liz and Tracy) have been siding with Angie and acting like I'm scum of the earth while Angie is treated like Queen Elizabeth, and Liz and Tracy have gotten tired of the crap and are going to the center director about the whole thing (One tech, Tasha even openly laughs at me alongside Angie, who gets most of the staff going.) Patty and myself are seriously thinking about looking into going to a new center if the nonsense keeps up. As Patty herself puts it, "We don't have a choice in coming here. We need to come if we want to live".

And this, fellow IHDers, was MY Halloween treat from my center, so aharris2 and twirl, be glad yours were pretzels and roasted almonds and not nearly bleeding to death. Those, at least were better than what I got.

[twirl]

so sorry about that experience
I have been bleeding lately also
I got an indirect Halloweenie treat
a young and rude tech was fired
she is barely 19 and had a problem with authority
she was usually nice to me
but so rude and bitchy to everyone else
she can not go back to a Davita company
but she will fine some other place
she needs to go work at the prison with her little attitude problem
she told one patient
she was not going to fold her blankets for her
she was not hired for maid service
right-------

[elvisxm]

We had a local catering company donate Thanksgiving dinners on Tuesday, and they waived the no eating rule for the day for those who wanted to eat it right away.  Turkey, mashed potatoes w/gravy, green beans and pumpkin pie.  I think our dietitian about stroked out.  when they ran low on pie, she suggested substituting in apple pie but got outvoted.  It was a nice gesture.

[Rerun]

Wow, that is unheard of.  Potatoes and Pumpkin pie at the center.  I hope they put everyone on 1K.  I mean I ate that stuff too but I dialyze for 8 hours.  It was sooooo good.  Then the RN brought us carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.  I ate what I wanted and during the night I bumped it off my "tiny" side table and it fell into my neighbors travel bag.  I felt so bad. 

There was a sign up at dialysis.  If we could all keep our Phosphorus under 5.0 during the month of December we would get a Christmas treat.
I'm so excited!!
                                   I don't go to a Davita Clinic anymore so it won't be a scarf with Davita on it!  Must be a DSI note pad.

[kitkatz]

They gave us a turkey dinner at dialysis on Wednesday night. Shocked the heck out of me.  Small pieces of turkey, a little stuffing, cranberry sauce and a small tiny donut of some sort for dessert. It was not bad.  I ate every tiny bit on that plate.

[Kitsune]

And again, they gave us nothing...not even a cup of ice or a lollipop, just "It's time to go to your chair now,"  Apparently we are nothing more than dollar bills that happen to have blood, veins, and arteries to these people. When I get my transplant, I will tell that unholy bitch of a receptionist (who talks to all of us like we are kindergarteners and even uses the "teacher voice" with us and thinks she runs the center) to kiss my  and that I think she needs to learn some people skills. Where do they find these people, the local unemployment office?  Man oh man.

[Rerun]

Yeah, the receptionist sitting there with her huge Starbuck's coffee drink and a Subway Sandwitch with Chips.  It is just a job to them.  They don't care about our path in life.  My experience is they usually don't last long.  Then you get another one just like the other one.

                                                     

[qwerty]

At our clinic we feel the holidays are the time for us to encourage patients to just have at least the best time we can attempt to give them during dialysis. We had homemade banana nut bread, homemade sponge cake, pumpkin pie, cookie, apple juice, and anything else that patients and staff brought for the others to enjoy. We encourage moderation rather than total abstinence from things people enjoy. Easter we put a full spread out with ham, turkey, salads, buns, appetizers. We also do a summer bbq every year for the patients with hotdogs and hamburgers if they want them. Xmas we do the same. My last clinic (davita) we gave a 1/2 donut and 1 chicken wing with water in a small cup LOL. We hound you guys enough during the non-holidays what not to eat so sometimes it's nice to let up and have a little splurge.   Also once a month we the staff serve all the patients at thier chairs with angel food cake and/or sponge cake and apple juice to celebrate birthdays during the month.  We also normally give apple juice, coffee, animal crackers or vanilla wafers daily if patients request them.

[Kitsune]

At our clinic we feel the holidays are the time for us to encourage patients to just have at least the best time we can attempt to give them during dialysis. We had homemade banana nut bread, homemade sponge cake, pumpkin pie, cookie, apple juice, and anything else that patients and staff brought for the others to enjoy. We encourage moderation rather than total abstinence from things people enjoy. Easter we put a full spread out with ham, turkey, salads, buns, appetizers. We also do a summer bbq every year for the patients with hotdogs and hamburgers if they want them. Xmas we do the same. My last clinic (davita) we gave a 1/2 donut and 1 chicken wing with water in a small cup LOL. We hound you guys enough during the non-holidays what not to eat so sometimes it's nice to let up and have a little splurge.   Also once a month we the staff serve all the patients at thier chairs with angel food cake and/or sponge cake and apple juice to celebrate birthdays during the month.  We also normally give apple juice, coffee, animal crackers or vanilla wafers daily if patients request them.

At our clinic they feel the holidays mean nothing since our kidneys don't work properly. We have nothing and sometimes we are yelled at if our alarms go off when the tech doesn't feel like dealing with it "Stop moving your arm!!" is the typical holiday greeting even if you're not moving at all. Gee, wonder if I'll get my usual Christmas gift this year: Getting yelled at while recieving nothing, not even water or ice.

[twirl]

that reminds me
I have not heard anyone yelled at to keep their arm still
no matter how still you are - they would yell
I think the last time was when an auditor was there
and we are now using only fresh dialysis's blood things
cylinders?
something happened and for at least 3 months they are doing that
and they were not waiting for the heparin for 5 minutes

[Rerun]

that reminds me
I have not heard anyone yelled at to keep their arm still
no matter how still you are - they would yell
I think the last time was when an auditor was there
and we are now using only fresh dialysis's blood things
cylinders?
something happened and for at least 3 months they are doing that
and they were not waiting for the heparin for 5 minutes

It is amazing what a call to Medicare will do.   

[kitkatz]

I have never been yelled at by anyone at dialysis. I think they now I would yell back at them. I did burst into tears one day  after a particularly stressing day at work. It shut them up quick around me and brought out the social worker.

[Kitsune]

Well, we got our holiday celebration and gift this year. Ouir celebration was playing bingo (just like every other stinking holiday, including Valentine's Day which they are trying to schedule me on...umm no I don't think so, we have hotel reservations.) and our gift was a stupid lunchbag and water bottle coozie with the Fresenius logo on it (Yeah, that;s just what we all want, to be reminded of that center everytime we pack a lunch) and all the old people were acting like they'd been given the new HammerFall CD or something.   Free advertising much? I gave mine away. Who wants that junk?

[qwerty]

This year our Ferrlecit rep dropped off Honey Baked Turkey from the Honey Baked Ham Company and 2 huge fresh fruit trays, my assistant fixed 3 huge crock pots of baked ham, corn salad, waldorf's salad, fresh rolls, patient brought home made apple pies, baked beans, broccoli casserole, green bean casserole, banana nut bread, bread pudding, diet pepsi, ginger ale, iced tea, brownies, cookies, ham and cheese rolls with crackers, and I cant think of the rest. For the patient gifts, the staff chipped in and bought our youngest 26 y/o fella a new ps3 game he wanted Call of Duty World at War (about $60), we got avon lip moisturizers, blankets, head sets, picture frames, candles, Gold bond hand cream, little hand sanitizer sprays, new neck pillows, gloves, nail polish for the ladies and manicure sets for the guys, staff brought other things too numerous to mention. The only thing with our logo was the neck pillows
We had a great time and the many of the patients brought us packages also with bubble baths, lotions, calenders, food and more food lol. One brought all the girls really cute charm bracelets with charms related to things we like (they know us well). Several of mine also gave me money for the "community kitty" who has been hanging around for about a year. He was trapped recently by the humane society so we bailed him out of kitty jail. He caught feline flu while he was in there so the vet visit added up to well over $300. The patients enjoy him so much the staff couldnt leave him there.  He's recovering in my garage for the moment and one of my patients is going to take him home when he's recovered fully. He meets every patient and staff member at thier cars every morning and walks them to the door then meets them going out. I even had him chipped this time to ensure he doesnt get lost again. Overall even with unit and corporate issues and cuts we had a GREAT Xmas this year!!!!

[thegrammalady]

i decided it didn't matter if patients got treats this year and on tuesday i took cookies for the staff. we did get a gift however, a very nice neck pillow. actually something useful.

[kitkatz]

The center gave a a green blue Davita logo bag, a stocking filled with headphones, three pieces of candy, and that fake cheese stuff.  Better than a kick in the head I guess.  I gave them a box of See's candy!

[twirl]

we got an odd color of green Davita bag with earphones, mittens and a drink bottle in it with a lemonaide packet in it
no candy and no cheese
a tech told me they may change davita's blue color to that strange color of green
may be a sea form color of green

[Rerun]

We got a DSI Pillow.  Not quite a neck pillow.......I don't know what I'll use it for.  Then the Nurse gave us Coffee cups with a candy cane and a package of Apple cider and one Reeses tiny peanutbutter cup.  I liked the coffee cup.

I made the Nurse and Tech slippers.

[mikey07840]

Our PD unit had a holiday luncheon sponsored by our Baxter Representative. We had salad, penne pasta in vodka sauce, chicken, cookies and brownies. The dietician was NOT invited! We got a plastic water bottle with sugar free drink mix. It was actually very nice.

[twirl]

yeah  Mikey