I hated my catheter! I had one that came out in my sleep (I musta' put my elbow on it and rolled over) I was lucky I didn't bleed to death, Then they put in a "temporary" temporary catheter, that was just sticking out of my neck. They replaced it eventually. They all were painful. Sort of a dull ache. I was scared of using my fistula because of some of the people at the center had these twisty, huge, worm looking things on their arms that reminded me of an aneurysm. I had a friend die of an aneurysm right in front of his wife. I was thinking that I was going to have to just keep my catheter in for the rest of my life. But, I didn't. I'm using the fistula now with buttonholes. I've been on dialysis now for two years. I wouldn't say that I'm an old pro, but there are much fewer surprises these days. You seem to know all of these numbers (urea, creatinine and GFR) so at least you have the lingo down. I didn't know I was feeling like crap until I'd been on dialysis for a couple of weeks. I still feel like crap right after dialysis, especially if I drink too much water between treatments. There are people at the center that I'm sure that drink beer and have to take off as many as 9 kilos of fluid a treatment. WOW! Just keep your fluid intake low and do what they tell you and you'll do fine. I get a pittance from the government in the form of disability. I just look at dialysis as going to work.jmz