I still can't get used to Dialysis

[Des]

Depression....

I must be in total denial or something. The unit manager also suggested that I am suffering from depression. She thinks that that maybe the reason why I complain about everything in the unit. Well if this was depression why would the other 20 hours of my day be fantastic and super normal until I walk into that stupid unit? I really really have a wonderful time working and spending time with my family. I have accepted dialysis - I just don't like it.

I really need some input here. Can I really be suffering from depression and not know about it???

So many people has picked it up but not me, How in the world is that possible? If so how do I go about fixing it?

[Desert Dancer]

Well, would it be any wonder if you ARE depressed? Look at what they're putting you through there on that unit; how could you NOT be depressed? Totally normal, if you ask me (not that anyone was).   

There has got to be some way out of there!

[RichardMEL]

Sounds like a bit of excuse to me to cover up the fact that they're not doing their jobs properly and creating an environment that isn't the best for you. You may well have some dialysis related depression - most of us do - but to use that "reason" to invalidate your complaints seems a bit rich to me.

I'm in a hospital unit - they come running whenever a machine alarms. OK maybe not running, but I can't think of a single time an alarm has gone longer than 30 seconds - 1 minute max. Obviously if something serious is happening they come much quicker.

I would consider a machine left alarming for 5 minutes to be unacceptable (and if it was my machine I'd damn well reset it myself, to the best of my ability).

[chook]

I'm no expert on depression, only know second-hand about it as my brother-in-law suffers from it. He is under treatment that has been so beneficial. When he was really bad with depression, he did almost nothing: laid around all day, slept a lot, couldn't get motivated. I feel that your unit is just such an unhappy place to be that being there is getting you down. And how to fix that, I don't know. Dialysis is hard enough without having to be part of a treatment unit that seems to want to bring you down. If you don't have some trust and a bit of rapport with the staff, I can't imagine how difficult your time there is. Sending you prayers that things improve.

[rsudock]

Morning all.

I had a dreadfull treatment last night. I got into a serious fight with a staff member. I called the regional  unit manager.

It all started when I insisted that she attended to an alarm. She replied that it is not her patient.To which I said, so if someone is dying and it is not your patient then that is that?
She called me a "big mouth" to wich I replied : " get me off this machine then we'll see who's mouth is the biggest"     

   

ps. she is getting some warning or something

What a beeyatch!! It amazes me what people who are in positions of power over other people can get away with! As a teacher I have always felt (and been told by administration) that I need to bend over backwards to calm down parents/students and to make them happy, even if I don't agree with it. Then I hear stories like this where people just go around and treat sick people like s***...makes me so mad. Makes me want to tell my drug addicted parents, "Well it is not my fault you haven't bothered raising your child and now I am trying to hold him accountable. Get off the crack and parent why don't ya?"  sorry I digress...

sorry Des this is happening...can you get out of there at all?

xo,
R

[Des]

I went to see the doc..... verdict : I don't suffer from depression just a bad case of Ihatedialysis-disease.

The only cure is a transplant.

All jokes aside.... I am doing ok. The other 20hours of my day it is only the 4hours that I am stuck in the unit.

I am ignoring everything and everyone... I will be deaf in a month or two as I turn my headphones up so loud that I don't hear any alarms going off. It is like I am in my one cocoon. Cool.

[MooseMom]

If you were clinically depressed, you wouldn't be enjoying your non-dialysis time.   I agree...you just vehemently hate dialysis, and given the description of what goes on in your unit, I'm not surprised.l

Ensconsing yourself in your "cocoon" is a very useful coping mechanism.  That's what most people do...they find ways to distract/entertain themselves while dialyzing.  So, good for you!!

[tyefly]

  I love my  world... and try to pretend everyday.....nothing wrong in dreaming....

[rsudock]

Des I have been turning my ipod really loud in my ears too! So thankful to have that device. It made me appreciate the poor folks that had to suffer through dialysis a long time ago with no wireless internet, iphones, handheld nintendos, ipods, kindles, etc.... oh how dialysis must have been so much more excruciating!

xo,
R

[chook]

  for iPods - I LOVE mine for the hospital visits and the sleepless nights. I will make sure to have on board as well for any dialysis sessions.
Just KNEW you were only D depressed - too happy with the rest of your life for anything else.
Happy cocoon-ing!