Delighted to Find This Blog

[mallardduckling]

I'm merely a family member of a former dialysis patient, but am delighted to find this site since it encapsulates what was such a huge portion of my Mom's and my life for five years. Despite her physical suffering and all the attendant issues with hemodialysis, it became such a big part of our lives and we met such special people that in many ways, I miss the camaraderie and social interaction with so many fine people. My Mom actually thrived with that interaction, so the curse of the procedure actually became a blessing in many ways.

Despite starting at age 80, my Mom did well for 5 years. There was some misguided advice for her to NOT start dialysis...and if I can be an advocate for family members of older folks, who might require dialysis but are just hearing the negative aspects...I would like to encourage and support those folks.

You are a special bunch, my prayers for good treatment runs went out to you daily, although granted, in recent years I've forgotten some of those prayers, so I'll try to resume.

But I humbly ask you to bear with me if I try to interject my anecdotes to this blog. 

[Zach]

It's great to have you here!
Looking forward to your participation.
 

[monrein]

 

[YLGuy]

  Glad you found IHD.  I am sure you have valuable input and look forward to reading your posts.

[lmunchkin]

        and glad to have you!

God Bless,

lmunchkin

 

[jbeany]

 

Love the name!  And we always welcome caregivers who are willing to share their experiences, too.

jbeany, Moderator

[MooseMom]

The decision to initiate such an invasive treatment as dialysis on an elderly patient is fraught with special considerations.  The most important thing is that the patient him/herself should make that call.  Just because someone is elderly doesn't mean they can't make these important decisions for themselves.  If they CAN'T make such a decision, then maybe dialysis is more torture than treatment.

[boswife]

Great to see you and hope to see lots more.  This is a great place you've found and we'ed love to hear of your stories with this wonderful thing called Dialysis.  Thanks for comming to join us... 

[willowtreewren]

 

Hi, Mallard!

Looking forward to hearing your stories!

Aleta

[RichardMEL]

Welcome mallardduckling - I like duckings - so cute

Anyway I wanted to highlight something you wrote in your intro - about the great social benefits of doing dialysis. I couldn't agree more. It's a horrible situation and procedure, but when I was in the unit doing HD for overr 4 years, our little "family" was very special. I saw these folks often more than I saw members of my own family, and we were always asking after someone if they werre missing - be it staff or patient. When we had losses, we all mourned, when we had transplants we all cheered and kept fingers crossed for great news, Sometimes wives or family members of patients would visit and sit with the other patienrs, keeping them company etc.

Just yesterday I visited my old unit because I was at the hospital for transplant clinic. It's been 9 months. They were so happy to see me, and I them. We keep in touch and it's great to these people who *care* about you and you care about them.

I certainly feel I gained much from my time doing D in this respect. Don't get me wrong - I hate that machine, and I never want to be needled again, but I miss the patients and the staff, and when I visit it's really good to catch up with everyone(but I try to not "rub it in" to some of the patients that I'm off the machine and can lead a more normal life - i don't want to be cruel).

Anyway thank you for joining us, and we look fortward to your contributions!!

RichardMEL, Moderator

[Ang]