Ones I like & don't

[KT0930]

The techs don't know shit! Sorry, but they are not renal patients and they have not gone to school to learn about end stage renal disease. The nurses know "some." The Nephs know but don't care. You can usually smell BBQ potato chips on the dietiation and the Socal Worker is a basket case.

The only place to come is IHD.

I wanted to post a response to this, but it would be off topic in the original thread...

My social worker, dietician and neph are the ones who are on top of things. Two of the three nurses I deal with are idiots, and the third one, I only get to see about once every six months.

I had to tell one of the nurses (Kris) THREE times that I am NOT diabetic - in a two minute conversation. A couple of months earlier, the same nurse had drawn my blood for labs, then called me the next day because she had forgetten to draw for my PTH. Just last week, one of the nurses (Sandy) called to set up my appointment for labs, and the next day, Kris called to set up the same damned appointment. I do PD so I don't deal with techs, can't comment on them.

[Jannie]

Sorry you have to deal with such incompetence. When my kidneys were failing,I had a monthly blood test. I hated the blood lab. They always had long lines, and three times in the last year they screwed up my labs and I had to go back in for a second draw. And-the worst part-my insurance company said I HAD to go there, they have a contract with them. Now that I'm in a Dialysis Center, I no longer have to deal with the blood lab. Anytime they need a test, they pull it off the line.

[Chris]

This is partly my fault for not noticing, but when I was on dialysis and they took blood for labs, I never counted the tubes the drawn. I would look away when they took blood, don't know exactly why I do that, not that squeamish about blood. Anyway, when I was put on the list, they took my blood for that, then a few months down the road, they stopped taking it without telling or asking me why. I was pissed because I didn't knowhow long it was going on. I didn't know until my transplant center called. I should have asked how long that was going on. The center didn't have a turn over rate of techs, so that wasn't an excuse. What I learned from that was to take more  charge of my health.

[KT0930]

What I learned from that was to take more charge of my health.

I learned that when I was 22 and went to a new neph for the first time without a parent with me. He was going through the usual questions, trying to learn my history. I was less than a year old when I was diagnosed, and seven when I had my first transplant, sorry, I just didn't remember much about either experience. After about the third or fourth time of answering, "I don't know", he asked a question, then said, "Oh wait, let me guess, you don't know." I decided right then no medical personnel would ever treat me like that again. A lot of people (especially corpsmen in a Naval Hospital ER) hate it when you tell them which veins not to stick and you know more about what "normal" kidney function is better than they do, but they usually don't screw up on me, either. (because they normally get someone who knows what they're doing because the idiots don't like dealing with me)

[angela515]

I got seriously ill when I was 12, and was basically in the PICU from the age of 12-14, sometimes for 3 months at a time... they say I am the only one (at the time) who was ever admitted into the hospital directly to PICU and then discharged home directly from PICU and not sent to a step down floor first. During these times, I learned quickly from my parents, I need to listen and ask questions... take charge of my health and don't ever let a doctor push me around. I saved my own life one of the 3 times I almost died during those years. Ever since, I have not let a doctor have complete control of my medical care... When I am admitted into the hospital, they already know, everything has to be run by me first, and they better not order any tests or anything to be done to me without first talking to me... Basically when i go to the ER, I walk in telling them what I think is wrong, and almost everytime I am right.. obviously I let them do tests to find out whats wrong and see if they are right also, but the point being, I know my body well enough to know whats going on with it *usually* but not always. I am comfortable with the doctors I have because when i first move somewhere, I don't just settle for whatever doctor I am sent to.. I find the one I am comfortable with and who understands I am in charge of me, they are not.

 

[KT0930]

If I don't like a doc now after the first or second visit, I go looking for a new one. Thankfully right now I have a neph I really like.

[KR Cincy]

That was one of the hardest lessons through all this...defy authority to a reasonable point. Ask "why" a lot...they hate it, but you know you've found the right doctor when he/she answers them all. I switched nephs when I started dialysis...instead of the comforting veteran doc who made assumptions about my symptoms and, IMHO, caused me to lose both kidneys, I now have a very young - but incredibly patient-centric neph who has told me straight up that his job is to get me through the next five years as healthy as possible so I can then get a transplant. Gotta love that singular focus!!

[Jannie]

Today I realized one of the techs really doesn't know what he's doing. First he infiltrated another patient while placing the needles. Then he placed my needles too close together and I was "recirculating". A nurse chewed him out. And she told me to tell every tech not to put the needles too close together. Geez,I really liked this guy. He is very outgoing and pleasant, and he puts the needles in with very little pain. Darn!