Fistulas and junkies.

[MattyBoy100]

I read in another thread that people look at your fistula and think you are a junkie??? Is this true??? I have yet to start using my fistula but I wear short sleeved shirts at work and T-shirts at home or out with friends.  Are people gonna think I`m some sort of drug abuser and give me dirty looks or pass unwarranted judgement on me???

[goofynina]

Mattyboy,  don't give a hoot what other people think of you, you cant control it,  they may be thinking things of you now because of your hair color, or your clothes, it's never ending and it is totally out of your control,   if they want to be judgemental, so be it,  just feel sorry for them for having such a sad pathetic life that they have to find imperfections of others and assume that they know your entire life story,  but remember, you cant judge a book by it's cover,  too bad everyone doesnt live by that theory huh?   Hang in there my friend....

[Amanda From OZ]

Hey........ YES! i have had a lot of bad experiences with people making comments. The first couple of times i was at the gym on the treadmill, and this older lady next to me said to her friend ohhh look at that girls arm i think she is a junkie or she tried to end her life. (let me add she thought i was listening to music with my headphones, little did she know i wasn't) i turned around to her and said "instead on concentrating what everyone else looks like you should contcentrate on yourself, and going a bit faster on that treadmill might help (she was a very large lady). she was in shock after that, in what a classic moment

So dont worry what people say.. i try not to let it bother me.

[Bear]

I read in another thread that people look at your fistula and think you are a junkie??? Is this true??? I have yet to start using my fistula but I wear short sleeved shirts at work and T-shirts at home or out with friends.  Are people gonna think I`m some sort of drug abuser and give me dirty looks or pass unwarranted judgement on me???

  Yes! Probably! Let em! Does it matter? I'm the sort of obtusive person that if I catch a glance like that, I'll just smile back. I've been tempted to say "got any coke?" or something, but haven't actually done so yet. Living in the sub-tropics, I always wear short-sleeve shirts and even roll the sleeve back on the fistula side (I have an upper arm one),
as the stitching sometimes catches on the venous buttonhole & annoys it/me. Since I don't have the classic big bulgey fistula, a puckered scar where the op. was done, plus the buttonholes & other no-longer used needle marks are clearly visible. So I may be more likely to get 'those looks' perhaps than others. Do I givashit? Nope! 

[livecam]

Nobody has ever said a word but people can be extemely ignorant in other ways.  One day we were standing in line waiting to order lunch at "Koo Koo Roo" and my boss grabbed my fistula arm in order to place me ahead of him in the line (I'm a slow eater).  Anyway it started out with "John let go", he thought it was funny, then a louder, "JOHN let go", well he still didn't get it until, "JOHN LET GO OF MY ARM NOW".  I explained what the arm access was all about and although he had been at our company for months I guess it never registered with him.  A working fistula even in a former dialysis patient is a lifeline in case dialysis ever has to be started again.  Developing it was one of the hardest, most time consuming things I've ever done. It involved two separate surgeries, a fistulagram, and a painful blown first fistula.   It wasn't until I switched from the Tessio's to the fistula that I ever really got adequate dialysis.  It still works and I want to take care of it.

[kitkatz]

I have had people bump into my dialysis arm when it is hurting from having a nerve needled. Painful experience. My daughters would occasionally forget and punch my arm in fun.  It only took once of me yelling in pain. They were very careful after that once.

[Panda_9]

Hey........ YES! i have had a lot of bad experiences with people making comments. The first couple of times i was at the gym on the treadmill, and this older lady next to me said to her friend ohhh look at that girls arm i think she is a junkie or she tried to end her life. (let me add she thought i was listening to music with my headphones, little did she know i wasn't) i turned around to her and said "instead on concentrating what everyone else looks like you should contcentrate on yourself, and going a bit faster on that treadmill might help (she was a very large lady). she was in shock after that, in what a classic moment

So dont worry what people say.. i try not to let it bother me.

Hilarious!!!! 

[GuyIncognito]

At first I had fistula issues and would wrap my arm or wear long sleeves but over time I've stopped caring what other people think. I have also come up with some pretty stellar stories as to why my arm is the way it is... my current fav is moose or beaver attack, the response is priceless. (In Canada we have a serious beaver problem , our cities are just lousy with them... darn street beavers)

[deej]

At first I had fistula issues and would wrap my arm or wear long sleeves but over time I've stopped caring what other people think. I have also come up with some pretty stellar stories as to why my arm is the way it is... my current fav is moose or beaver attack, the response is priceless. (In Canada we have a serious beaver problem , our cities are just lousy with them... darn street beavers)

That´s hilarious!!!  LOL  I love it! I´ll have to think of one like that for Brazil.

[meadowlandsnj]

Back in 1994 in my first year of dialysis I had some catheters put in my neck a few different times, I had trouble with access sites so I have quite a few scars on my neck area.  This was about the time of the OJ Simpson murder case.  I was sitting with my aunt in House of Pancakes when these girls were staring at me and looking at my neck, looking horrified.  So I looked right at them and said to them "I know, it's awful looking isn't it?  I used to date OJ Simpson.  I knw he'd go to far one day and end up killing someone."  My aunt almost choked on her pancakes. 

[Sara]

Back in 1994 in my first year of dialysis I had some catheters put in my neck a few different times, I had trouble with access sites so I have quite a few scars on my neck area.  This was about the time of the OJ Simpson murder case.  I was sitting with my aunt in House of Pancakes when these girls were staring at me and looking at my neck, looking horrified.  So I looked right at them and said to them "I know, it's awful looking isn't it?  I used to date OJ Simpson.  I knw he'd go to far one day and end up killing someone."  My aunt almost choked on her pancakes. 

Oh.My.God.  LMAO.   

[sandman]

I had worked over 3 years as an officer of the US court system and I have seen people who were serious drug abusers before so I do know what the difference is.  I guess I didn't really know what a fistula was until one winter when I was doing my part during a blizzard and was helping transport "medical emergency" cases and had to take a dialysis patient to the hospital who had almost passed out in the middle of the road.

[angieskidney]

I had worked over 3 years as an officer of the US court system and I have seen people who were serious drug abusers before so I do know what the difference is.  I guess I didn't really know what a fistula was until one winter when I was doing my part during a blizzard and was helping transport "medical emergency" cases and had to take a dialysis patient to the hospital who had almost passed out in the middle of the road.

Wow! No wonder you didn't freak out about my fistula .. I didn't know Actually, most of my friends and family have been very accepting of my fistula but it is not that big .. yet.

[sandman]

I had worked over 3 years as an officer of the US court system and I have seen people who were serious drug abusers before so I do know what the difference is.  I guess I didn't really know what a fistula was until one winter when I was doing my part during a blizzard and was helping transport "medical emergency" cases and had to take a dialysis patient to the hospital who had almost passed out in the middle of the road.

Wow! No wonder you didn't freak out about my fistula .. I didn't know Actually, most of my friends and family have been very accepting of my fistula but it is not that big .. yet.

I have seen so many things in my life but the site of the average fistula does not bother me.  Now, seeing someone with a broken bone that pokes out through the skin?  That's eerie!

[thom]

i worked on a counter at a supermarket for a while and people would look at my arm like i was a junkie, with the scars being more obvious in summer too, it did get to me for the first few months but i've learnt to live with it and not that many people do actually notice it, although the scars go from my wrist all the way to my upper arm now unless they stand and stare at it it doesn't bother me too much.