Morning after -- second thoughts

[Zach]

As Joe E. Brown would say, "Zowie!"   

[Lucinda]

I might be all gloom at the moment about starting dialysis too soon but your doc sounds pretty caring to me.  My neph is absolutely terrific.  I have her email address and she responds within two hours even on a weekend.  I also have her mobile number and with the problems I have had I speak to her or she emails me on the average of a couple of times a day.  She just sent me an email to find out how dialysis went today after I had an horrific day yesterday.  Caring docs are hard to find.  I say stick with him if he is happy to have you in hospital just to keep and eye on you for your first treatments!! 

[Bajanne]

I had my catheter put in when my GFR fell  more quickly that the nephro expected.
The doctor who did it told me I would just feel a little mosquito bite.  He lied!  But it wasn't too bad..
I begged him not to put it too high up on my neck.  I taught high school at the time and did not want to look like the Bride of Frankenstein to my students.  Thank goodness he complied!

The good thing about a catheter as opposed to graft and fistula is that when your machine session is over, you can leave right away.  With the G and F, you have to wait and hold the sites until bleeding stops.

The bad thing about a catheter (apart from the susceptibility to infection, not being able to swim with it) is that you have to stay very still all through the session or the machine alarms stridently.