ELLEN's INTRO try again

[Ellen]

HELLO TO ALL and WARM HOLIDAY WISHES.

I am writing because my brother (63YO) is going to begin dialysis in January.  He had his fistula put in last week.  I need help from you.  He cannot see well and cannot see what's on a computer.  How can I get this site to him and him to this site?

He lives in a Non-Assisted Living place that is for the ill and elderly, so it has many more helpful things than a single apartment.  I told him about this site and he wants me to download/ and print things on it for him and he'll enlarge that.  But there is so much .... I don't know where to begin.

He has not yet been assigned a dialysis place by his doctor.  He has already told me that he just wants to go to a Hospice and refuse treatment and end it all.  He also told me that if he refuses treatment, he will lose his medical coverage.  I must check this out.

I know he will find a moment or two of support and happiness here.  I have not seen him smile for a long time.  Please give me any suggestions for having this site come to him somehow.  We both live in Pittsburgh, PA, USA.

I live alone and am a fine wreck of a 68YO woman.  I live on SS and have a pet sitting business, too.  This holiday, I will care for 2 English Bulldogs, 1 Goldie, 1 Weimeraner, 7 cats, and a bird.  I love this job.

Any suggestions would be great.....  you can write here or write to me at <<eskwire@comcast.net>>  .

Peaceful and Warm Holidays to you and your families....

Ellen

[Sluff]

Wow Ellen, first I want to thank you for your introduction and then for your interest in I Hate Dialysis.com.
What a warm caring and determined person you must be for helping your Brother the way that you do. The fact you decided to be a pet sitter is a plus also. I feel richer already for meeting you. As far as treatment is concerned you will find plenty of useful information throughout this site that will give much food for thought. It won't take too long to navigate the site as the layout is really nice. Take your time and enjoy the site and it will give you and your Brother some quality time together.

If you need further help don't hesitate to ask any of the Administrators or Moderators for help, you probably won't need to do that because most of the members here are eager to help also.

Have a Happy Holiday season.   

[goofynina]

Hello Ellen, and Welcome,  first of all, I agree with Sluff, you are an amazing and caring woman and everyone pretty much knows that anyone who loves and cares for animals are ACE in my books    Now,  I have found that with Mozilla Firefox (located here)>http://ihatedialysis.com/forum/index.php?topic=745.msg6140#msg6140
by using this software you are able to adjust the wording on your screen and make it very large by simply hitting Ctrl and the + button.  Just a little helpful hint that was given to me by Epoman himself    I hope it works out for your brother, we would love to have him join our "family"  as long as yourself  

[Bajanne]

Welcome to our community.  I am always heartened when we have relatives and loved ones of people with renal failure come to this site because they want to be of help to their loved one.
Since this community is web-based I don't know how we could answer your request.  Maybe some other members can come up with something.
However, if you are printing things for him, the best section to check out is the FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions.  There are also some very interesting and helpful discussions in the General Section.  Do you know which kind of dialysis he will get.  Anyway, there are sections dealing with the various kinds and this could be helpful to him.
Please remember that we are here for you and for your brother.
Wishing all the best at this time.

[mcjane]

Hi Ellen,
I used to email back & forth with a lady who was almost blind. She told me she had this magnifying device that attached in front of her screen that enlarged the print & allowed her to be able to read.

I like goofyninas suggestion too & think it's even better if your brother could do it.

It's good to hear that your brother is on the Internet. It's a Godsend to people who are shut in & I wish every senior would do it. The world is at your finget tips, it's wonderful, people sharing so much & becoming so close with new found friends that we really have never met & probably never will.

IHD is a wondeful example of this. There is so much love & sharing.

 

[Joe Paul]

Welcome Ellen, good to have you aboard.

[Ellen]

Thanks to you all... and thanks for the two suggestions for getting my bro to be able to see/ be on the site.

BTW.... If you look at my non-smiley-face you will see that I am pretty ANGRY about this whole thing.  I don't know how much praise one deserves for begrudgingly (sp?) helping a family member. I am quite a bad sport about it, I assure you.  ..... but I am not in denial about it.

 I was so saddened to read the posts from folks who have family/close ones who are in denial about what is going on with them and dialysis.  This reallly got to me. Let me guess another reason people are in denial (which is not just a river in Egypt) is that they are afraid of knowing when to STOP HELP and BE for ONESELF.  This is my worst area of teeter-tottering back and forth.  It could be that the "denial peope"  feel they will be eaten up completely and not be able to make boundaries.  I WORK on this re: my brother .... sometimes even successfully.

ANIMALS are so much more easy to deal with than people.  I am at my own house now for an hour or so, just to touch base.... I even get into bed for an hour.  I go to check in on two kitty cat locations --- then I go to the house where I stay overnight... two doggies and two kitties.  Last night I had a GIANT WEIMERANER drifting to the center of the bed on top of me and one kitty IN MY HAIR!!!

Thinking of all people today..... a great light.... a great light.... all beliefs have somewhere...  a great light...

much love from ANGRY ELLEN

[goofynina]

Ellen, Love the rant my friend, that is what  Epoman has built this awesome website for, for people to come and let it all out.  We all understand your anger and we hope you and your brother are doing well and we hope to meet him here soon as well...

[jbeany]

Glad you found us, Ellen.  I hope you can convince your brother to join us, too!

 

[Zach]

Welcome Ellen.   

[nextnoel]

"Angry Ellen", you're my kind of folks!

I noticed that in the list of animals you were caring for over the holidays, you mentioned a bird - was that "a partidge in a pear tree" by any chance?

OK, the following setup may sound a little bit odd, but it has worked to help my mom see printed matter.  She has macular degeneration, so she has only a slight bit of peripheral vision.  I got a "nanny-cam" at Radio Shack (I think it was about $15-20) with a long cord and attached it to her TV.  She holds the cam (about the size of a AA battery) in her hand and moves it across the printing she wants to see, and it is shown on the TV screen.  It takes some getting used to, moving it across the material but looking at the TV screen instead of where she's moving it, but it has allowed her to read again, so it's been a lifesaver.  (Actually, there's a device designed that does this much better - you lay the printed material on its surface and the whole page appears on the screen; it costs about $5,000, and I certainly couldn't afford that!)

Anyway, welcome to the IHD site; it's so nice to see someone willing to be so helpful to a relative!
       

[tamara]

  Ellen Good To See You Here!

[Fighter]

Hi Ellen! Welcome to IHD.com! 

[mallory]

Ellen, Welcome to the site, I sure do hope you can work things out for your brother to see the site, and I think you're an amazing sister! 

[jasperkat]

Welcome Ellen.  Depending on your brother's vision you can use the accessibility features available with Windows.  Just go to your menu and go to assessories and then accessibility and there are features you can set up.  If this is not sufficient there are programs you can purchase such a JAWS that will read the information to you.  Just type JAWS in search and you will find the product and the vendors.  Hope this is helpful it's what I do everyday at work to assist customers.

[anja]

   Ellen, how lucky that your brother has you in his corner!  Best wishes.