My Family...................

[meadowlandsnj]

knows I'm on a special restricted diet.  So guess what my mother ordered for our dinner tonight, Christmas Eve??  Penne pasta in tomato sauce with spinach and cheese.  "You can have it" she says.  No I can't I tell her.
She thinks I'm being picky. She tells me just taste it.  Like I can taste potassium?? She doesn't realize this meal is loaded with potassium and phosphorus, or maybe she does, who knows?  And she KNOWS I can't eat certain things.  And I never ask for anything special or for her to get anything special.  I buy my own food mostly but this is supposed to be a Christmas Eve dinner for everyone.  So now they all think I'm being picky and difficult.


It justs hurts that my own family is so thoughtless. 

[Epoman]

knows I'm on a special restricted diet.  So guess what my mother ordered for our dinner tonight, Christmas Eve??  Penne pasta in tomato sauce with spinach and cheese.  "You can have it" she says.  No I can't I tell her.
She thinks I'm being picky. She tells me just taste it.  Like I can taste potassium?? She doesn't realize this meal is loaded with potassium and phosphorus, or maybe she does, who knows?  And she KNOWS I can't eat certain things.  And I never ask for anything special or for her to get anything special.  I buy my own food mostly but this is supposed to be a Christmas Eve dinner for everyone.  So now they all think I'm being picky and difficult.


It justs hurts that my own family is so thoughtless. 

Ouch, That sucks about your family. Healthy people have no idea what we have to go through. But you know what I eat anything I want, I just do it in moderation. So I say eat what you want just don't pig out. I've been on dialysis for over 12+ years straight NO transplant and I have always eaten what ever I want JUST in moderation. My biggest problem like most is Potaasium and Phosphorus but take your binders for the Phos and just limit your intake of really high potassium foods.

But good rant, I like it and this is the EXACT reason this site is here.

Rant ON!!!!

[LifeOnHold]

Wow, meadowlands, your family and my family must be related-- they do the same crap every year!

Yes, you can eat whatever you want in moderation-- but when you start doing that you have to be VERY careful... every person has a different sensitivity to levels of phosphorus and potassium, and you have to figure out where to draw the line.

But holiday parties are always tough-- if they see you eating a little bit of something, they think it's ok to load you down with more of it because "Well, we saw you eating that, so have some more!"   You would swear they're on commission to see how much food they can make you eat! 

I think people are uncomfortable with people on restrictions because it makes them aware of how little self-control they have-- and it also makes them face the fact that there's something wrong with you-- no one likes to think about that during the holdiays, and they resent being reminded of it... but they don't realize that we could do REAL harm to ourselves if we ignore our restrictions on Christmas just so THEY can feel good!

[Jamie]

Dear fellow renal readers,

  Our family's are very close nit to each other. Today my family ordered pizza and I'm pretty sure I don't have to expland this and our diet.....Jamie-G

www.jamiegmagic.com

[Bajanne]

is the exact opposite.  You would think that I am not supposed to eat at all!!!!  All these wonderful typical homefood stuff around me and anything that I eat, I am told "Are you sure you can have that?"  and people are there ready to scrape anything off my plate and throw it into the garbage.
They are extreme to the other side.  I tell them that I can eat even some forbidden things if I only have a very small portion, but they are not convinced.  Seems I should only be eating crackers and 4 oz of water, three times a day!

[LifeOnHold]

Christmas is the time when you find out what side of dysfunctional your family falls on! 

Next party you go to, bring your own saltines and water and when they ask what they're for, say "Well, this is all you think I can eat!"   

[toad]

i am probably the most dysfunctional...i feel christmas is here once a year.....all my kids and grandkids are here will eat what i want no matter what....in moderation tho...lol.....merry christsmas to alll...hope u all have a good day.....was going to say hope u are all healthy but damn none of us are.....lol

[susie q]

I have the best one yet...
My inlaws came for dinner at my house
I cooked , prepared stuff so I was able to
enjoy the meal..
Nice time ....
After dinner.. sitting around watching the little
ones play... MIL says to me... "so, are you still
waiting for a kidney?"

WTF!!!!!!! 

[Jamie]

Every Christmas my brother in law get drunk and every year he says in front of the whole family "So kid you still on dialysis".
   Every year I would like to knock his teeth down his throat and fold his face in half.......Jamie-G

[LifeOnHold]

Nothing says Christmas like a mangled brother-in-law's face! 

[Jamie]

YEP!!!!!!

[kitkatz]

I get out of the hospital after starting dialysis and had an anniversary while I was in there.  My mother,my intelligent mother, goes to WallyWorld and buys what?  Guess....





A Mrs Ice Tea Maker. For little ole me!  I almost cried when I saw it.  I quietly asked my sister what in the hell was Mom thinking getting me an iced tea maker when I just went on a fluid restricted diet???
I traded it in to WallyWorld and bought some cotton night gowns I still use today.


Also mother brought her Christian friends into my hospital room and had a laying on of hands in a prayer time without even asking me if it was okay to do so.  I let them do it, because not letting them I would have had a prayer vigil outside of my room. I was a Baha'i at the time of this incident, and Mom thought it was a cult. Trying to save my soul through prayer. Geez.  I told my sister if Mom ever did it again I would personally not allow her anywhere near the hospital ever again!

And if I hear one more time "Well are you on the transplant list yet?"  I am going to scream!

My family......

Katherine

[Epoman]

How do you think I feel EVERYONE in my family is perfectly healthy, I have a brother who is 6'7" and is healthy and strong as an OX, my mom and dad BOTH smoke 1-2 packs of cigs a day and I have never seen either of them in a hospital, they are both in their mid 50's. They have NO idea of what I go through. But you know what the funny thing is not one of them has ever offered me a kidney. But I'll save that story for another post! 

- Epoman

[Rerun]

None of my family have offered either.  I kind of "beat" them to it by saying I don't want a living donor.  But, I feel bad when people say, "don't you have family that will donate a kidney to you."  Ahhhhhh well, NO! 

[Dougndan]

All this talk about family is so amusing, we can definetly relate. At our family get togethers, Doug is under the microscope with whatever he eats. He is diabetic, so if he indulges even a little bit (a spoonful of ice cream) comments are made..They're not around him everday and don't see the day to day diet he is on. A diabetic and renal diet, a double whammy!! Although, being on hemo has allowed him to broaden his diet. Oh, and about living donors, I (Dougs wife) gave him my kidney, the transplant failed, now he does not feel like he could go through using a living donor again (not that anybody has offered), so he is on the "list".  Oh yeah, my mom asked if Doug went to his "chemo" session last night!!! Familys are great!!!

[kitkatz]

My older sister has lost 90 pounds in the last year.  She says to me: "Now that I have lost this weight, Do you want me to get tested to see if we are a match?"  I nearly cried.  I answered with a "No, if anything happened to you because I had your kidney I could not live with myself.  You have Mom as a responsibility and I need you around for the girls."    I was touched.  It only took seven and a half years for her to ask this.

At the beginning of all of this my mother said she was "Going to give me a kidney, then go live in Charleston, South (North) Carolina, far away."  Well shit, if that is the way you feel No way in hell do I want one from you.  Luckily she had high blood pressure and is too old now to donate. 

I guess I am lucky, they offered.  I just could not handle the emotional garbage that would come from my mother if I had her kidney or my sisters'.  Not a good idea.

Katherine