Anyone else have "crazies" at Hemo?

[Annig83]

I hope no one takes offense to my topic... seeing as I have been in mental health for almost 9 years I just want to let everyone know that I have a lot of respect for the mentally ill, and of course the elderly, who are stricken with dementia, and other memory disorders...

As some of you know, I just started hemo and started a new outpatient facility.  Things are going pretty well, and most people are very nice, both the nurses, and the patients...
However.... there are a few patients in there with me that are a little.... well, eccentric? There's one woman who every day that I'm there, she does the same thing over and over.... it's like clockwork:

"Am I on dialysis?"  "I'm hungry".  "I want to get up"  "If you don't come and get me I'll scream"  "How much time do I have left?"  "I need some ice"....over and over and over... 
She also talks to herself the whole time, and I wonder about the conversation because she always seems to get quite overexerted, fall asleep, and when she wakes up she wants to know if it's time to eat again.  Sometimes I want to talk to her just so she will have something to do, other than bother the nurses, but she always has such a nasty scowl on her face, I'm afraid she may yell at me in the process of me being nice. 

Anyhow, does anyone else have any funny, or "crazies" at their place of dialysis?  I'd love to hear them!

[boswife]

lol............well, we do it at home now, just hubby and me........Hes quite stable actually...........it's me thats the crazy..   But besides that  , i love 'characters' . ( i do like them to be happy characters i scare easly  ) so i kinda miss hubby going in to do D just for that part of it.  They were all my friends the whole lot of them, and yes, lots of different personalities.   

[sullidog]

We had this lady, I think she went to a different shift, but anyways she'd yell at the nurses because they didn't know her symptems and neither did her neph but the symptems she kept describing didn't make a bit of since. Then one day she tried to leave while she was still hooked up, she sat up and fell down knocking her needles out and of course it got blood everywhere.

[Rerun]

We have a guy that makes animal noises.  Barks, baaaas (sheep) and bird squaks.

       

[Whamo]

   Baaaaahhhhhhh!  Baaaaahhhhh!  Bleep! Bleep! 

[mamagemini]

YES! There is one guy who yells "Nurse, nurse, nurse! How much time left?!?!?" This comes every 30 to the hour. Then I have a guy who comes in and stinks to high heaven and snores. Another one who is young has to have his benadryl right after he is hooked up and will keep asking until they do it (granted they should do it riht away, but I think they are trying to wean him off). Another lady literally screams when they hook her up, cries on and off loudly and weeps. Sometimes if she has to pee she yells and cries until they take her off. Yet she comes in wit a JUG of ice and water, drinking it the whole time. Then there is the blind guy who is very bossy and demanding.
The techs there are all very nice and try hard to keep everyone happy but so many come in mad, depressed or just ignorant. Drives me crazy. Seeing this people come in makes me depressed.
A lady came in last night who was really old and out of it. She was overweight and had to be chair lifted in and out. So sad. They had to drag her in to do dialysis....I hope that NEVER happens to me.

[kitkatz]

One clinic I was in we had two old ladies who would get into a verbal fight.  One was in a wheel chair. The other bed ridden, but boy could they curse one another out.
Another lady would scream ( and I DO mean SCREAM!)  "Take me off" every five minutes or so for the last two hours of her session.
I have heard patients curse out staff because they were not put on soon enough, or taken off soon enough, or for weight loss or gain on the scale.
I try to be pleasant, but wake me up at your own peril.

[wvgirl]

I had Charlie.. When I started dialysis I felt sorry for him. Wheeled in on a stretcher.. yelled at nurses, didn't know where he was. Well, I like crazy people, which should tell you something about me, so I asked if I could sit by him.  We became friends. He wanted to run away with me and take me out for a steak. The techs knew how much I cared about him, and they couldn't figure it out. He even told my boyfriend to step aside. He told me stories and it made my time go by quicker. Last week I went in, and he wasn't there. He passed away at the hospital. The techs said that his daughter told them he was cussing out nurses till the end. I sat in my chair and cried that day. My next treatment they put Sarah beside me. She carries a baby doll and cries alot. I got to talking to her and she told me the squad driver was hot. I think I am going to like Sarah. I think they put her there to get my mind off Charlie.

[Riki]

One clinic I was in we had two old ladies who would get into a verbal fight.  One was in a wheel chair. The other bed ridden, but boy could they curse one another out.

I would be laughing my hole out at that...

There's 2 guys at my unit.  They are  younger guys (one is a few years younger than I am, the other a few years older) and they socialize outside of dialysis.  They tend to sit next to each other during treatment, so they talk.  They tend to sound like a couple of old women, and it's comical to listen to, but you know they're getting into the juicy stuff when they start texting each other..

[sullidog]

at my old center we had a lady who would try to borrow money and try to get other patients to order food for her or buy food, then when confronted she would get mad and start arguing with you because you wouldn't give her any money or get her food. Then one day she got arrested for stealing stakes and braws from wallmart, they arrested her in her wheelchair as she was driving it home.

[Lillupie]

Girl, there is a guy named Stacy without an E on here with a very funny blog, and he is on facebook as Stacy Hoblitzell. And let me tell you he has plenty of those "crazies" at his center to the point that Im laughing for days after reading his blog.

Lisa

[ceb3370]

yeah i encounter a lot of that in our center
, there are ones who doesn't care about their situation and always ask for food and soft drinks, if his/her relatives don't

give his request, he/she will start yelling or cries, that would really disturb other patients specially those who are sleeping.

But majority of this people are the elderly though.

[Annig83]

I'm glad to hear these stories, it makes me feel not so alone when I get someone who's a little less than competent next to me.  The nurses have moved me next to a 76 year old man named "Bud".  He's very nice, but gets depressed when his neph. changes his medications, or his time on the machine (which anyone would).  He ignored me yesterday since the neph. came in and changed his time up to 4 hours.  Normally, he talks to me about his crazy wife and how she complains about cooking chicken for him everyday. 

[MightyMike]

There is a woman in my clinic she talks to herself then starts screaming at the techs for no reason.  She was on the other day screaming that her treatment is only suppose to be 4 hours and she was only on for 2 1/2 unfortunately we had to listen to that for the remainder of her treatment.  Everyone has there problems but it does get annoying when your trying to get in a nap and you have to listen to the outbursts.  Best wishes.

[MommyChick]

Other the years I have learned to laugh it off! I have seen my share of crazy people at my clinic.
When I first started there was this older guy who hated coming to dialysis. he drove himself but b/c he hated it so much he would take pills that made him loopy. He wasn't really loud but always trying to either unhook himself or try to smoke while on the machine.. or play with lighters, I'm surprised he never caught anything on fire, the nurses always had to yell at him.
Then there's the ones who yell... right now there are a few at my clinic.. Always asking what time is it, or swearing up a storm b/c there not waited on hand & foot ( like there the only ones there) or yelling to get off the machine early. It used to really bother me, but I just laugh at them... i figure there my entertainment for the next few hours & if they want to be miserable.. better them then me!

[Bajanne]

WOW!  I now see that the people on dialysis with me are totally boring.  Not one crazy or eccentric!  The nearest to eccentric is the guy who says to everyone as he leaves 'Enjoy the rest of your dialysis'.

[Annig83]

Today, I had to sit in a different chair than usual.  I sat next to "Larry".  He looks like a leprechaun...no joke... he told me himself!

[sullidog]

We just had this new patient that came in yesterday, well his chair wasn't ready when he came in so his wife got mad b/c she claims she was told his chair time was at such and such time and this person whom doesn't even work at our center called her and the tech told htem that such and such person doesn't work at this center, well the wife argued that they did, and then the guy starts cussing, f bom cussing mind you, throws a puzzle, and walks out the door, and then calls the fmc complaint line saying that the staff was rude, I witnessed the whole thing, the staff was not rude to him, just simply told him that they didn't know this person they were refering to, the patient was the one acting the fool and being rude not the staff. But yeah he threw the puzzle and left.

[Riki]

I know how you feel, Bajanne... There aren't any really crazy people in my unit either, unless you include me.. *LOL*  On Facebook, I refer to the nurses as "the crazy people" and it took a while for some of my facebook friends to catch on to what I was talking about

I don't think the head nurse is too pleased with me right now, because I complained too much about where I was sitting, and that they could get me off in time to catch the bus home with the head nurse wasn't there, but when she was, they couldn't.. They were putting me in a corner by the window, in a place where I couldn't see anyone, which is a known anxiety issue with me, and no call bell if anything were to go wrong.  I don't exactly have a booming voice, and I can't yell loud enough to get their attention, unless I scream, and I don't really want to do that.. I took my complaints to the social worker, and I think she is who got things figured out for me

[boswife]

im tellen ya,, you all are making me want to go back to the center     I REALLY do miss this stuff..  hope ya keep sharing 

[ceb3370]

well in our center (which is own by government),, we can't really argue or complain to the nurses, i can still remember that there's one patient who argue to this 2 nurse i forgot what they argue, and the next week, this patient encounters this 2 nurses again, her machine is already ready and she sits there waiting to be injected, but the nurses just pass through her, and 3 hours pass , she hasn't started yet,  can you imagine that? the poor patient just went outside and decides to go home.  I don't know what happen next. I just heard that the two parties got a discussion on the head nurse on our center.

[AnnieB]

  Baaaaahhhhhhh!  Baaaaahhhhh!  Bleep! Bleep!

you took the woofs right out of my mouth...

[sullidog]

Well I have another one for you,
This week I'm doing Mon, Wed, and Sat do to thanksgiving, there was this patient who kept asking how much time does he have left and to take him off, and then he said he needs the number so he can call the police, when asked why does he need to call the police he said so they can come and pick me up. He kept asking this over and over and then he asked one of the techs to call the police so they can pick him up and take him home.

[gothiclovemonkey]

I AM the crazy at my clinic
 

[dialysis.sucks]

We have several at the clinic I go too... I feel really bad for them. It seems the place (home) they are at before or after doesn't necessarily take the best care of them. I'm not sure if they even apply the lidocaine as they have to be slightly restrained often to start dialysis.. One in particular can get rather loud, but noise canceling headphones and an Ipod on high and you're ok, but then, and I know this sounds weird, I feel kinda bad for tuning them out...