What we see and hear.

[Rerun]

I often sit at dialysis and think "if my friends and family could only see this or hear that".  It is unbelievable what I am exposed to that normal people don't have to endure.

Today I have my eyes closed and I hear someone gagging while trying to say "I need a bag".  Now, You don't hear that everyday at the work place.

Walking in today there is blood all over the sidewalk, in the lobby and as I tip toe through that I get to the sink and you would have thought someone had soldered a pig!  Not what I would want to see in a normal day.

Then there is Doris who sits across from me who hasn't had her toe nails clipped for 5 years!  She kicks off her slippers and there they are for 3 hours.

Next time you go to dialysis just sit and watch and listen and come write about the absurd things you see. 

[okarol]

eeek! Don't sugarcoat it - tell it like it is! 

I used to feel such angst, leaving Jenna at 18 years old in the center - luckily she'd put a pillow over her head and sleep. The thing she couldn't ignore were the rescue attempts on patients who had passed away.

No one knows who hasn't been in a dialysis center.

One day we had to go in for an early shift so Jenna could go away that weekend. She sat next to a guy who proceeded to talk loudly about all the "pot he smoked and pussy he got" the day before. I finally went up to him and said "Hey! Knock it off!" But within 10 minutes he was ranting again. Amazing. The techs all shrugged their shoulder when I complained. Luckily that wasn't Jenna's regular shift or i would have given that guy some lessons in good manners 

And Jenna was in one of the best centers in Southern California! 

[Bajanne]

Wow, our unit is so tame!  The only time it gets bizarre is this lady who can be a bit demented at times.  I feel very badly because she was a high-ranking government official.  In fact, she was the Minister of Health at one point, and an elected Member of the government.  She is quite a wealthy woman with lots of property, but that doesn't seem to help her. She is unmarried.  Her caretaker no longer even comes with her.  The ambulance brings her each time.  At one point she used to say that it was a garbage truck which was bringing her to dialysis!  I don't understand why they don't pay someone to be with her.  Her eyes are bad and she can't see, so she just calls out for people and the nurses get a bit tired of her.  It is very sad for me.  I would hate to be like that.

[goofynina]

I often think the same thing Rerun,  i also think about if people could only feel the aches and pains i feel, the daily cramping, the neuropathy in my feet, damn, they dont know what they are missing   

[Adam_W]

When I was in-centre, one of the first things I thought when I started was "geeze this is a depressing place." All theses old people literally looking half dead (although I probably looked the same when I first started). The most scary things I saw were other patients getting sick. One guy right next to me had a really bad seizure, and the poor guy was crying for his momma. That was hard for me to see. I was also sitting next to a lady one day who started having very severe chest pain, so much so that she was screaming. We all thought she was having a heart attack, and I was thinking "Oh no I'm going to sit here and watch this poor lady die right next to me and there's nothing I can do". Fortunately she ended up being ok. I think the saddest thing that I saw was when I was dialyzing in the acute unit at the hospital. There was a young girl (maybe 12 or 13) on the same shift as me, and she would cry the whole time she was there. The thing that I will never forget was when I heard her cry "God please help me I can't handle this." That really broke my heart. There were also some good times, though. One day we all got to laughing and joking about bungee jumping and sky diving, and at one point I got to laughing so hard I kept setting off alarms. I wish I had more good memories than bad in the centre and hospital, but it didn't work out that way.

Adam

[Rerun]

There is Mr. Johnson who is blind and in a wheel chair.  The driver wheels him in the clinic where the patients are, not the lobby to wait.  He sits there and hollers for his chair.  "My Chair Ready Yet"  no, it will be about 15 minutes.  Two minutes later "My Chair ready yet" on and on every fricking dialysis day.  Once in a while I'll disguise my voice and say "You're here on the wrong day" or "It won't be ready for 2 hours".

I have to get my kicks some how!   

[goofynina]

   AYE YI YI RERUN, lol,  girrrrrl, i am tellin'ya, you trip me out 

[donnia]

  OMG Rerun I just shot tea out of my nose!!!

[angela515]

 

[2_DallasCowboys]

This may sound really bad- my husband's unit is
right next to a cemetary.  This really does not make
well for when you are arriving or leaving.
Also, there is a poor woman who is two chairs away
from Les, she is older and has Altziemers.  Her husband
is her caregiver, and stayswith her thru the treatments,
3 hrs  and three times a week.  I would have to say this
man is truly an angel!

Anne

[Rerun]

I said "see and hear" I forgot smell.

I missed dialysis yesterday due to those blockages in my neck so I had to go today.  I, of course, didn't get MY regular chair.  They stuck me in the back RIGHT next to the bathroom.  OMG this old guy woke me out of a dead sleep and then when he came out I was gagging!  No where to run, I'm tied to a freaking chair.  The next few people that were heading that way I stopped them and said "I'm sorry but the toilet is plugged so you'll have to use the one up front."

                                                               

[goofynina]

  Rerun strikes again    Damn i wish you were in my clinic when i went 

[okarol]

 
you're so funny Rerun - I told ya, you crack me up!
 

[RichardMEL]

Oh ReRun I know your pain (?) well.

I dialyze in a hospital unit (I live right over the road and they are good enough to have me there rather than sending me to a regular unit which is further away). So I see it all.. just like you. The dying... the manic... the guys with heart attacks... the people throwing up all the time... the crying ones... the ones who yell they want to get the hell out after 15 minutes... the ones whose first time it is.... In fact we get a LOT of first timers, or as I like to think "Dialysis Virgins" - sometimes they sit them next to me because for some dumb reason they seem to think I'm a "good" patient and can help by talking to these folks(if they want) or whatever... sometimes I do and can and it's good... other times not so good.

It is absolutely right that those who do not experience our world, or visit it, have no real idea....

and it's funny I had a visitor awhile back who said something like "geez, these nurses have it easy! A few people in chairs they can leave for 5 hours at a go.. just wander around and check BP's every hour... blah blah" and I told them off soundly. Yeah it may look like they sit around but I tell you what.. if someone has a problem... it's action stations.. and I mean ACTION... and that's when you know these guys and girls really know their stuff and they work really hard to help when there's something going on. That's when I know I'm in the right place despite all the smells and blood and puke and crazies and whatever.

I love my unit

[Jannie]

I've seen so many people unconscious or even comatose, and they're mostly so OLD they scare me. One man named James was on Chair 3 one day and they put me next to him in chair 4. He asked me my name and he told me his life story. He's 76 and has been dialyzing for 12 years. He turned down a transplant, saying it should go to someone younger. He told mer to avoid fluid overload. And when I get a transplant, take the anti-rejection medication faithfully. He told me he knew 4 people who got transplants that failed because they wouldn't take the immunosuppressants, and they all have died. But the next treatment he was in a complete daze, just staring straight ahead. He does scare me. I don't want to end up like that.

[Stacy Without An E]

Some of the events that have transpired over the last three and a half years at my Dialysis center are burned into my memory and they strike me when I least expect it:

--- Carol was in her mid-30's and undergoing chemotherapy at the same time she was enduring Dialysis.  We were seated next to each other a lot at night, so we got to know each other.  The last time she was at Dialysis, she was speaking incoherently and her eyes were foggy.  The next time I went to Dialysis I learned she had passed away.  I really miss her, she made Dialysis tolerable in the short time she was with us.

--- When I was on days this elderly woman was having trouble with her access and kept yelling, "Please!  Please!  Just let me die!"  It was horrifying to say the least.

--- There was the middle aged guy in an electric wheel chair who was a terror.  He would always bump into your chair and your elevated feet without saying anything, just gave you a dirty look like it was your fault.  Then when he was seated next to me, he would blast his TV.  I would ask the tech to ask him to turn it down, but once they walked away he would crank it up again.  Just a really miserable guy.

Those are just of the few of the memories I can conjure up right now.  Horror movies have nothing on us.

[livecam]

I simply remember in-center hemo as being a little chamber of horrors.  I think that describes it accurately.  I'm not talking about bad units, just about some of the things that go on in all units.  If I ever have to do it again it will be at home...my mental state would be a thousand percent better here rather than there.

[angela515]

If I ever have to do hemo again, I will probably have to do it in-center... I don't think I could ever stick myself.

My eperience with in-center hemo though, was just..... boring. I was always getting stared at because I was always the youngest one.. I started at age 20, and looked to be age 12... and then again at age 25 looked about age 16... Still today nobody actually guesses my age, so yay on that.

I remember some people just being way out of it... some people yelling and complaining at the top of their lungs. This one lasy I did not like, was way overweight, and I sat next to her so i heard everytime the dr came to talk to her and he kept telling her she had to lose weight to #1, switch to PD and #2 to get on the transplant list, and yet everytime I saw her in dialysis she was eating fast food, bags of chips, cookies, whatever else is bad that wouldn't help her lose weight.. so it's like she wasn't even trying.

[KR Cincy]

I wasn't in-center long, but even I dropped the average age in the place and I'm 46!
The only story of note was on really really BIG dude who having all sorts of problems controlling his liquids. The staff told him to try popsicles instead of cans of ginger ale to try and control his thirst and slow down the intake. One day, in the waiting room, the charge nurse came out and asked him if he was doing popsicles, and he said yes, and when asked how many he ate the night before he said 14! They tried to explain to him that 14 was sort of defeating the purpose but he just mumbled that he was addicted to them. He had to go in-center for two days in a row to try and pull all the liquid off.

[kitkatz]

Tonight I was nominated for Beyotch of the year in my center,  The tech was checking my blood pressure and woke me up out of a dead sleep and I hollered "What?" One of them explained they were checking my blood pressure because it was down.  I guess they scared me and I reacted. Next time wake me gently.

[Stacy Without An E]

Just recently this beautiful young woman starting sitting next to me in the center.  Short blonde hair (I love short-hiared women), pouty lips, amazing skin and she always wears these really tight jeans.  The entire time she doesn't notice my subtle stares because she has her nose buried in a laptop. 

I'd thank her for her presence, but that would be rude.  And kinda creepy.

And yes, women are my Kryptonite.  I hope I'm never cured.

[paris]

Stacy, you have to talk to her!  Don't wait - now is the moment!  Tell her you know of a good website she might like.  You are a professional talker, good looking--you must have some smooth lines perfect for this situation.  Don't wait for a second chance.  I will be waiting to hear all the details

[goofynina]

Excellent advice Paris,  Stacy, you can print out one of our flyers and use that to break the ice (so to say)    Good luck to you and please let us know 

[KR Cincy]

Let's all help out with some great opening lines....here we go:

1. Wanna feel my thrill?
1a. Can I feel your thrill?
2. Sooooooo....how long you runnin'?
3. he he he...doesn't fistula sound dirty?
4. I know all the techs here...you want somethin', you ask me and I'll get it.
5, NO...seriously...we call him Sluff...
6. Care to meet me on MyRenalRomance.com??
7. No...I swear...I'm not smuggling a banana in here!

[goofynina]

 

Let's all help out with some great opening lines....here we go:

1. Wanna feel my thrill?
1a. Can I feel your thrill?
2. Sooooooo....how long you runnin'?
3. he he he...doesn't fistula sound dirty?
4. I know all the techs here...you want somethin', you ask me and I'll get it.
5, NO...seriously...we call him Sluff...
6. Care to meet me on MyRenalRomance.com??
7. No...I swear...I'm not smuggling a banana in here!

Your killin me Smalls    (KR Cincy)