What's with this website?

[Psim]

A friend of mine sent me this URL  www.reindeermotel.com/SEVENLUCKYSTARS/sevenlucky_ourstory.html saying it had info on new options for non-matching transplants. The first thing I saw on there was "... the average life span on dialysis is 2 to 5 years." If this is this true, I've been really misinformed (please let me know!).  It makes me wonder about other info on the site.





EDITED: Fixed Link URL - Sluff/Admin

[flip]

I've seen similar numbers somewhere and it may be true. But they don't factor in such things as other medical problems and age. Most die of something other than kidney disease.

[twirl]

a man in my unit celebrated his 26th year on dialysis, shortly after that he died
he was maybe in his 50's --- hard to tell
he was carried in on a bed
he was unable to walk and was fragile
he always ate Popeye's Fried Chicken or he would order Pizza Hut
he was Cajun and he was still living at home
he was always on his cell phone

[flip]

It was probably the chicken. If it had been KFC, he would probably still be with you. Sounds like he wasn't following his diet very well.

[okarol]

Included in the number of patient's life expectancy are people who are 80 to 90 years old who live only weeks or months on dialysis. If you removed them I think the numbers would look better.

[MiSSis]

That statement made me wonder if they were referring to the average length of time a dialysis patient waits for a cadaver transplant, not knowing about the possibility of non-matching transplants.  Figures like they've stated can always be manipulated to give a specific outcome when someone is trying to make a point.  It sounds so much more threatening when they state it the way they have.  I guess I'm only a "youngster" with only 4 1/2 years of dialysis under my belt but I know we have others here who have been on dialysis much longer and many of them by choice.

[boxman55]

I hate it when I see life expectency numbers. Who the heck comes up with those. I am 20 months on dialysis so I have 4 more months to live? You know you could go nuts if you took that as gospal. I am going to be signing on at the UW Wisconsin Hospital which is part of this group so any advancement in matching people is cool with me. If I live that long  ...Boxman

[kitkatz]

Nine years, folks.  Stick your numbers where the sun don't shine statistics makers. 

[KT0930]

At one of the units where I did hemo, there was a man who had recently been in the local paper for "celebrating" his 25th year doing dialysis. He walked in by himself, and while obviously not the healthiest person I've ever met, he looked great compared to most of the other patients in the room! It's all about taking care of yourself, watching your diet, and not taking these numbers as gospel...as others have said, the numbers include people who start dialysis at 90 years old and have other things wrong with them, as well as ESRD.

[Sluff]

Epoman made 12, Goofynina 3. There is a lot of things that go into these numbers. Other health issues make a huge difference and the age of the deceased is one of them.   

Kitkatz I hope you make 9 more and then some.

[Bajanne]

My brother was in very poor health when he started dialysis at 51 - he had already gone blind because of diabetes.   He saw a doctor in the US, started dialysis there, then came home to Barbados.  At that time, they only used to dialyse him twice a week, and the doctor from the US had said he needed to be dialysed 3 times a week or he would not last 3 years.  Well he was on that 2 days for quite a while until they shifted him to 3 days.  And with all those problems, my  brother lived until 61.
Big stick those statistics, Kitkatz!!!! 

[kevno]

Well Five years of hemo in the 70s Had transplant in the 80s back on dialysis May 1988 Just had my 20th year back on dialysis. Still Here, plus have no plans to leave just yet. My diary is to FULL 

[LightLizard]

one of my oldest friends, back east, who i went to public school with (!) has had two thirds of his lungs removed. he has been told by his doctors that he has a year left to live. i think doctors who give out this kind of information should have their license revoked. 'first, do no harm...' sure. do no harm to your bank account. some doctors really suck.
 

[rose1999]

I know what you mean LL, Dad is in hospital just now and last week (after he'd had a couple of minor heart attacks) the cardiologist stood by his bed and said "there's an 80% chance the next attack will be a major one and you will die" - isn't hearing that enough to cause an attack!!

[G-Ma]

OMG...where do they find these Drs?  George's Cardiologist in SC was such a gentle man...everytime he did a procedure he would take me into the nurses station show me exactly what he did...he comforted me when I creid...he was awesome and once he had done all he could he again met with me in a small room, told me very gently everything that was going on.  I asked him approxomately how long and he told me what he thought and he and I decided we did not want George to know and when we moved to TN that Cardiologist called periodically to check on George and the info the Dr had given me was on the mark..about 2 days off.  My eye surgeon in ND was like this as well.  I guess they don't make many of this type of Dr.

[Lillupie]

Is this cardiologist name Dr. Dizon? If you ever get Dr. Dizon he is the nicest doctor i ever had. He went to SC from Mi.

Lisa

OMG...where do they find these Drs?  George's Cardiologist in SC was such a gentle man...everytime he did a procedure he would take me into the nurses station show me exactly what he did...he comforted me when I creid...he was awesome and once he had done all he could he again met with me in a small room, told me very gently everything that was going on.  I asked him approxomately how long and he told me what he thought and he and I decided we did not want George to know and when we moved to TN that Cardiologist called periodically to check on George and the info the Dr had given me was on the mark..about 2 days off.  My eye surgeon in ND was like this as well.  I guess they don't make many of this type of Dr.

[cesposito2]

A friend of mine sent me this URL  www.reindeermotel.com/SEVENLUCKYSTARS/sevenlucky_ourstory.html saying it had info on new options for non-matching transplants. The first thing I saw on there was "... the average life span on dialysis is 2 to 5 years." If this is this true, I've been really misinformed (please let me know!).  It makes me wonder about other info on the site.





EDITED: Fixed Link URL - Sluff/Admin

I have been on dialysis almost 20 years (between 4 kidney transplants), but my longest consecutive number of years on dialysis, so far, is almost 8 years.