Don't "F" with my chair!

[Rerun]

I don't know why, but I "need" to have the same chair in the same spot.  I need to know where I'm going to be and it makes me nuts to have to sit somewhere else.  They "know" this about me.  So, a week ago I get this other spot because the idiot wasn't done bleeding in mine.  I decide not to say anything.  I mean once a year I can handle.  Well, they must have misunderstood my passave behavior as "it must be okay with her now."  WRONG-O   Today I get the other spot again.  I was so mad.  I hate that chair because it is built for a 6 foot tall 400 pound man.  I get back and can't get up.  I move and it flies back.  I flipped out.  The doctor made her yearly visit and happened to ask me "How are you today."  I let her have it too. 

Then Mr. Always LATE gets my chair!  I was so pissed!   

I'm never late and I'm an easy patient.  I don't ask for much except "Don't "F" with my chair!

[kitkatz]

I pretty much know how you feel.  I got the broken chair the other night and bitched loudly about it.  I was not happy.  I could not go back in the chair or get up.  I was pissed by the end of the night.  Just because I don't care where I sit, does not mean I want to sit in the broken ass chair!

[deej]

I know what you mean. There is some 400 lb. clown who likes to fall into the chairs and he´s always getting my chair in the session before me. So when I get "my" chair, it´s either broken, half-broken or sunken almost to the floor! I complain about the backaches I get from it but who´s listening . . . ?

[kevno]

I feel sorry for th idiot sitting in your chair. I bet he/she got the Rerun GLARE  

[Bajanne]

I don't understand why the chair situation always seems to be like this.  They know how many patients are coming for dialysis.  Why can't they just assign a chair to a person and keep it like that?  I never know where I am going to be
 - in the hot section of the room
 - in the freezing section (which I like)
 - in front of the tv which has lots of stations
 - in front of the tv with only a few stations
 - not being able to see the tv at all.
 - in the section where you don't get a cellphone signal
But I have learnt to accept whichever I get.  They made it clear from the start that this is how it would be, so I don't even worry anymore.

[BigSky]

It always could be worse.  Our unit had some real nice comfy chairs and they went and bought new ones.  It was nice and the chairs are nice but they are nice POS that are uncomfortable and make you feel like your sitting in a high chair.

[kitkatz]

We have those damned chairs too.  I finally figured out what is wrong with those chairs, there is no where for your butt to go. The other chairs recline like a recliner, this one just slides, no place for the butt to slide into for a comfy ride!

[angieskidney]

We have those damned chairs too.  I finally figured out what is wrong with those chairs, there is no where for your butt to go. The other chairs recline like a recliner, this one just slides, no place for the butt to slide into for a comfy ride!

Ya we only have these light medical-green plastic-like (I forget what that material is called) recliners that are comfy at first but sitting in them for 3+ hrs is pure hell and your back sweats and your butt aches I hate it! But some chair spots are worse than others because in my unit we have our own TV's but not like at the hospital where you can reach the buttons and change the channel (even though most of them are broken and you have to put the buttons extremely hard). At my unit there are big TV's on the ceiling for each of us out of reach so we have to use remote controls. But if you aim it wrong you change someone else's channel and it bugs me when I am watching a good movie and every 5 minutes some channel surfer changes my channel. What makes it worse is if  you get to sit in the middle of the room ... you change everyone else's channel and can't help it. Good thing I normally get the end chair but if I want to learn button-hole this will change

[Bajanne]

Thank goodness, I have no problem with the chairs themselves.  We have nice recliners which are covered with a fresh sheet.  You can sit up, lie back, and when you have a low BP problem, they put your head right back.
What I take with me is a kind of neck pillow I got in KMart some years back when I had a pain in my neck and was travelling in a plane.  With that I am able to rest my head on it to a side to sleep nicely.
The chairs also have trays to both sides, and I am able to park my bag, books, etc. on one side.

[angieskidney]

Thank goodness, I have no problem with the chairs themselves.  We have nice recliners which are covered with a fresh sheet.  You can sit up, lie back, and when you have a low BP problem, they put your head right back.
What I take with me is a kind of neck pillow I got in KMart some years back when I had a pain in my neck and was travelling in a plane.  With that I am able to rest my head on it to a side to sleep nicely.
The chairs also have trays to both sides, and I am able to park my bag, books, etc. on one side.

Oh ya my chair has 2 side tables as well but I must put one down or I can't reach the buttons on my machine when it alarms.  Also Sandman bought me one of those neck thingies and I love it 

I can put my chair a little back but not all the way back without a nurses help so that sucks I hardly ever get visitors so there is no one to help me if I can't get ahold of a nurse (I have only had 2 visitors and that was during one week the same week in all the whole year I have now been on hemo. At first when I was still in the hospital as an in-patient I got more visitors then but that was different so I am not counting that as dialysis visitors especially since that was so long ago ...

But I find it very hard to fall asleep in the dialysis chairs I have even if I am exhausted ..

[kitkatz]

(Off the topic, but here goes)
I have found that the dialysis clinic is overwhelming for most people. That is why they do not come and visit us more often.  Most people are not comfortable with the sight of blood and nurses and all the noise.  We think of it as normal, but it is a very noisy place.  We are there three days a week for hours at a time.  We are used to the noise and confusion and grumpiness around us.  The dialysis center is a scary place.  Remember your first few times in clinic.  It is like that for visitors. They don't know where to look or not look.  They don't know where to sit or what they can and cannot do with you.  And most of the time it is hard to have a conversation because of the noise.

[angieskidney]

(Off the topic, but here goes)
I have found that the dialysis clinic is overwhelming for most people. That is why they do not come and visit us more often.  Most people are not comfortable with the sight of blood and nurses and all the noise.  We think of it as normal, but it is a very noisy place.  We are there three days a week for hours at a time.  We are used to the noise and confusion and grumpiness around us.  The dialysis center is a scary place.  Remember your first few times in clinic.  It is like that for visitors. They don't know where to look or not look.  They don't know where to sit or what they can and cannot do with you.  And most of the time it is hard to have a conversation because of the noise.

oh I guess it is hard for me to see it from their point of view but I can understand if I try hard enough. You see, I have been in and out of hospitals since I was 9 years old .. so the dialysis unit was just like the hospital atmosphere and didn't bother me at all. I had to go into the hemo unit even when I was on PD because I needed IV Iron a lot and a few Blood Transfusions over the years.

But I guess some people do get queasy. There are a few people I know that when I try to explain dialysis to them make "that face" and shake their head and say "ugh noooo!!"  ... so ya ..  plus an ex-boyfriend of mine said he didn't visit me while I was in the hospital because every time HE went to the hospital someone died. I guess he thought I would too...

[kevno]

Never had visitors while on the machine, the unit as no room for visitors. There is only just enough room for the patients. When I first started on Haemo when I was Ten years old, my Mum was told not to come with me to the unit after only one week on haemo. Which I suppose made me more independent as a child on haemo. Plus helped all the times I had to go onto the wards for operations.

[goofynina]

They dont allow any visitors under the age of 14 in our clinics and patients under 18 gets dialyzed at the Childrens Hospital here.  Were there other kids besides you in the clinic?  i think that would be traumatic to go through as a child, they should've at least let you mom come with you.  I am sorry you had to go through that Kevno...

[Sara]

I'd like to visit with Joe during dialysis but so far I haven't been allowed back and I really haven't had the time or energy to protest too loudly.  I'm gearing up for a big one though!   

[goofynina]

Hi Sara,  you mentioned that you "havent been allowed back"  did they kick you out or something?  Because you being his wife should be able to go with him.

[kitkatz]

You definitely need to be in there with him so you can get to know the procedures and nurses and techs better.  Just saying hi is  not going to be enough for you to have any say so in his treatment. You have to get them to let you in.  Be nice about it, but be firm.

[Sara]

Hi Sara, you mentioned that you "havent been allowed back" did they kick you out or something? Because you being his wife should be able to go with him.

Haven't ever been allowed in the back treatment area with him, is what I mean.  When he first started dialysis, we asked and were told no on 2 different occassions.  Then when he was in the hospital this week and had dialysis I wasn't allowed to stay with him.  From people on this board, I've learned that's not right, but I just haven't had the energy to fight them.  I'm working on that though. 

[Panda_9]

How on earth can they not fit one person in there to visit? What a crock!

[Joe Paul]

My chair, as in school, is way back in the corner of the unit. I wonder if somehow my teachers are behind all of it, they always said they would get even 

[Bajanne]

So you have your own chair, which you use every time?  That could be nice if it is where you want it to be.

[kevno]

there was six of us children being dialyized at the same time. But we all had a room to ourself. Just the machine in there plus the kidney which was 6 foot long about 2 wide and less than a foot depth. You needed a spanner set to dismantle it after every dialysis.

All of the children on the unit then where under 16years of age it was a children hospital. Four rooms in one part of the unit had glass all around so you could see the other kids. But not to talk to. Then two single rooms. Alway from all the others.

We could only play at the end of dialysis while we were waiting for transport home. The Nurses where always about to play games. Then the TV. I remember the first time ever on haemo. Being held down to get the needle in. All I could hear was the bloody music from the start of Scooby Doo. I still hate that cartoon today, brings back the memories of that day

There is a picture somewhere on the site of me taking an picture of the Princess Micheal of Kent when she opened the new wing of the unit.

Kevno

[Panda_9]

What would you do if someone else liked the same chair as you and also wanted that spot every time? 

[kitkatz]

I would play rocks, scissors, paper for the chair.

Throw the other patient out the 2nd story window. Like Little Jack Horner, who sat in a corner, eating his Christmas pie, Put in his thumb, pulled out a plum, and threw it out the window, the 2nd story window. LOL

Wrestle the other patient for it.

Smile sweetly and race them to the chair every night I came into the clinic.

Chase them out with my big stick every night they were in my chair.

[goofynina]

You go girlfriend,   I got my bets on YOU,,,, "I got 20 on Kitkatz, anyone else in"