Center may change patient times!

[karen547]

I was talking to my tech Cindy tonight, and she told me that the supervsor may be changing patient times due to the confusion at shiift change. I wont mind if it's by a few minutes , but I go to school full time and cant really make any changes to my school schedule now. I am also paying about 2 grand a quarter, so I really cannot afford to be late for a class. I guess i will wait and see what happens!

[Chris]

Who's having the confusion in the first place? If the workerdoesn't know when their shift ends, I don't want them working on me. The schedule is usually written down a week in advance. Or they should just be honest and say we want to go home early. Hope your not going to be interrupted due to their stupidity.

[del]

Go to the head nurse or the person in charge of the clinic and explain your situation.  They were going to change hubby's time once from early morning to late in the afternoon which meant after treatment he would have to do an hours drive in the dark on a country road.  He said no way and went to the head of the unit and his time did not get changed.  Some people who worked in the afternoon had their times arranged for the morning.

[Kitsune]

If my center did that shit, I'd split. We're keeping them in business, not the other way around and we need to stand up for ourselves, instead of being good little patients who meekly say, "Okay, I'll do what you say, as long as it makes you happy." They don't care about our happiness, why should we care about theirs? Yes, I know it's a stretch, but people on dialysis do have lives outside dialysis that they like to get home to. If they want to do something like that, put all the nursing home people on the late shifts, it's not like they really go anywhere outside of dialysis anyway, and since they claim to like going there for company, can all sit and bend each other's ears, sparing those of us younger people who don't want to see that picture of the son or daughter who never comes to see them or whatever for the 1,000th time.

[karen547]

MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY. I am so sick of having the geriatric like patients whos come in always be on  during days!~ I mean i like my time slot now, but some days, like now during the summer, i would like to come in a bit early, but when I call, they say they are full! Yeah and when I come in, it's 9 times out of ten a person who is about half dead from being ancient anyways! GRR. im sorry to be so mean about old people, but in particular the older ppl in my unit are crabby old spinsters who half the time are complaining, and im like well hello if you dont like it, you cal always go into a hospice and die a nice peaceful death, and us younger patients can get the treatment instead! Oh and theres this one older lady whos always staring at me. I dunno if its because im the youngest at our unit or what, but some days I feel like a goldfish in a bowl! Sorry I ranted on and on, i  really dont mind all older people, just seems like the ones here on dialysis really have sticks up their butts, and are rude to the nurses or techs.

[monrein]

Why is it necessary to dump on old people.  Being old and sick is no picnic.  I find it unbecoming to be so oblivious to what others might be going through.  It's hard enough being old without being belittled by younger people.  An older person staring might simply be thinking "OMG that poor girl, she's so young.  I do wish she didn't have this burden"  OR they might be a complete idiot OR they might be spacing out and just looking THROUGH you so to speak.  To say that people on dialysis who complain are crabby old spinsters who could find a hospice and die peacefully if they don't like whatever it is, is just plain intolerant.  You know how we think techs should be in our positions to "get it", maybe young people should have to inhabit the skins of these people they seem to think have no worth.  We don't have to turn on each other in this struggle.  Older folks are just like us except that usually they're dealing with a greater number and degree of losses.  They don't love their dead partners any less, they just don't have them any more. 

I hate when older people cut young people no slack for their energy, their choice of music or whatever.  AND I stick up for young people who are disrespected in this way by older ones.   Lack of empathy isn't pretty, no matter the age of the person who's being dismissive of someone at a different stage of life.  BTW, I'd be quite willing to take a less convenient shift if it would help some young person have a fuller life but if that same person wouldn't be appreciative of the fact that I'm willing to do that and if they thought it would make no difference to me because I don't have a life anyway cuz I'm old and so I should have to do it, I'd for sure NOT be changing a thing.

Sorry for this little rant but I feel especially sorry for the oldest AND the youngest on dialysis and my heart also bleeds for all those in between.  We don't need to beat up on anyone.

[Deanne]

I hope the times work out for you!

Some of my closest friends have been older people and I cherish their friendships. They don't want to be sitting in that chair any more than you do and they have the same rights as you do. They're the same as you really, only with a greater degree of wisdom, learned from life experiences as they've aged. Their plans for the day are as important to them as your plans are to you. They want love, understanding, companionship, and kindness, just like you do. Some are patient people, some are impatient, but who can really blame them for their impatience? Their time is limited and they still have so much living to do! They don't have time to be sick or pay "games" at dialysis. They want their treatment done with so they can get back to their lives.

Many (most) of the older people that I'm friends with can't handle late evenings (and to some of them, 8:00 pm is late!). Some of them get so tired that they start to feel sick. I remember one friend (89 years old at the time) telling me how awful she felt (sick) when another friend didn't understand that she couldn't handle being out in the evening, yet this friend wouldn't take her home.

Someday, God willing, we'll be their age, too and might also be feeling ill and cranky. When I get there, you're d*mn right I'm going to be annoyed when some young kid with her whole life ahead of her wants to be put on dialysis before me, who might only have a few months left to live.

[karen547]

This board is supposed to be  a place where ppl can share their feelings, opinions. good or bad, i dont think i want to stay if im going to be attacked. I may have my whole life ahead of me or i may not. I have seen others with comments that I dont agree with, but have said nothing. So goodbye for now.

[karen547]

I did not say older people dont really have a life at all. I am saying AT MY CENTER, the older patients are the ones who complain the most and dont seem to appreciate the treatment. And yes I am a full time student and dont appreciate having to change my time because the staff doesnt know how to better manage time.

[Kitsune]

But Karen,

Didn't you know? This is Unicorn Happyland and we are all supposed to play nice like good little children, and that means if you don't want to say something "nice", don't say anything at all. Go on and say what you want to say, since if we wanted to be chastized or reprimanded for telling our truth, we'd go to the Davita-sponsored forums.

Those of you that are reprimanding and scolding people like myself and Karen for thinking that people who have jobs, school, and/or families to go home to should get earlier timeslots than people who ive in nursing homes and/or group homes and have nothing to go home to except the aides, nurses and other residents, BACK OFF!!!! No one is attacking older people, just the ones who sit in their chair and think that they are the Queen of Sheba or the King of Siam and should get special treatment because they are old or disabled. Put those people together on a late shift and let them bitch, cry and whine to each other, not those of us who don't want to hear it.

I hate dialysis and have problems too, but you don't see me walking around the unit telling people my problems and whole damned life story like some of the old people you see in there. I'm there to get in, get done and get out, and I really don't care if they served you a smaller portion of tapioca pudding for dessert than the person next to you at Hellish Acres Care Home or whatever.  I've got bigger problems and concerns. Go talk to the social worker about it, that's what she's paid for, to listen to your piddly problems.  Man, oh man, do I hate cranky old people who corner people and flap their gums about their minute and insignificant problems. Who cares?

[flip]

We have a Community Services Agency that furnishes transportation for the elderly and disabled. They have a very busy schedule so dialysis patients have to fit into a time slot for dialysis when transportation is available. These vans and buses don't run after 4:30. Also, patients who come by ambulance must come and go when the ambulance is available. Although the majority of the patients ARE old, there are several that are young. Their times have to be scheduled when transportation is available.

I've never known my center to force anyone to another shift.

[twirl]

I am old and sick and I have nothing up my butt, I am always too nice..
I would trade times with you even if I did not want to b/c your education is important.
I am finished with college.
I do not think your time should be changed if you are pleased with it.
the patients needing rides to dialysis have to go on their transporation's schedule
one lady has to wait 40 minutes after she gets there for her put on time and then she waits for her ride
I feel for the young people and hope they make it to be my age and older
I have been told that the patients with insurance are treated much nicer than non-insurance patients
-- I don't know but the techs have told me that
I have insurance and I can not tell I'm treated any differently
good luck
and stay in school
a few months ago or more I PM you that I would send your parents cards
do they still need any
Twirl

[MIbarra]

I agree that we do not need to beat up on anyone in dialysis. None of us want to be sitting in the chair whether we're 23 or 83 and all of us deserve the same respect. No one is more important than anyone else as each individual is valuable to their friends and family. Remember us young ones (I'm 33 maybe not too young anymore)  will be "old ones" soon enough sitting in our dialysis chairs and would appreciate respect at that time.

I don't quite understand why this post went from "my dialysis time is changing" to all of this fuss anyway.

[Sunny]

I'm right there with you on this one Karen.
I do think younger people in need of dialysis should have appropriate times for dialysis to fit their schedules. Bump somebody else's time who doesn't
have a job to get to or a class to attend, or children to care for. Old people are lucky to have made it to where they are. I do, in fact, get tired of
hearing the one's that whine. All I can think is: I SHOULD BE SO LUCKY TO BE YOUR AGE, SO QUIT YOUR GRIPING!

[flip]

I'm old and I don't feel "lucky" to be where I am. I also don't whine. I think I handle dialysis as well as anyone. I've paid into Social Security and Medicare all my life. I still work and have private insurance so I feel like I have as much right to that chair as anyone else.

[karen547]

That was my point to begin with really. And another reason I think the older patients who are losing some of their brain function/bodily function control, and are perhaps living at a nursing home/ hospital should be able to dialyze there. That would seem a lot easier for the patients then having to travel every other day. And just today this older lady- must be near 90 comes in without her blanket, and is complaining about the cold. Now nobody comes in with her or ever visits so I am unaware if she has any relatives nearby or not. But it seems to me whoever she lives with would be sure she had her blanket or a sweater! I mean shes only like 100lbs. And she also had a pretty bad 'accident' today while dialyzing. The whole unit smelled. This seems to happen quite a bit with her and its real sad to see her like that. I guess to me there should be more places that offer dialysis, and ones who only care for the elderly especially, but maybe im just talking out of my butt lol.

[okarol]

That poor lady. I wish she had someone to take better care of her.

[karen547]

Ya me too. I hate to see her like that while the techs just run around 'not noticing'. Tasha this newer tech took her to the bathroom, and the lady was gone after that. I will see if she gets a medi-bus to dialysis next time.

[Chris]

That was my point to begin with really. And another reason I think the older patients who are losing some of their brain function/bodily function control, and are perhaps living at a nursing home/ hospital should be able to dialyze there. That would seem a lot easier for the patients then having to travel every other day.

Here is your mission if you decide to choose it (insert Mission Impossible theme music here)
Start a business that caters to nursing homes to dialyze patients in their room.
You should have some Business schooling, or use an operative for help, mingle your way through Medicare finances to be able to make some sort of profit.
This message will self destruct in  BAM!
Dang it Earl I wasn't finished setting the message! Why did you set it off?  

[flip]

State regulations prohibit it here.

[Joe Paul]

That was my point to begin with really. And another reason I think the older patients who are losing some of their brain function/bodily function control, and are perhaps living at a nursing home/ hospital should be able to dialyze there. That would seem a lot easier for the patients then having to travel every other day. And just today this older lady- must be near 90 comes in without her blanket, and is complaining about the cold. Now nobody comes in with her or ever visits so I am unaware if she has any relatives nearby or not. But it seems to me whoever she lives with would be sure she had her blanket or a sweater! I mean shes only like 100lbs. And she also had a pretty bad 'accident' today while dialyzing. The whole unit smelled. This seems to happen quite a bit with her and its real sad to see her like that. I guess to me there should be more places that offer dialysis, and ones who only care for the elderly especially, but maybe im just talking out of my butt lol.

I agree with your point of view here. I am not against anyone older who has to do dialysis, its just sad and hard to watch (or listen) while they are suffering. Sure, we all can make the decision to go or not go, but I am curious about the older ones who are not responsive, or really aware of whats going on - Who is it that decides for them? Surely it couldn't be the patient. Like I said, I am not against older patients, its just their should be some sort of separation if they do not realize whats going on. (This has gone way off topic, maybe should have started a new thread)

[petey]

When Marvin was in-center (thank God he's home hemo now), there were mostly older patients (most from the nursing homes) at his clinic.  I'd guess and say that about 75% of them came from the nursing home.  When he first started (almost 14 years ago), the county's "bus" (really a large van with wheelchair accessability) brought them; but, some nut somewhere decided they ALL needed to be brought in and taken back to the nursing home via the rescue squad.  Even the ones who could walk were REQUIRED to be strapped down on a stretcher and brought in the clinic that way.  The rescue squads (and it required mutlitple vehicles to transport all of the patients back and forth) were never on time.  It was sad, sad, sad.  Some of the people came an hour or two early and had to sit and wait for their "on" time because that was the schedule that worked for the rescue squad.  Then, they'd have to wait an hour or two when they got off the machine for their "ride" to come and pick them up.  There is no dialysis at their nursing homes, and our local hospital (very small) didn't have a unit either.  The DaVita clinic was their only option -- and the rescue squad was their only ride there.  These folks had to work within the rescue squad's time frame -- isn't that a shame?

The head nurse at Marvin's clinic always tried to work with the ones who drove and especially the ones who worked or had grandkids at home that they took care of to get them a time that fit in their schedule.  But, she also had to work with the transporters (rescue squad) to make sure those patients could get there, too.  (The rescue squad, at first, didn't run on Saturdays which meant all nursing home patients had to run MWF -- they later changed that  -- but then, the rescue squad doesn't transport on holidays, so sometimes the schedule got all screwed up and even some patients from the nursing homes had to miss a treatment on a holiday.)  That was a circus, and I don't know how that nurse managed all that.

When Marvin first started, he was the clinic's "baby" (only 39 at the time).  The older patients ALL took him under their wing (at that time, he was the ONLY "young" one -- by "young" I mean under 60 years old).  When the doctor made rounds, the older ones would say, "Go see Marvin first.  He didn't look too good when he came in this morning.  You can come back to me later."  One older lady -- Miss Mary -- sat beside Marvin for the first year or so he was on dialysis, and she really looked out for him.  If his BP started to go down, she would YELL (and I mean YELL) across the floor to the nurse, "COME SEE ABOUT MARVIN !!"  If his machine beeped, she was yelling again for somebody to come and check him.  If Miss Mary saw the doctor slip in the back door, she'd yell again -- MARVIN SAID HE NEEDED TO SEE THE DOCTOR WHEN HE CAME IN !  GO GET HIM!  If Marvin crashed, she really got loud and demanding. When they played bingo or some other silly game and Miss Mary "won," she wanted her prize (usually some drug company's trinket) to go to Marvin.  When I came in to visit or check on Marvin, Miss Mary would give me the "low down" -- she'd tell me everything he said, everything he did, every time the nurse didn't come to Marvin quickly enough to suit her, every "girl" (nurse/tech or patient) that Marvin flirted with that day.  One of the nurses told me later that Miss Mary purposely stayed awake all during her shift so she could watch out for Marvin.  Before he came, she slept through every treatment, but, apparently, Marvin became her mission!  She was a precious old soul.  Of course, Marvin flirted with her non-stop, too (even though she was about 80, tiny, had no teeth, and was African American).  We often went to the nursing home on "off" days to visit her.  When she died, it was almost as hard on Marvin as the day his own mother died.  Miss Mary also had all of the other patients looking out for Marvin; those first couple of years, every other patient there thought they had to make sure Marvin was okay, was seen first, had what he needed or wanted.

Marvin and I often made the rounds at the nursing home to visit his "dialysis friends."  We went on a Sunday afternoon to visit Miss Annie, another old African American lady who was on the MWF shift with Marvin.  She had been sick during treatment on Friday, and Marvin was worried about her.  When we saw her Sunday (two days later), she still had on the same clothes she had on Friday (she had gotten sick on her blouse) and still had a PRESSURE bandage on her fistula.  Marvin was livid!  He went and got the nursing home's charge nurse and demanded that the pressure bandage be changed (which I ended up cleaning and changing) and that she get a bath and fresh clothes.  It was pitiful the way they were treated at the nursing home!  It would literally break your heart. 

The first week Marvin was on dialysis at the clinic, he went through my house and got every blanket he could find.  Then, he asked me to wash them all.  He took them to the clinic -- a whole stack of them -- because the nursing home didn't send blankets with their patients.

I think that Marvin's youth and his personality were refreshing for the older patients.  He laughed, joked, teased, and flirted non-stop.  They lived in a nursing home with all old people and went to a clinic with all old people; when Marvin started, he was "the young'un," and they liked that.  Marvin also represented "hope" because he was on the transplant list and none of them were.  Every MWF, he'd hear, "You're going to get that call soon.  I prayed last night for you to get a new kidney," from the older ones.  They didn't want him to end up like them -- old and still on dialysis.

Yes, I understand and agree that the patients at a clinic who have a full, active, busy life outside of the confines of the clinic need to be allowed to have a treatment schedule that allows them to continue with their daily life.  But, on the other side of the coin, my heart aches for the ones who literally have nothing else, nowhere else to go, no one else to talk to, no laughter in their lives, and are at the mercy of the clinic and the rescue squad's schedules.  I think we should all try to put ourselves in the other one's shoes.

[lola]

When Otto's center changed his time from 9am to 11:30 that's when he finally agreed to home-hemo, when we started at the clininc they knew Otto worked at 5:00pm and needed time to go home and rest, they even suggested he just go on SSD and no longer work WTF. Otto has made it very clear he's done doing D if he feels like he can no longer work, play with the kids ect...

[MIbarra]

Petey, thank you for writing that story. How wonderful that both of you cared so much when it seems no one else did.

[twirl]

we get to play a different game at D
we play musical chairs
where will you sit today?
no one but the director knows
she changed us last week for about 3 treatments
and today we are back where we were last time?
confused?
so are the techs!