What time do you go to dialysis?

[fc2821]

    Of course this may have been discussed before but I am curious when those, like me, who go for in clinic hemo go to dialysis.  Also, do you have to wait long before being taken into the treatment area?  Do you like the time of day you go? 
    When I first started dialysis my treatment time began at 3 pm.  No waiting, the chair was ready when I got there. Small clinic with only 9 chairs.
    But I moved and changed clinics.  Much bigger clinic, 36 chairs. 
   I can't physically drive anymore, so I have to have get a "ride" to dialysis with a local service for disabled people on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  They pick me up an hour before my appointed arrival time for dialysis.  So, I am often early.  Sometimes this is good, as I get in early which means I get done early. My wife takes me on Saturdays. 
    Anyway my Treatment time is suppose to start at 11:30 am, but sometimes I am lucky and can get in at 11 am other times I have to wait till noon. 
     This time of day is perfect for me.  At the clnic I am at now, they start at 5 am  and end the day at 5pm. At my old clinic they started at 6 am and ended the day at 7 pm.
     I know we don't get to choose our times, but I am glad I am not on one of the early morning "shifts". 
       
   

[karen547]

My clinic starts their days at 6AM and ends around 10ish. I go in at 4pm for my treatment and am off at around 7 or so. I like that because I can just go home, relax and go to bed or whatever

[Maker]

My center starts at 6AM and the last person goes on no later than 3PM...I am usually the last person hooked up because I work.  I will agree that I like going at the end of the day!!  I go M/W/F, but the T/Th/S people can't get hooked up past noon I think.

Today I went at 6AM because I am going out of town in a little bit    The entire lobby is packed at 6AM and many don't get hooked up till 6:30.  Usually I get on pretty quickly when I arrive at 3 since I'm sure they want to get me off ASAP! 

If I wasn't working I would love to go in the middle of the day but its not an option for me right now.

[SpeedFleX]

I go from 18:00 (06:00pm) to 23:30 (11:30pm) After that I am very hungry and eat a midnight snack^^

[thegrammalady]

mwf my center runs 24 hours. morning shift on time is 5:30 am monday and they run till 5pm tuesday. then they start up again at 5:30 am wednesday.  i run mwf nocturnal shift. on time is 7:30 and i run 8 hours. i never have to wait.

[boswife]

well i, ok my hubby  , started on the 11:30am 'shift' and we felt like we were eating breakfast and then lallalalalala waiting to make more food for lunch, then snack then finally go..  It just didnt work well for our style. Then, he had to go in one time at 7 30 am to 11 30 and LOVED it.  He's one that feels pretty dang good after dialysis, so  we asked to be put on the "wish list" for mornings.  We got it after about a month, so now,while he's doing the big D, i run around catching up on home stuff, (im a morning person too) he gets a bit of a nap, and then we have the whole rest of the day to tire out before bed time.   

[YLGuy]

I am M,W,F 3 1/2 hours.  My start time is supposed to be 9:45. I get there around 9:30 and get out between 1:30 and 1:45.  I have to do it at this time because I am a single dad of three kids and this lets me drop them off at school in the morning and then pick them up in the afternoon.

[willowtreewren]

We do home hemo. We work 7:30 - 5:30 each day. Live close to work, so I'm usually sticking my husband around 6:30 PM after getting the machine set up. Get off around 9:30 - 9:45 PM, go to bed and start the whole thing over the next morning. We eat dinner after I have him hooked up.

[galvo]

I'm an arvo guy at my centre. Scheduled to go on at 2.30 and off at 6.30. Generally out by 7. Suits me well enough. I'm Tues, Thurs, and Sat. Off there shortly to spend 4 hours watching the cricket.

[MissyKew]

T,Th, Sat.  You are given no choice, although, funny, some people do get a choice....hmmmmmmmmmm.  I am up at the buttcrack of dawn to be picked up at 5:40 am.  Pick up another patient and am usually at the center by 6:30.  The first time I got there and was left sitting while they took in people who came in after me, I had a little "talk" with the nurses etc.  Especially since the gentleman that rides with me was taken in immeadiately and I was left to sit.  That was when I learned that they do things by "seniority".  Seems to me that it should be first come, first served.  I don't sit around anymore though.  There is one gentleman who is brought in by his wife who ends up waiting at least an hour to go in and they get there before I do.  She sits in the waiting area the whole time he is on dialysis.  You would think, just for her sake, they would take him in when he arrives.

Moving to another shift?  Forget it.  The list is long and seniority applies.  The gentleman that rides with me is 95.  They make him come in first shift.  he has tried to change with no avail.  I think it is cruel to make a 95 yo and his 80 some year old wife get up and a god awful hour to get to dialysis.  Sorry.  Got a little ranty there. 

[Pam]

I go on M W F. was not given a choice of days or time. I was given a start time of 6:30 am. Being a nite owl I really grumbled! I'm in my 8th month. Time sure does fly!. I like the early morning shift. I have the whole day for whatever. A late night shift would be perfect but the center closes at 6pm I think. Just trying to make the best of a bad situation.
Pam

[Brianna!]

I go on M/W/F and I go on at 10:30 am. I'm the last person to get there. They're only open from 5ish? to 3. I get there at about 10:15, and just walk back to my seat right away. I used to wait, but they said since i'm the last person there, just go back and sit in the only open seat. lol I get on right away, so i'm lucky.

When I was looking for new centers, the one I go to now, said I would have to go at 5:45am! I was like no way! So I was going to go to one like a half an hour away, instead of 3 minutes. But when we talked to them again, they had a later spot open. Funny, how I went to "going" at the earliest spot, to the latest spot!

[fc2821]

     Brianna, when I moved to North Carolina in July, I was originally set up to go to a different center, like you an hour away, at 7 am. This would have prsented a transportation problem, and we contacted the center to explain. We got the center I needed/wanted, the time of day was a bonus. Just the luck of the draw. Now, the center I go to is only 10 minutes away, and I am able to use the city's service for diabled riders. I ended up with the Tues, Thurs, Sat schedule because that was the only opening they had at my center. This schedule works out fine for me as y wife goes to work jst before7 am (she a teacher) and I can get picked around 10:30 am. My wife gets off in time to pick me up in the afternoon. Which is great because sometimes I am so famished after treatment that I need to stop on the way home for something to eat.That is if I am not too "drained" or "beat" by the experience.  Add to that Ihave been told by some of the other people who ride to the center on the same service I do two days a week, that they have had to wait as much as 2 hours to be picked after treatment.
    In Illinois, my center was just three miles from my house. Small town ,and just luck the center was in my town. I  was assigned to the M-W-F schedule then due to who who my Neph was. Patients of two of the Neph were assigned to my schedule and patients of the other Neph were on T-T-Sat.   
     Pam, I knowwhat you means about being a "nightowl". I worked 9 pm to 7 am four nights a week,on a schedule that rotated days off and working every three months for 23 1/2 years. I got use to being up all night and sleeping all day.  And, no nocturnal dialysis has never been an option for me.

[kitkatz]

I head for the center at 7 pm, I am on the machine before 8pm, then off before 4pm.

[Rerun]

I like the nocturnal shift best.  Then the evening shift so I can just go home and to bed.  Right now I'm on the morning shift so it pretty much ruins my whole day.

[kitkatz]

I hate morning and midmorning shifts. They pretty much screw the entire day. Plus my blood pressure does not like dialysis in the morning or mid afternoon. 3 to 7pm or nocturnal has worked best for me. Noon time just sucks the entire day away.

[Gramapat]

When I first started 2 years ago I was put on at 2 p.m. on Tues, Thurs, Sat.  After 2 weeks I asked for MWF and was put on a waiting list.  Luckily when I told my dialysis nurse, she called around and got me into a center closer to my home on MWF.  The only problem was it was the latest shift - I get put on at 6:45 p.m. for 3 hours.  Come t find out it's perfect for me.  Dialysis just wears me out so by the time I get home at night I can just go to bed after awhile and my whole day isn't ruined.

[Poppylicious]

As far as I know my Blokey had a choice in times/days, which was good because he works full-time, and was adamant that he wasn't giving up his weekends, so he needs to do the twilight shift.  He's on at about 6pm, off at about 10pm MWF.  If he didn't work full-time he could go to a nearer hospital (fourteen miles, rather than twenty-eight!) but they don't do a twilight shift because they don't have the staff. 

[pdpatty]

I am supposed to be at my chair at 5:30 am and hooked up by 5:45. Depending on tech,I can be hooked up by 5:20 am or as late as 6:00.

I never know until I get there.

[jessshar]

My dad goes on MWF from 7pm-11pm. They are pretty good about getting him on the machine by seven. We are allways the last ones to leave. I like this time slot better than the first one they gave him on T THR SAT from 2pm-6pm. Now he goes home and right to bed instead of before when he would go home and sleep until three in the morning and get up bright eyed and bushy tailed!!!!

[lizabee]

M-W-F 7:30-10:30am.  I have one treatment left before transplant, and it will be on a Tuesday since the surgery is Wednesday morning...it will be odd not getting up and going to dialysis!

[fc2821]

Best wishes regarding your pending surgery.