First Time Dialysis

[kitkatz]

I look back at the first time I was put onto a dialysis machine. It was in patient in the hospital and done through a catheter put into my groin area. I was so sick I did not care what was happening at the time. It was two days later when the dialysis nurse told me she did not expect to see me again, that I realized how sick I was.   
The first time in center was done cold.  I went into the center, no tour given, nothing explained, just thrown into a chair and dialysis was done through the chest catheter. Signed my life away in paperwork that day.

[Michael Murphy]

I too feel that the first dialysis session was the most traumatic day of my life.  The only preparation I did prior to the day was I had a fistula installed (thank god)
So at least I wasn't catheriized , but I was so nervous I picked up my reading glasses instead of my distance glasses, didn't ralize the problem and got lost on my way to the clinic.  I thought I could find it in my sleep, it's across the street from a major regional mall.  When I got there they sat me in the most uncomfortable ugly green recliner I have ever seen, and proceeded to stick me with two needles that looked the size of the holland tunnel. Three hours later, after facing a clock and a sign telling me what do incase of a emergency that frankly scared me even more I was released and told see you Friday at same time and sent me home.  That's why I so frequently recommend visiting the clinic before the big day.  Unfortunately for me I found this site after a few months of dialysis.  So I really was terrorized by the experience and it would be a month or so before I calmed down.  The only day in my life that compares was the first day of kindergarten  when I was five.  At least now I know and all I can say is patients should learn as much as they can prior to starting. PS I avoided the hospital route because I belong to a medical group that was warning me for years that dialysis was in my future. Like a idiot I igoresd them except that the nephologist  convinced me to install a fistula and told me the signs to watch for so when I started showing symptoms I knew what they were and called the doctor and started this great adventure.

[Rerun]

I look back at the first time I was put onto a dialysis machine. It was in patient in the hospital and done through a catheter put into my groin area. I was so sick I did not care what was happening at the time. It was two days later when the dialysis nurse told me she did not expect to see me again, that I realized how sick I was.   
The first time in center was done cold.  I went into the center, no tour given, nothing explained, just thrown into a chair and dialysis was done through the chest catheter. Signed my life away in paperwork that day.

DITTO   

[amanda100wilson]

Even though I had been doing PD and gad waiting for a year to mature,  the day I went to look around the clinic, I thought that was all that I was doing.  Came as a schlock nonetheless to be sitting in that chair.

[Michael Murphy]

Amanda it appears you were the victim of a ambush dialysis session. Well at least you didn't have to worry about it before hand.

[noahvale]

*

[marlinfshr]

Mine was in the hospital. They placed a few stents in my heart and while they were down there they put a catheter in my groin and welcomed me to dialysis. I think my nephrologist (Dr. Dialysis) was drooling with happiness that he got another victim. He had warned me a few years earlier that I would need it as my creatinine was high (had been for a long time) and said that I am a very sick man, though I had no symptoms and worked on sportfish boats going out well over 100 days a year plus time spent on deliveries and felt great.

Then I went in center a few days later and got in that uncomfortable chair in that freezer they call a room, only to have the techs not believe me about my weight and that I urinate full volume as they took every last drop of fluid out of my body to the point of cramping.

Then they got mad at me because I asked how I would go about getting a second opinion. The PD tech at the time (I was going onto PD) told me that if I went and got a second opinion that I would have to do my dialysis with the other place which is 2 hours away. They wouldn't have room for me anymore if I needed it at this place. So that has kept me from going to another team of nephrologists.

So now, still in denial and wondering how to get a second opinion because I feel great---just like pre-dialysis.

[chuckdims]

I showed up at an ungodly hour, scared to death.  I remember looking at the needle and thinking I would rather die.  Truth be told, I didn't even feel it when the time came.

I sat there, mad at the world, fuming mad for about 15 minutes.  Then I realized that was a fruitless endeavor, turned my TV on, and watched two hours of The Golden Girls.

[jeannea]

I think a lot of us were in shock for our first dialysis. It can be very traumatic. I woke up from a coma, weeks of my life gone, transplant failed, after days of extensive dialysis. I had told my family not to put me on dialysis. I was angry and sick. I wish doctors and techs would realize how difficult this can be.

[kristina]

My first day on dialysis was very surrealistic.
I felt like an inhabitant in one of Salvador Dali’s paintings with reality far removed, with a dreamlike atmosphere, just simply surrealistic.
At the same time I was shaking like a leaf and my body refused to stop shaking, however hard I tried.
Obviously the strain of keeping pre-dialysis for so many years got hold of my body and my nerves during my first dialysis session...
... It felt very strange, because intellectually I thought I was prepared and knew a bit about dialysis and had also visited the center before,
but the reality of the whole experience was completely different again...
I also wondered whether I had failed in my efforts to keep off dialysis for longer, but I knew for sure at the same time,
that I had really tried my hardest to do just that for over 43 years.
When I looked around the center I also realized, that if I wanted to hang on and live any longer
I could not allow myself to get as sick as many patients on the dialysis-center were with cramps and low blood-pressure...
... and at the same time I realized that I had not much of an idea how to go about that,
apart from sticking strictly to my vegetarian diet with fresh food carefully weighed up every time
and cooking every meal at home from scratch ...
and being at the dialysis center every time in time, with strict liquid restrictions to 800 ml per day...
...and I wondered about this surrealistic experience and where it all would lead...
That was my first dialysis-session. Quite unforgettable...