Coping skills - what positive coping skills have helped you?

[Jean]

Dan, I so hope your fern will be okay in the spring. If not, then get another one, buy it yourself and watch it grow. Evidently you can do that. I cant. Ferns die as I walk past them. Altho you have had it a long time, it is respresentative of your " former" life. Something we all have to deal with is the loss of that former life. And yes, Dan, it is still worth it, nuisance that it is, to be alive. As Richard said,the world would be a darker place with you gone and many of us would miss you so much. So, I hope you took Monreins advice, and got some extra rest and or sleep. Or a drink, or whatever works for you.
Love Ya Guy

[Chris]

For me, comedy, mostly movies, shows, and some radio. Not much support when it happened, so I rely on myself. However I have had practice sort of with being a diabetic growing up and not knowing anyone else with it and no one knowing anything about it where I lived. So the excuse of you being diabetic, you must be depressed is a load of crap to me that they have started pushing the last few years.

[Razman]

  For some reason I though that the nurses we see at the clinic on a regular basis would be on the list but no one mentioned them.  Are they just too busy or do they just ignore us?  I do agree with many others and that is that the IHD members are a great family and support team.

[willowtreewren]

Dan, your post wasn't inappropriate. It was sincere.

 

[jennyc]

I fight any battles i know i can win and tackle them one at a time. Hubby and son keep me going, both tend to treat me as though nothing is wrong with me, generally it keeps me fighting, sometimes i get so tired though i scream and shut down and they forget why becuase i'm so good at acting healthy even they forget. But mostly i stay positive. (i get into trouble off hubby becuase he thinks Dr's and Nurses don't take me seriously cause i'm always the bubbly patient, always smiling and joking till the end! My  motto is that I will keep death away with laughter...... i'll have the grim reaper in such stitches that he'lll wet himself and have to come back later for me its worked 4 times so far).

I have a friend who has also saved me, not by being a good friend but by being the antithisis of what i want to be. In school she had Asthma and it was alway's killing her (not literally, she was fine. She's a bit of an actress) and she lived to have asthma, her whole life revolved around it. Her brother got all the attention so she'd always put herself into hospital for attention. She was actually jealous when i was struck with renal failure... can you believe it, was like, OMG jen is actually sicker then me and then she was struck with type 1 diabetes at the age of 30 (she is morbidly obese, contracted a virus that sent her body into an immune response that caused her pancreas to shut down). So then every time i got around her it was like she was competing with me for the worst symptoms, who was sickest. I got tired of playing the games with her so i've almost cut her off. But not wanting to be like her and living in an illness makes me fight.

(please don't get me wrong, i knew about the seriousness of diabetes long before her, she used to laugh and shake her head at me in high school about my brothers fight with diabetes and tell me then that her asthma was worse than type one diabetes... even though it killed by brother at 37.)

So yeah, i fight and i fight and i fight.

I dont take any day for granted, sometimes i have a tantrum but only when i'm alone. I cry and rip up old clothes it's very theraputic!

[dwcrawford]

  For some reason I though that the nurses we see at the clinic on a regular basis would be on the list but no one mentioned them.  Are they just too busy or do they just ignore us?

OMG, you are absolutely right.  I've mentioned so many times in the past how much i love and respect and appreciate the support of the Drs.  O, my  fabulous nurse Thanh, the lead nurse Kevin, the whole staff at Med Center Davita, Houston including the techs who tend to my every need (some of them do).  Even the technical people, the security guard, and the computer guy Max.  I've said I'd never go if I had  to be carried in am ambulance, but some of the drivers for other people are actully emotionally supportive.  Let me see... oh yea, and a big notice to all the other patients (especially those I visit with daily in the waiting room).  Can't finish:  my smart and fun dieticial and the social worker.  Might  be easy to forget them all in a post, but wouldn't be at all easy to live without them.

There are actually days when, if they just wouldn't stick me with the horse needle, I'd actually look forward to  going.

[calypso]

These 4 words: This too shall pass.

[cdwbrooklyn]

I like to work, I love being around people, and I like to watch movies that makes me laugh.   Also, I keep myself so busy that I don’t have time to think about D.   I only think about it when it’s time for me to get my blood clean.   Yes, I do have my days whereas I feel so depress that I have to talk myself out of it.  Than there are days whereas I’m so happy that D exists so I can continue to enjoy life. Most of the time, I just take it one day at a time and deal with each issue individually.  However, I do demand that everyone treats me normal or I will curse him or her out.  I do not consider myself as being sick.  I see myself as needing my blood clean as my kidney cannot do the job as good. 

I remembered when I first started D.  I could not see this far.  I thought I would die but as time when on and I’ve taken it one day at a time, I come too realized, I’m doing very well.  I am sure to learn about my condition so I can stay on top of my treatments.

Knowledge is Power!!!
 

[hurlock1]

I just go to dialysis like I was going to work. I have a PDA that I not only have ebooks on but it plays mp3s, the Television, a portable DVD player and Netflix. Not only is the getting up and going to dialysis what I do, but the people at the center are my support group. The other patients, the techs, the nurses, the dietitian, the social Worker. . . I get a pittance from the government and I consider it pay.
jmz

[Chris]

  For some reason I though that the nurses we see at the clinic on a regular basis would be on the list but no one mentioned them.  Are they just too busy or do they just ignore us?  I do agree with many others and that is that the IHD members are a great family and support team.

For me, it's more like a business, get you in, get you out and collect $50. Mostly the university hospital, but even local doctor offices. Only one office do I see the same nurse and we just have small talk about nothing regardiing health.

[Stoday]

Three things for me.

1) Being diagnosed early. I've had nearly seven years to get used to the idea. I feel really sorry for those who are diagnosed late and have no time to get used to such an extreme change in the way they live.

2) I'm in the UK so I don't have any funding problems; no financial worries.

3) IHD. Of course!