Ignorant things people have said to you

[hephziba]

"soak your feet in a combination of water and mustard powder, the water will turn black but apparently its great for clearing out toxins from your blood" .

try herbs like parsley and corriander, great for removing toxins!!!

well, anyway, I hope you get better soon, I hope you get well soon.

So how long will you have to do this dialysis thing ?.

some of the strange things 

[susie q]

My Mother in law makes me want to scream....
She only lives 20 mins away... my Father in law works with my husband nearly everyday..
EVERY time I see her she asks... "Do you still have to go to the clinic?"  Didn't you get a kidney yet?? "     Ummm .. I think you would have heard about it if I did .. dumbass.... 

[Len]

mine was a nurse   telling me  if I hadn''t emptied  my bladder   this ultrasound wasnt going to work   I told her I hadn't  and she got quite  upset . then I told her I hadnt emptied  it in 3 years

[Epoman]

My Mother in law makes me want to scream....
She only lives 20 mins away... my Father in law works with my husband nearly everyday..
EVERY time I see her she asks... "Do you still have to go to the clinic?"  Didn't you get a kidney yet?? "     Ummm .. I think you would have heard about it if I did .. dumbass.... 

GOD, I hate clueless people like that. You should have told her no, can I have BOTH of yours. 

[Bajanne]

It is amazing how many people think that my problem could be solved by 'drinking lots of water'!!!  That is a piece of advice I get almost daily from people who are not close to me. [ The ones that are close to me are always monitoring how much I drink and reminding me of my limits.]
It is as if I always have to teach Kidneys and Dialysis 101 over and over again. - "Yes, drinking lots of water is good for people with functioning kidneys.  With kidney failure, it just means more that has to be taken off at dialysis, resulting in blood pressure drops, etc."
Everyone is an expert!!

[GuyIncognito]

My beef is with my close friends they always ask how I'm feeling but have never made an attempt to look into what dialysis is or even signed a donor card... needless to say I count my friends now by who came to see me in the hospital when I was there for months on end.
oh another one is the holier than thou crew who see my bulging fistula with the obvious needle marks and assume that I'm a heroin addict... I've had enough of the disapproving stares but I will never stop wearing T-Shirts.

I never mind telling people what dialysis / Kidney failure is... the more people that know such things exist the more people who will sign donor cards... I just don't understand why a person would refuse to sign... gawd knows most of us could use the points with the big guy upstairs.

[Zach]

About a year before I started dialysis, a cousin of mine convinced me to go for "therapy" where the therapist placed warm compresses (soaked in various herbs, etc.) on my back, over my kidneys.  I was told that the therapy would expand the filters in the kidneys, and unclog them, causing all the toxins to come out in the urine.

Sounded good to me!   

[jdat]

It is amazing how many people think that my problem could be solved by 'drinking lots of water'!!!  That is a piece of advice I get almost daily from people who are not close to me. [ The ones that are close to me are always monitoring how much I drink and reminding me of my limits.]
It is as if I always have to teach Kidneys and Dialysis 101 over and over again. - "Yes, drinking lots of water is good for people with functioning kidneys.  With kidney failure, it just means more that has to be taken off at dialysis, resulting in blood pressure drops, etc."
Everyone is an expert!!

Gah the thing about drinking lots of water always ticked me off so hard.
I knew this guy who used to tell me over and over " if only you had drunk more water you wouldn't have had your problems ... but don't give up it's never too late! You still need to drink tons of water ".

When he found I got my transplant he had the nerve to tell me the same speech " I still think you should have drunk more water " ..... violence came over me and I wanted to smash him in the mouth ( but this was over the internet so no harm done  )

[MelissaJean]

I am not a big drinker but when I go out with friends to have a drink an acquaintance will ask me, "Won't your kidney's get worse?  Haven't your ruin your kidney's enough with alcohol?  (as they finish their sixth drink) and I reply... "no that's your LIVER"  yikes.

[Zach]

Here, Here!!!

[angieskidney]

WOW!

I can't believe I have never seen this thread before!

I have had sooooo many ignorant people tell me things that they think they have the 'right answer' and that I need their input!

Not to say anything against these people as some of them are my friends .. but it is nice to have a place to vent when you get this repeatedly and just want to tell them to shut up 

One of my friends told me repeatedly (and I had to work with him for a few years so that made it worse!!) to eat vegetables and eat whole wheat instead of all the "junk" he saw me eating. The "junk" was tuna on white bread and iced tea. He would tell me to drink juice and tell me to tell the doctors that I don't need dialysis because I should have all herbal supplements that would get my failed transplanted kidney to work again!

I even tried to explain to him how dialysis worked (I was on PD so that made it harder to explain to him)!! He was a University student taking Biology so of course I thought he was smart enough to grasp the simple concept .. but when I showed him a diagram of the Peritoneum .. he said, "I got a better pic!" and flipped the page to the page with a kidney cross cut...

Ever have one of those days when you think, "Even my little niece would be able to grasp this concept and YOU CAN'T!?!?!?"

Another was one of my cab drivers when I had Pneumonia and had a hard time breathing. He kept saying, "What you need is a large glass of water!!" .. this is a guy who knew I was going for dialysis 3 times a week every week ... 

I am not a big drinker but when I go out with friends to have a drink an acquaintance will ask me, "Won't your kidney's get worse? Haven't your ruin your kidney's enough with alcohol? (as they finish their sixth drink) and I reply... "no that's your LIVER" yikes.

I've heard that one as well! Also one of my friends said, "When you start dialysis you will be able to drink all you want right??"

[Riki]

I was at clinic yesterday, and the nurses were even asking me if I was on the tranplant list... I was very pollite and told them that as far as I knew, I was.. but in my mind I was thinking.. geez, shouldn't you know this?

When I first started dialysis, I was 12 years old.. I was in the hospital for 2 months, and was actually the first child to go home on dialysis in the province.. anyway.. when I did get out of the hospital and went back to school, a lot of the kids were asking me if in order to come back I needed to have a transplant... how were they supposed to know?  they were the same as me... what bugged me was that my mom left my Living with Kidney Disease book with my teachers, so they could get a grasp of what was going on... the only teacher who took an interest was the one teacher I couldn't stand....after she gave the lesson, and we were all working on whatever it was she gave us to do, she would walk around the room with that book... and every once in a while she'd stop and ask me a question on it... now, I was just leanring this stuff myself, I mean, I didn't have years to get used to the idea of kidney failure.. it happened pretty quick for me... so I usually didn't have an answer... so I just gave her my best guess, or a bunch of bs so she would go away....

[SpeedFleX]

I hate it when I wanna get the time on dialysis to go fast and I sleep then 20 minute's later a stupid doc comes in shakes me awake and asks how are you today and then goes away. Then I usually can't sleep anymore

What I also hate is when I'm at a party and wanna have fun and talk about other things the only thing people seem to talk to me about is dialysis.

ARGH

[kitkatz]

I got one for you all.  How about the training people, docs and nurses who decide to come in and see YOU because you are the interesting patient today?  I have had more damn trainees stop in to see me because I have a urostomy and have kidney failure than you could shake a stick at.  Can I see? Is what they ask.  Oh sure why the hell not, everyone and their damn brather has been in here already!

[MattyBoy100]

I got one for you,

cos I`m young and relatively healthy, and only just started dialysis, 2 months now.  I saw my consultant last night who popped his head through the door to ask if I was back to work full - time.  I told him I was and he said to me "you`ve done me proud!"!  I`m sorry, I`ve done YOU proud??? What am I, some kind of lab experiment or something!!!

[Zach]

I got one for you,

cos I`m young and relatively healthy, and only just started dialysis, 2 months now.  I saw my consultant last night who popped his head through the door to ask if I was back to work full - time.  I told him I was and he said to me "you`ve done me proud!"!  I`m sorry, I`ve done YOU proud??? What am I, some kind of lab experiment or something!!!

If we don't do it, they certainly won't!     

[stauffenberg]

The most common comment I heard from people when I first started dialysis was, "You have to go three times a week for five hours each time?!  That's horrible!  How long does that go on for?"  After a few years on dialysis, the most typical question I got was, "If dialysis is so much trouble for you, why don't you get a transplant instead?"  These are the sorts of people on whom we have to rely for sane and humane public policy with respect to the medical care of renal patients, and from whom we have to hope we will someday get a transplant.  "I'm not going to sign my kidney donor card," many people will tell you, "because those kidney patients got sick because they didn't take good care of their heath, the way I do!"

[Epoman]

I love it when ignorant people tell me "drink more water, it will help clean your blood" 

Or "have you tried eating more vegatables?" 

[Python]

On explainng to someone (for the millionth time) why my son had to go on dialysis, I was asked

"Oh.  What do the kidneys do?" followed by the next question "Where are they anyway?"

It never ceases to amaze me how ignorant some people are of their bodies and how they work.

Perhaps the one thing that really angered me was a couple of years ago my son applied for a job.  He was front runner to get the job as no-one else had applied.  He really wanted that job.  At the last moment another young lad was sent for interview.  The other lad got the job.  He wasn't on dialysis you see.  I felt so sorry for Ian as he'd really pinned his hopes on getting that job and had all but been promised it.  He looked so dejected and there was nothing I could do or say to make him feel any better.  The irony was, it was as a trainee phlebotomist in our local hospital

[Rerun]

I still get "are you still going to dialysis"?  I just stare at them and try not to grab their nose and twist it as I say "YESsssss I am"!!

[Bear]

What's wrong with just saying "Yes. You still breathing?" ,ReRun   

[kitkatz]

Oh Ignorance is bliss, isn't it?  I swear people think you can run down to Kmart or Walmart or your nearest hospital and just jump onto the transplant list.  "Aren't you on the list yet?"  If I hear it one more time.....

[Panda_9]

If a doctor is proud of you I wouldnt complain.

[Rerun]

If a doctor is proud of you I wouldnt complain.

Did I miss something?   

[Zach]

Some one said to me, "You look like you have one foot in the grave."

20 years later, he's dead and I'm still quite alive!