The difference is night and day

So, I have made the switch back from nocturnal dialysis to in-center dialysis Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons. I do miss how great I felt on nocturnal-- but I don't miss NOT SLEEPING. I just couldn't get the hang of sleeping all night in a dialysis chair. I couldn't get comfortable in the dialysis chair-- not enough to sleep through the night, and I couldn't take sleeping pills, because I would wake up too groggy to drive home in the morning.

Yeah, I was doing nocturnal when I first arrived in Austin, at a Davita facility in South Austin. But, I never felt very secure there. The unit was too noisy and too many patients had to be transported to the hospital on the nocturnal shift. Even though studies suggest that nocturnal patients may live longer-- I wasn't convinced that I would live longer at that facility.

My current in-center dialysis is once again in a Satellite Healthcare center. I know the Medical Director of Satellite Corporate...and she really gets me-- the kind of strange, wacky dialysis patient I am. In spite of how busy she is with her new position, she takes the time to respond to emails regarding my concerns about my treatment. I have been bugging her for months to go ahead and establish a nocturnal program for Satellite Healthcare in the Austin area, and I have no doubt that it will happen. The question is whether or not it will happen before I get another kidney transplant-- for I am surely working things from that end.

You know, I'm sure there are some dialysis staffers that think I'm a big old spoiled bitch-- who's never happy with her dialysis care. I would posit that that is not it-- I just believe in the power of asking for what you want. I have requested different times, different days, sdifferent chairs, different doctors-- and I have almost always gotten what I asked. I didn't demand...I just asked. I think that's the difference between me and a lot of other dialysis patients-- they don't make their desires known. Now, I will go as far to say that a dialysis unit would have a very unhappy Michelle on their hands if they didn't grant my requests-- but really, though, no manipulation is necessary, no pleading, etc. Start out with asking, and see where things go from there.

Patients! Get in the habit of letting your desires be known. Speak up!

And, Dialysis Doctors, Nurses and Techs-- Listen, without getting all bent out of shape!

All for now, and nitey nite...

Michelle/Treasure