Shout hallelujah, come on, get happy!

Ok, no, the long-hoped-for flat dialysis chair hasn't arrived at the center yet, but I was looking over the stats for a nocturnal dialysis chair made by Diasol. They claim their nocturnal chair lies flat, and has a pull out foot rest. There are also options like heat and massage (though my center says that they don't have the electrical setup for juice-loving chairs). Ooooh, and the chair comes in different colors. I'm going to request a purple one- oh drat, I just looked and they don't have purple. Ah, well, maybe I should request a color that doesn't show blood (but we won't go there, now will we?). Let me see if I can put a picture of the chair in here... hold one.... hold one....



there ya go.

I like that the chair has a swing out arm feature, too...because I hate to see patients being precariously lowered into chairs with those lifts. So, scary.

My center says that they have ordered some chairs as a tryout, and I believe they are getting the ones I'm speaking about. Maybe I won't have to buy a dialysis chair afterall-- which is great, because I'd much rather buy a chair for my bedroom. hehehe.


Anyway...the link to the company that makes the chair is http://www.diasol.com/dialysis_chair.html

Take a look and tell me what you think?

That's all for this subject. Next topic: The pajama game.

Nitey nite...

Michelle/Treasure

And now for something completely different...

Ok...well, maybe not. More of the usual bitching, I'm afraid. I'm not getting enough sleep at dialysis...blah blah blah. The dialysis chair is killing my neck, blah blah blah. I keep falling asleep on my drive home, blah blah blah. Well, my last post about dialysis chairs garnered a response from my dialysis center. And that response was...? Well, I won't go into that right now, but let's just say that the last word was that "they" have ordered a couple of chairs to be tested out and that those chairs should be here soon(ish). My neck will be grateful when the chairs arrive...so will other assorted parts of me. I'm not going to complain any more (in this particular blog, hehehe) about the chair situation. There are many other things to complain about!


To my way of thinking, dialysis is someone's idea of a fun-creepy method of torturing people. Sure, the "someones" want you to think dialysis exists to prolong your life...but I dunno... sometimes it feels like a cruel, slow death-- like watching a Flavor of Love marathon. Here's what I mean...

...spending hours on end in an uncomfortable chair that causes neck pain, back pain, leg pain, ass pain. The treatments dry you up, dry you out, cramp your style and your legs, make you tired and sleepy. Is this not torture of some kind?

Ok, the fistula. The fistula they want us all to have-- this ginormous snaking thing that has utterly put me off of short sleeves forever. Mine pulsates like crazy (high flows, high blood pressure) and it sometimes works too well. Even crazier is that some stranger tries to stick these gigantic needles into this gyrating mess on my arm. This method of keeping me "alive" (and yes, I have to use quotes because if you saw what I look like today on the 1 hour of sleep I got at the dialysis clinic last night, you wouldn't be assured that I'm alive) is ...in-elegant. I'm not sure where else on my body I'd prefer to be connected to the dialysis machine-- hmmm... my back, maybe? So I wouldn't have to see it. Eeesh! How about my false navel-- the one they created for me during my hernia surgery. Oh yeah, I already tried an adominal catheter and that wasn't particularly sexy. Gee, I do miss my chest catheter(s). There wasn't any pain with it...I could stand up and do aerobics during dialysis with it. A fistula is a pain the arm (and the ass!). And ugh, yeah, ok, you could start buttonholes and perhaps it would be less painful-- but getting the damned buttonholes going on my fistula is nearly impossible. I don't know if it's flows... fast healing...anuerysms or what, but getting the buttonhole needles in is painful and usually doesn't work-- even after 2 months of trying. *le sigh*

Using a fistulas is painful enough (with all those sticks every session-- with or without lidocaine)... but then I have to protect my fistula while trying to sleep during nocturnal dialysis. I tell ya, the anuresis alarms we're currently using prolly aren't going to detect blood leaks on me because the damned things ends up everywhere but near my fistula. hehehe. Oh well. Since I'm usually awake during dialysis I can usually see when I've sprung a leak. An anuersis detector with dual probes would be much more useful than what we have now. Maybe I should patent that, hmmm.

Ok...enough about fistulas. I'm moving on to the television setups in dialysis centers. Whose bright idea was it to have televisions on the ceiling? Even if you're in bordello position (tm) in your dialysis chair, can you really watch television comfortably with the screen kissing the ceiling? And what's with the remotes? Is the goal to deafen all the patients? My remotes only work on "OFF" "DEAFENING" and "MOST DEAFENING." Argh! Sometimes it much better to watch the television with closed captions, en espanol!

Let's see, what else can I complain about? Ah, the darkness of the clinic for nocturnal dialysis... hmmm..well, not a problem for me-- since I don't sleep more than an hour or so at the clinic. But I imagine it is difficult for other patients, who need darkness to sleep. I did see one patient with a mask over his eyes, but I don't know if I would get much sleep like that. They do dim the lights in the unit, but I know that's not dim enough for everyone. Then there the noise problem, though the staff keep the guffawing down for the most part, at our unit.

Ah...I have a dozen other complaints. Hey, dialysis totally sucks ass. Nocturnal dialysis just sucks a little less (if you can get comfortable enough). Still seems like torture to me. But then I haven't tried waterboarding. Sh! Don't let the clinical staff hear that word, it may become a new treatment. hehehe.

That's enough for now...because I'm at work and the Net Nanny the City runs will probably go off in a bit and forbid to me to type another stroke. Next time I'll try to post about the flat-lying dialysis chairs that I discovered on the internet-- and who knows? maybe by then the new chairs will have arrived at the center and I can offer my thoughts. *smile*

Happy Zzzzssss.

Michelle/Treasure

Not much in the way of "nitey nite" lately...

As seen on http://www.ihatedialysis.com/ (er um...ok...so I did some editing to this version--truth-in-blogging 'n all):

Greetings, all. Well, I have been doing nocturnal for about a month now, or so. I love the way I feel-- but then I've always done much better on longer treatments (I did 8-hour/thrice weekly treaments during the day last year). My joints aren't as creaky and my phosphorus is actually too low and I'll have to adjust for that. My sleep is better-- on the nights I'm not at dialysis. hehehe. Basically, I CANNOT sleep at the center. It's the chair-- not anything else. I have noise canceling earphones and the light doesn't bother me...but OY! THAT CHAIR!

Let me continue my rant about the chair. My body totally rejects dialysis chairs. I cannot do a 3-hour treatment in a dialysis chair without it throwing my neck off. I have to sit bolt upright-- in the posture one has in a really good office chair. To sleep, I need a flat surface, where I can turn on my sides. I cannot sit or sleep in a reclining position--EVER.

Are my CAPS getting the message across? Actually, I shouldn't be shouting here. I made the staff aware of this problem I have with dialysis chairs before we begun this nocturnal study. I have made a point of repeating my chair problem at least twice a night during my sessions. I have made the directors and docs and some of the corporate board members aware of my aversion to the chairs in this center. And it isn't that this has fallen on deaf ears-- they have looked into getting some samples of alternative chairs, and they seem to be committed to purchasing at least a couple of chairs. But really, I can no longer wait for their approval process to run its course. And here's why...

Not only do I drive 1.5 hours each way to the center where the nocturnal dialysis is taking place, I frequently have to work early the day after a session-- for 8 hours. I find that because I do not get more than a few minutes of sleep at the center (sometimes I'm so exhausted that I will doze off for a bit) I end up sleeping-- on my drive home from the center at 6 am! This is not very healthy, and I'm sure that I'll end up negating the good from nocturnal dialysis by driving off a cliff on the trip back. * goofy grin* Anyhoo... I have endured this sleep exhaustion as long as I can. No mas! In this economy, I can't afford to call in sick (again...and again) because I'm sleep deprived from spending the night in a torturous dialysis chair.

I am now shopping for my own dialysis chair...and I will soon find out what I have to do to get the center to accept the delivery (isn't nocturnal dialysis great? I can now work full-time and use one whole paycheck to purchase a dialysis chair!) I am perfectly willing to let any and all other patients, doing dialysis at the center, use the chair when I'm not scheduled for it. And whooo boy, I came across one chair on the internet that lies flat, has heat AND massage. I just ask that the center designate the chair "the Michelle Adams-Walton Memorial Comfortable Dialysis Chair," after my demise-- which may come sooner than I anticpated, because I plan to scrabble over the falls in Yosemite over Spring Break-- that's how good I feel! Hmmm, on second thought, I think I'll be buried in that chair....aw! being heated and massaged into the afterlife sounds kinda groovy.

Anyway...I thought I would just give this long-ass update. More to follow...and please join in with your comments, razberries and the like.

Nitey nite...Treasure/Michelle

Nitey Nite

Hey there! Welcome to Nitey Nite, my nocturnal dialysis blog. Here you will find my musings and murmurings about a nocturnal dialysis study in which I'm participating. And, rest assured, we'll jump the rails and talk about other things that fascinate or annoy the hell out of me.

The first few blogs will be nice and polite, but once the ball gets rolling... I will have made myself at home, and in my home I say and do whatever I damn well please!

If you don't know what dialysis is-- Google it! I know I'm a librarian, but I only look up information for other people when I'm on the clock... hehehe.

Ok, that's all for now.

Michelle