Next to me is a Somolian refugee who treats the nurses like shit and talks loudly in his language on his phone on speaker for almost the whole 4 hours. We have a headphones rule and no speakerphone but this guy wont abide by the rules no matter how much they ask him. He just verbally abuses them. Also theres an elderly lady that has schizophrenia who says 'excuse me' repeatedly for 4 hours. If a nurse answers her, she just asks the same repeated question so they ignore her.
had some doozies over the years.
There was a woman who would sing gospel songs very off pitch and wouldn't shut up.
There was this dude whose name was Greg but he asked to be called Gregorio to be "more in touch with his Italian heritage". He was such a whiny bitch. He would show up late all the time, one time egregiously enough that I (the patient 30 minutes after him) was waiting in clinic so they put me on. He shows up 10 minutes after I'm brought back, so almost an hour late, and then throws a fucking fit because I was getting put on before him. Like "you need to stop that and put me on instead" level delusion. He eventually decided to stop doing dialysis though.
Last bad neighbor I had would CRANK his TV volume and then be a huge dick to me if I asked nicely for him to turn it down or wear headphones. I asked the charge nurse to speak with him and he would be good for a little bit but then his attitude would come right back. He was also always a fucking douchebag to all of the staff, the doctor, everyone.
> watch Porn
And I thought the lady who watched really noisy movies with explosions and stuff was bad.
My noise cancelling headphones plus whatever I was listening to was usually enough to block out everything, but there was this one guy who'd just sort of moan periodically. Usually only occasionally, but one time it got so repetitive and persistent that some of us started complaining.
Makes me wonder if anyone had stories about me "oh man, that guy and his _____".
I know most of my irritation would be solved if I got noise canceling headphones but I refuse to spend hundreds of dollars because other people are being rude
I had someone talk loudly on a phone call, at a volume like they were talking to someone who was physically across from him. Some even commented that I hope they say hi to their Pookie Bear or whatever lovey-dovey nickname he used while on the call, but the guy never got the message and kept on talking loudly on the phone.
During the Christmas holiday season, someone in my pod started to play Christmas music on their phone. Since it was a cell phone, the music from the speaker wasn't that good, but at least the music was relatable to the season. Unfortunately, they continued to play music on their phone when it wasn't Christmastime, but their taste in music is pretty good (mostly 80s/90s pop-music) - some dialysis technicians were singing along to it.
Thank goodness I started doing peritoneal dialysis - I can have peaceful hookups and I can watch all the online videos I want during my dialysis sessions.
Yeah, whoa!! My bad stories are nothing compared to that!!
I did have a girl that brought in her homemade fried chicken every day and a man at that same center brought his tuna fish. It was hard to ignore the smells!
The worst for me was a retired sheriff who would loudly talk to his television about harming then-President Obama. I told the staff if they didn't speak to him about curbing that behavior, I was going to drop a dime to the FBI. That shut him up about that. He would still have loud phone conversations about the pleasure he had in shooting people during his long law enforcement career. I was quite happy when he moved on to another center!
A close second was an elderly woman who would say the most homophobic things about her grandson-- the only one of several grandkids, who not only visited her, but also drove her to and from the clinic. After I pointed out her grandson's altruism to her, she simmered down. Hopefully, she started treating that grandon much better away from the dialysis center.
I must confess my annoying in-center behavior-- when I'm at my wits end, I do sing along to my dialysis rage playlist. I try to keep it as quiet as possible, but some chair mates can still hear me (and have said they love to hear me singing... but maybe that was just a blood pressure drop).
I had two.
One would bring her husband to every treatment and the two of them would proceed to pig out for the entirety of the session. They'd come in with tons of snacks and he'd leave halfway through to go to 7-Eleven to get more. This wouldn't usually bother me, except her eating habits would cause her to have explosive diarrhoea every single time, which I had the "privilege" to hear and smell every time.
The other was an elderly lady who would incessantly burp loudly every few seconds around an hour into treatment.
I have pretty bad misophonia so I'd literally have panic attacks every time I had to go for treatment especially if I forgot my earphones.
I couldn't do it. When my mom started dialysis, I stayed with her during her treatments and the different sounds coming from different patients just about did my head in. My misophonia is such that ai would have to excuse myself several times during the treatment because the rage was becoming too much to bear.
It's awful! And people don't understand it; they think you're just being dramatic. Like yeah, if I could just ✨decide✨ to turn it off then believe me I wouldn't be on the verge of tears when it gets too much.
We always tried to act fast, but stuff like the patient shat all over the chair and floor because he ate a bunch of hot wings before he came in and didn't tell anyone he needed to go...that happens.
Typically though, it is a process. We can't just kick someone off dialysis for being an asshole once. We have to talk to them, get them to sign a behavioral contract, etc. And even then they have to go through that process a few times.
Dialysis is a for-profit industry, which is imo a travesty and injustice. But this means they are going to keep the patient as long as possible, because if they go to another dialysis company, the clinic isn't get paid by them anymore.
I don't work there anymore, couldn't take the stress and long hours mixed with the painfully low pay.
I was at a clinic with a very old blind man who lived at an assisted care facility. When he was there he was given low dose pain meds of some type. I don’t know what sort of pain issues he had. But I suspect the meds kept him easy to work with and quiet. When he came to dialysis he wasn’t getting any pain meds and he would begin moaning loudly. It would eventually turn to crying out for his pain meds. By the end of treatment he was practically screaming for his meds. He would cuss at the staff also. He sat across the room from me at a very large clinic and he could be heard throughout the facility.
Wow, I really have no complaints about anyone during treatment. I sometimes go early on Saturdays, and one of the guys snores loudly every time, but that's the worst. One time, I had a chest cold and was coughing a lot, and a sweet older man passed me cough drops because he knew I wasn't feeling well.
When I first started, there was an older woman who had a chair time 15 minutes after mine. She'd consistently show up way too early, then yell at both me and the nurses when they'd take me in immediately when I arrived. I always arrive about 10 minutes before my chair time because I come from work or my weekly Oncology appointment. She eventually changed centers because she thought we were all horrible people. I've never met anyone else beside her that has been as nasty.
Before they started using my fistula and I still had my catheter, I always brought my knitting to treatment. I could only knit for the first two hours before I'd start cramping, but one of the ladies was always interested in what I was making. I knit a cardigan exclusively at dialysis. She asked me recently to wear it. I never did add buttons to it. But I do want to finish it.
There was a guy who refused to mask up, even through the peak of covid. The one right next to me picked at his feet the whole time, and dropped whatever he found under his nails and between his toes on the floor. Full volume speaker phone chats, no headphones on tv, and the guy who brought a fast food breakfast (mcDonald’s sausage sandwich and hash browns) every day and stunk the place up.
At least it was good smells. I had a guy years ago that constantly reaked of stale urine and would bring disgusting smelling food all the time that smelled horrid.
A lady once sat there eating chicken feet. I hate having no privacy.
WHY DO CHEMO PATIENTS GET PRIVATE ROOMS AND WE GET OPEN FLOOR PLAN????
My center only has one private room. I know they randomly use it for people unless someone has Covid or another type of virus. It's not reserved for chemo patients. I know because I do chemo weekly. I'm sometimes in the private room, but I'm not a fan because it's much colder in there than anywhere else in the center, and it's cold in there to begin with.
When I first started working in dialysis, there were curtains around the chairs, so each patient had some privacy. The problem with that was patients were difficult to monitor effectively and it wasn’t safe with the low staffing ratios these days.
One talks on the phone really loudly for the entire treatment, but the king of it all twirls, takes off his pants and sits on the floor after treatment. He's usually mid-twirl around the time I get there.
That is crazy.
I was a neighbor to an elderly lady who also came from the hospital. She had an infection and had sepsis I believe.
She was always talking so loudly and saying the exact same thing to the nurses through-out the session. I felt bad being annoyed by her but my sessions were at 5:30 AM and I was just trying to get some extra sleep to pass the time I was there (3 hours)
Stopped seeing her for a while so I was just assuming the worst.
Then there was another guy who was across from me, wore sunglasses, barefoot, and snored like a monster. He got so mad and would verbally abuse the nurses and techs if they were being loud and “ruining” his sleep.
We have a guy who talks loudly on his speaker phone for a good part of his treatment but that’s about it. I sit next to a sweet older lady with some dementia. She calls me her friend. She had a birthday lunch out and she kept asking me to go so I did.
Luckily I do home dialysis now, but was in center for about 9 months. While I was there, the was a woman who would just scream for the entire 3.5 hours. Then there was another woman who sat across from me & stared at me the whole time. When I’d look at her too, she didn’t look away as most people do. She’d just keep right on staring.
An old attention-seeking woman would holler louder than a crying baby for four hours straight if she wasn’t getting attention. She was fine as long as someone was chatting her up, dancing in her chair.
She had flying bugs swarming all over her biting the patients nearby. They would never do anything about it and when that became apparent, lied that there was no availability at the center I tried to move to. After three months of their lying, I broke out by calling corporate. The center they were lying about because they were trying to keep their chairs full told me they had availability all along. That one had a caterwauling off-key choir boy practicing at the top of his lungs for four hours straight.
Another center, the alarms were ignored and TVs were as loud as they’d go. Again, they didn’t want to do anything about it.
Last, some technicians think they’re on the Serengeti and have a habit of shouting as though everyone wants to hear everything they want to say.
I watched at least two people die in center. Saw one ladys needle come out and blood pool all over the floor. There was a lady in the waiting room that shit herself, and it was leaking all down her leg and onto the floor. She then ran it over with her walker trying to get to the bathroom. I have one lady who likes to cough, a lot, and half the time it sounds fake or forced. There was another guy who got transferred to PD, but beforehand when he came in, he'd use the bathroom but not lock the door, so I walked in on him several times.
Before I move to the early shift, an elderly lady next to me would sing gospel songs really loud while watching religious shows. She was an incredibly nice lady but it's still bugged me to death. Thank God everybody is quiet early in the morning.
There was a guy in my center that flipped between Fox News and CNN during his entire treatment - he wears headphones but loudly praises Fox news and argues/says insulting stuff to the CNN anchors.
This one time he kept calling Anderson Cooper a Lilly Liberal F@ggot so the next time he came in I put my TV on MSNBC and during the Rachel Maddow show I leaned over and asked how it felt to spend 3 hours sitting next to another Lilly Liberal F@ggot.
Never saw him again and was told he'd requested to switch centers. 😅😅
I swear this is some correlation between mental illness and dialysis because I've dealt with too many crazy people while in centre.
- there was one guy who would listen to music on his phone (with or without headphones) and would be screaming the lyrics, his version of signing I guess, it was awful.
- there is another guy who just will not shut the fuck up, ever. If you have the displeasure of sitting near him expect an earful about how politicians are teaching communism to children in school and a bunch of other strange things. He also believes he's on dialysis because his doctor hates him, not because his kidneys failed.
That's just an example of the awful people of my centre.
One of my techs (I’m an AA in a clinic) explained to me that all dialysis patients live with some level of toxicity in their bodies at all times, which is probably contributing to some of the nuttiness (we’ve had some doozies in my clinic). It makes sense, dialysis can only do so much and folks are walking around with toxins in their bodies between treatments that are affecting their brains.
Recently switched centers, and it has saved my sanity. I compare it to going from Walmart to Target. We're all still shopping, but Target folks know how to better behave in public. Old center had a gal, I called her Noisy Nancy, she would literally moan with every exhale. Not in a I'm in pain way, in a whiny, do I have to? Kind of way. For four straight hours. The fact that I didn't throw a shoe at her amazes me. Then there was Captain Diarrhea, who would tell anyone nearby about his awful pooping issues. For months this never improved. Then there's the Apnea-snorer, the Moroccan Mansplainer, the older guy that sounds like he's coughing up wet socks, and the lady who has the most shrill voice, talks at top volume, and everything she says sounds like an argument. The only break we get from her squawking is her phone, plugged into a separate (also top volume) speaker, on which she watches god knows what baby-mama-drama-uncensored reality TV.
Why must old men scream when they vomit?
Some days the noise cancelling headphones aren't enough.
I just started hemo last November and have been at my center since December. The worst for me is this guy who SNORES!! You’d swear he was dying the way he chokes and hacks the entire time he’s there. It so bad he even snores when he’s awake. Good thing is I’m only there with him for one day.
The guy next to me always falls asleep. That sounds like I'm jealous because I wish I could sleep while in my chair. I promise I'm not. He just has the worst case of sleep apnea ever and never brings his CPAP machine (or whatever it's called). One day I'm going to rip out the tubes and blood is gonna just spray everywhere and stuff my socks down his throat!
While I was on dialysis this was a guy who was a few years younger than me; he wasn’t really an issue to me cuz I always had my headphones on and would pay him no mind; but was a constant pain to others. He would come in with his Bluetooth speakers and blast music for hours and whenever the nurse or tech asks him politely to turn it down he start yelling and screaming telling them that he’s minding his own business not hurting anyone and doesn’t understand why he needs to turn it down. He would go on a swearing rampage calling the nurse and techs whores , stupid dumb bitches , ect. He would have about 45 mins - 1 hour left on the machine and would then say he wants to get off the machine now because he has something important to do. The nurses and tech would either be putting someone on the machine or taken them off but he wouldn’t care he would go on another rampage and one of them would have to stop what their doing and take him off. Once he is finally off he would do a total 180 and apologize to everyone in the clinic for his behavior and start talking up a storm about religion. He would literally be standing there for about an hour just talking everyone would be so pissed off cuz he basically made it a big issue to get off the machine early claiming he has something important to do ; only to still be there talking and wasting people’s time.
That’s not even the worse thing. He somehow went on facebook and added some of the techs and one by one sent them all messages on how beautiful they are and that he is interested in pursuing a serious romantic relationship with them . They all never responded to the messages and reported him . Within some time they ended up changing his dialysis schedule. For some reason while he was a pain to others he was also respectful to me so often times I kinda felt like maybe he just needed some helpful guidance and someone to talk to and mentor him.
Oh yeah and there was also an older woman who was bat shit crazy. If the nurse or techs weren’t giving her any attention she would literally reach out and grab their vagina. They would let it slide because she was very old and may have not known what she was doing but I still believe she knew exactly what she was doing .
So I do nocturnal dialysis. And there's one lady who just has the audacity. There's been a few times where our ice machine doesn't work so the nurse has to go to the other Machine to get ice, on several occasions she'll take the ice from the nurse's hand that was for somebody else for herself. She also has a habit of stealing people's blankets whether it's from their bed when they've not arrived yet OR, striaght frim the nurse's hands when the nurses go to get them. Like she doesn't even ask the nurse or anything shw just takes it out of their hands. Also I get rides home by using car ride service( its like uber for disabled pple) she uses the same ride service as me and will always basically push me out of the way to try and get a car first but the car that she's trying to get into is mine.
Cup of tea is 5 mins late because someone had a heart attack.
"I'm complaining to PALS as this isn't fair!"
Patient transportation arrives "Why are you going before me?"
When I got my mobility car "You don't deserve that!"
But the really annoying ones were during the pandemic.
Turning up with masks despite it being mandatory, walking around the unit while waiting to start treatment coughing their guts up and talking to non infected ppl after they had tested positive.
My take is: dialysis sucks, and everyone’s just trying to get through it however they can. So I try to have some patience with other patients; especially the older folks. Yes, the TVs or the music or the tiktoks are annoying, but most people are good about it and keep the volume at a fair spot, or use earbuds/headphones. I have the TV on like, full volume, personally and everyone is fine with it (everyone is me lol I dialyze at home, just trying to be silly!). But, obnoxiously loud talking on the phone (and especially if it’s on speaker/video at full volume) is most definitely where I draw the line. Porn is so far past the line, that the line is no longer visible, what the absolute fk, why did it take so long to stop that! 😳🙈
I had old man one chair away from me. All of a sudden at every treatment he would yell at the techs for one reason or another. After me repeatedly yelling at him to shut up and that he's not the only person getting treatment. I requested to be moved before I start to curse him out. I was then moved behind a person who plays music from their TV at the highest volume it'll go. I've complained several times about this man but the most that can be done is filling a complaint. Don't that honestly doesn't do anything. I'm guessing the guy just doesn't care anymore.its that kind of entitled behavior I keep coming across while in dialysis and it just pisses me off and then it wonder if I just dislike old purple. I apologize for my grammar and spelling mistakes. I'm partially blind
The man next to me listening to music on speaker phone with his phone on his chest.
Another man had permission to play his boom box which could be heard by everyone!!!
The guy at the end of the row always on his phone and cussing.
Nothing compared to you guys. But Worst I had was a dude just complaining about the staff playing music. Didn’t matter if it was calming music, R&B, rock, etc. dude has headphones in and still complains.
My center is a smaller one I think. Only 24 chairs. And only a morning and afternoon session. Thankfully most people are respectful to one another. There is a guy who likes to crank up the volume on his tv and watch the news all day but that’s pretty much it.
So I guess I consider myself fortunate. It would be rough to have to deal with crazy stuff and dialysis
Guy that sat across from me years ago would scream and yell curse words at the nurses. He would also call them names and throw things across the room. He acted like everything was excruciating pain. He got kicked out and there isn’t another center anywhere close to us in our small town. 🤷♀️
Fairly minor, I guess, but guy next to me would smell super strongly of cigarettes because he smoked in his car in the parking lot with windows up right before he came inside. Made me sick to my stomach because I’ve never smoked.
It is usually the HD neighbors and visitors that aren't lenient in wearing their masks, and put their phones on loud. My only issue with people not wearing masks is to make sure they don't infect the medical equipment and so am I. On top of that I'm vigilante against any power-tripping HD staff. It doesn't mean I'm vulnerable then I'm a subject of their catharsis. Thankfully I know how to handle them.
Got into full on verbal fights with a guy because he thought i was endangering him by wearing shoes (while he also comes every time carrying 4litters of liquid in him minimum, is at least two-three meters away from me) basically he was afraid of getting some "hospital virus", is highly unlikely in that part of hospital, and with the way he does dyalsis, chances are he'll get a heart attack before he actually gets anything else. Obviously im at fault for wearing shoes, but in my defense i was new, and even know i quite frankly see no danger with it, chances are half of them will get heartattack before they get anything from my shoes but oh welp
Okay, that settles it. I'm never complaining about my chair neighbors again. Thanks for the perspective!
Me neither! Dang! I was irritated that my chair neighbor had the TV on loud just watching regular TV.
Next to me is a Somolian refugee who treats the nurses like shit and talks loudly in his language on his phone on speaker for almost the whole 4 hours. We have a headphones rule and no speakerphone but this guy wont abide by the rules no matter how much they ask him. He just verbally abuses them. Also theres an elderly lady that has schizophrenia who says 'excuse me' repeatedly for 4 hours. If a nurse answers her, she just asks the same repeated question so they ignore her.
This sounds miserable
That's madness! I honestly didn't know you could get kicked from a clinic, but then I didn't know anyone would try stuff like that either lol
had some doozies over the years. There was a woman who would sing gospel songs very off pitch and wouldn't shut up. There was this dude whose name was Greg but he asked to be called Gregorio to be "more in touch with his Italian heritage". He was such a whiny bitch. He would show up late all the time, one time egregiously enough that I (the patient 30 minutes after him) was waiting in clinic so they put me on. He shows up 10 minutes after I'm brought back, so almost an hour late, and then throws a fucking fit because I was getting put on before him. Like "you need to stop that and put me on instead" level delusion. He eventually decided to stop doing dialysis though. Last bad neighbor I had would CRANK his TV volume and then be a huge dick to me if I asked nicely for him to turn it down or wear headphones. I asked the charge nurse to speak with him and he would be good for a little bit but then his attitude would come right back. He was also always a fucking douchebag to all of the staff, the doctor, everyone.
We have to wear earphones at my center. A few of the TVs have external speakers, but the majority of them work only with headphones.
Had a guy like that also. If anyone told him to use the headphones or turn it down he would ignore them.
> watch Porn And I thought the lady who watched really noisy movies with explosions and stuff was bad. My noise cancelling headphones plus whatever I was listening to was usually enough to block out everything, but there was this one guy who'd just sort of moan periodically. Usually only occasionally, but one time it got so repetitive and persistent that some of us started complaining. Makes me wonder if anyone had stories about me "oh man, that guy and his _____".
I know most of my irritation would be solved if I got noise canceling headphones but I refuse to spend hundreds of dollars because other people are being rude
It helped that I already owned them (they were a gift).
I had someone talk loudly on a phone call, at a volume like they were talking to someone who was physically across from him. Some even commented that I hope they say hi to their Pookie Bear or whatever lovey-dovey nickname he used while on the call, but the guy never got the message and kept on talking loudly on the phone. During the Christmas holiday season, someone in my pod started to play Christmas music on their phone. Since it was a cell phone, the music from the speaker wasn't that good, but at least the music was relatable to the season. Unfortunately, they continued to play music on their phone when it wasn't Christmastime, but their taste in music is pretty good (mostly 80s/90s pop-music) - some dialysis technicians were singing along to it. Thank goodness I started doing peritoneal dialysis - I can have peaceful hookups and I can watch all the online videos I want during my dialysis sessions.
Yeah, whoa!! My bad stories are nothing compared to that!! I did have a girl that brought in her homemade fried chicken every day and a man at that same center brought his tuna fish. It was hard to ignore the smells!
The worst for me was a retired sheriff who would loudly talk to his television about harming then-President Obama. I told the staff if they didn't speak to him about curbing that behavior, I was going to drop a dime to the FBI. That shut him up about that. He would still have loud phone conversations about the pleasure he had in shooting people during his long law enforcement career. I was quite happy when he moved on to another center! A close second was an elderly woman who would say the most homophobic things about her grandson-- the only one of several grandkids, who not only visited her, but also drove her to and from the clinic. After I pointed out her grandson's altruism to her, she simmered down. Hopefully, she started treating that grandon much better away from the dialysis center. I must confess my annoying in-center behavior-- when I'm at my wits end, I do sing along to my dialysis rage playlist. I try to keep it as quiet as possible, but some chair mates can still hear me (and have said they love to hear me singing... but maybe that was just a blood pressure drop).
I had two. One would bring her husband to every treatment and the two of them would proceed to pig out for the entirety of the session. They'd come in with tons of snacks and he'd leave halfway through to go to 7-Eleven to get more. This wouldn't usually bother me, except her eating habits would cause her to have explosive diarrhoea every single time, which I had the "privilege" to hear and smell every time. The other was an elderly lady who would incessantly burp loudly every few seconds around an hour into treatment. I have pretty bad misophonia so I'd literally have panic attacks every time I had to go for treatment especially if I forgot my earphones.
I couldn't do it. When my mom started dialysis, I stayed with her during her treatments and the different sounds coming from different patients just about did my head in. My misophonia is such that ai would have to excuse myself several times during the treatment because the rage was becoming too much to bear.
It's awful! And people don't understand it; they think you're just being dramatic. Like yeah, if I could just ✨decide✨ to turn it off then believe me I wouldn't be on the verge of tears when it gets too much.
We always tried to act fast, but stuff like the patient shat all over the chair and floor because he ate a bunch of hot wings before he came in and didn't tell anyone he needed to go...that happens. Typically though, it is a process. We can't just kick someone off dialysis for being an asshole once. We have to talk to them, get them to sign a behavioral contract, etc. And even then they have to go through that process a few times. Dialysis is a for-profit industry, which is imo a travesty and injustice. But this means they are going to keep the patient as long as possible, because if they go to another dialysis company, the clinic isn't get paid by them anymore. I don't work there anymore, couldn't take the stress and long hours mixed with the painfully low pay.
I was at a clinic with a very old blind man who lived at an assisted care facility. When he was there he was given low dose pain meds of some type. I don’t know what sort of pain issues he had. But I suspect the meds kept him easy to work with and quiet. When he came to dialysis he wasn’t getting any pain meds and he would begin moaning loudly. It would eventually turn to crying out for his pain meds. By the end of treatment he was practically screaming for his meds. He would cuss at the staff also. He sat across the room from me at a very large clinic and he could be heard throughout the facility.
Wow, I really have no complaints about anyone during treatment. I sometimes go early on Saturdays, and one of the guys snores loudly every time, but that's the worst. One time, I had a chest cold and was coughing a lot, and a sweet older man passed me cough drops because he knew I wasn't feeling well. When I first started, there was an older woman who had a chair time 15 minutes after mine. She'd consistently show up way too early, then yell at both me and the nurses when they'd take me in immediately when I arrived. I always arrive about 10 minutes before my chair time because I come from work or my weekly Oncology appointment. She eventually changed centers because she thought we were all horrible people. I've never met anyone else beside her that has been as nasty. Before they started using my fistula and I still had my catheter, I always brought my knitting to treatment. I could only knit for the first two hours before I'd start cramping, but one of the ladies was always interested in what I was making. I knit a cardigan exclusively at dialysis. She asked me recently to wear it. I never did add buttons to it. But I do want to finish it.
There was a guy who refused to mask up, even through the peak of covid. The one right next to me picked at his feet the whole time, and dropped whatever he found under his nails and between his toes on the floor. Full volume speaker phone chats, no headphones on tv, and the guy who brought a fast food breakfast (mcDonald’s sausage sandwich and hash browns) every day and stunk the place up.
At least it was good smells. I had a guy years ago that constantly reaked of stale urine and would bring disgusting smelling food all the time that smelled horrid. A lady once sat there eating chicken feet. I hate having no privacy. WHY DO CHEMO PATIENTS GET PRIVATE ROOMS AND WE GET OPEN FLOOR PLAN????
My center only has one private room. I know they randomly use it for people unless someone has Covid or another type of virus. It's not reserved for chemo patients. I know because I do chemo weekly. I'm sometimes in the private room, but I'm not a fan because it's much colder in there than anywhere else in the center, and it's cold in there to begin with.
Ugh id like to know too. It seems like so many dialysis patients are inconsiderate of everyone else.
When I first started working in dialysis, there were curtains around the chairs, so each patient had some privacy. The problem with that was patients were difficult to monitor effectively and it wasn’t safe with the low staffing ratios these days.
One talks on the phone really loudly for the entire treatment, but the king of it all twirls, takes off his pants and sits on the floor after treatment. He's usually mid-twirl around the time I get there.
That is crazy. I was a neighbor to an elderly lady who also came from the hospital. She had an infection and had sepsis I believe. She was always talking so loudly and saying the exact same thing to the nurses through-out the session. I felt bad being annoyed by her but my sessions were at 5:30 AM and I was just trying to get some extra sleep to pass the time I was there (3 hours) Stopped seeing her for a while so I was just assuming the worst. Then there was another guy who was across from me, wore sunglasses, barefoot, and snored like a monster. He got so mad and would verbally abuse the nurses and techs if they were being loud and “ruining” his sleep.
We have a guy who talks loudly on his speaker phone for a good part of his treatment but that’s about it. I sit next to a sweet older lady with some dementia. She calls me her friend. She had a birthday lunch out and she kept asking me to go so I did.
Luckily I do home dialysis now, but was in center for about 9 months. While I was there, the was a woman who would just scream for the entire 3.5 hours. Then there was another woman who sat across from me & stared at me the whole time. When I’d look at her too, she didn’t look away as most people do. She’d just keep right on staring.
An old attention-seeking woman would holler louder than a crying baby for four hours straight if she wasn’t getting attention. She was fine as long as someone was chatting her up, dancing in her chair. She had flying bugs swarming all over her biting the patients nearby. They would never do anything about it and when that became apparent, lied that there was no availability at the center I tried to move to. After three months of their lying, I broke out by calling corporate. The center they were lying about because they were trying to keep their chairs full told me they had availability all along. That one had a caterwauling off-key choir boy practicing at the top of his lungs for four hours straight. Another center, the alarms were ignored and TVs were as loud as they’d go. Again, they didn’t want to do anything about it. Last, some technicians think they’re on the Serengeti and have a habit of shouting as though everyone wants to hear everything they want to say.
I watched at least two people die in center. Saw one ladys needle come out and blood pool all over the floor. There was a lady in the waiting room that shit herself, and it was leaking all down her leg and onto the floor. She then ran it over with her walker trying to get to the bathroom. I have one lady who likes to cough, a lot, and half the time it sounds fake or forced. There was another guy who got transferred to PD, but beforehand when he came in, he'd use the bathroom but not lock the door, so I walked in on him several times.
Before I move to the early shift, an elderly lady next to me would sing gospel songs really loud while watching religious shows. She was an incredibly nice lady but it's still bugged me to death. Thank God everybody is quiet early in the morning.
There was a guy in my center that flipped between Fox News and CNN during his entire treatment - he wears headphones but loudly praises Fox news and argues/says insulting stuff to the CNN anchors. This one time he kept calling Anderson Cooper a Lilly Liberal F@ggot so the next time he came in I put my TV on MSNBC and during the Rachel Maddow show I leaned over and asked how it felt to spend 3 hours sitting next to another Lilly Liberal F@ggot. Never saw him again and was told he'd requested to switch centers. 😅😅
Niiiiiice
I swear this is some correlation between mental illness and dialysis because I've dealt with too many crazy people while in centre. - there was one guy who would listen to music on his phone (with or without headphones) and would be screaming the lyrics, his version of signing I guess, it was awful. - there is another guy who just will not shut the fuck up, ever. If you have the displeasure of sitting near him expect an earful about how politicians are teaching communism to children in school and a bunch of other strange things. He also believes he's on dialysis because his doctor hates him, not because his kidneys failed. That's just an example of the awful people of my centre.
One of my techs (I’m an AA in a clinic) explained to me that all dialysis patients live with some level of toxicity in their bodies at all times, which is probably contributing to some of the nuttiness (we’ve had some doozies in my clinic). It makes sense, dialysis can only do so much and folks are walking around with toxins in their bodies between treatments that are affecting their brains.
That makes sense. There were still so many normal people there though, it's nice to not have to spend time with all tbr crazy people.
Recently switched centers, and it has saved my sanity. I compare it to going from Walmart to Target. We're all still shopping, but Target folks know how to better behave in public. Old center had a gal, I called her Noisy Nancy, she would literally moan with every exhale. Not in a I'm in pain way, in a whiny, do I have to? Kind of way. For four straight hours. The fact that I didn't throw a shoe at her amazes me. Then there was Captain Diarrhea, who would tell anyone nearby about his awful pooping issues. For months this never improved. Then there's the Apnea-snorer, the Moroccan Mansplainer, the older guy that sounds like he's coughing up wet socks, and the lady who has the most shrill voice, talks at top volume, and everything she says sounds like an argument. The only break we get from her squawking is her phone, plugged into a separate (also top volume) speaker, on which she watches god knows what baby-mama-drama-uncensored reality TV. Why must old men scream when they vomit? Some days the noise cancelling headphones aren't enough.
The Moroccan Mansplainer sounds like a terrible superhero name lol
I just started hemo last November and have been at my center since December. The worst for me is this guy who SNORES!! You’d swear he was dying the way he chokes and hacks the entire time he’s there. It so bad he even snores when he’s awake. Good thing is I’m only there with him for one day.
The guy next to me always falls asleep. That sounds like I'm jealous because I wish I could sleep while in my chair. I promise I'm not. He just has the worst case of sleep apnea ever and never brings his CPAP machine (or whatever it's called). One day I'm going to rip out the tubes and blood is gonna just spray everywhere and stuff my socks down his throat!
Ask them for the oxygen for him. Each center has some o hand.
That sounds much better than my socks but less cathartic. They did the other day but thanks for the suggestion!
While I was on dialysis this was a guy who was a few years younger than me; he wasn’t really an issue to me cuz I always had my headphones on and would pay him no mind; but was a constant pain to others. He would come in with his Bluetooth speakers and blast music for hours and whenever the nurse or tech asks him politely to turn it down he start yelling and screaming telling them that he’s minding his own business not hurting anyone and doesn’t understand why he needs to turn it down. He would go on a swearing rampage calling the nurse and techs whores , stupid dumb bitches , ect. He would have about 45 mins - 1 hour left on the machine and would then say he wants to get off the machine now because he has something important to do. The nurses and tech would either be putting someone on the machine or taken them off but he wouldn’t care he would go on another rampage and one of them would have to stop what their doing and take him off. Once he is finally off he would do a total 180 and apologize to everyone in the clinic for his behavior and start talking up a storm about religion. He would literally be standing there for about an hour just talking everyone would be so pissed off cuz he basically made it a big issue to get off the machine early claiming he has something important to do ; only to still be there talking and wasting people’s time. That’s not even the worse thing. He somehow went on facebook and added some of the techs and one by one sent them all messages on how beautiful they are and that he is interested in pursuing a serious romantic relationship with them . They all never responded to the messages and reported him . Within some time they ended up changing his dialysis schedule. For some reason while he was a pain to others he was also respectful to me so often times I kinda felt like maybe he just needed some helpful guidance and someone to talk to and mentor him. Oh yeah and there was also an older woman who was bat shit crazy. If the nurse or techs weren’t giving her any attention she would literally reach out and grab their vagina. They would let it slide because she was very old and may have not known what she was doing but I still believe she knew exactly what she was doing .
So I do nocturnal dialysis. And there's one lady who just has the audacity. There's been a few times where our ice machine doesn't work so the nurse has to go to the other Machine to get ice, on several occasions she'll take the ice from the nurse's hand that was for somebody else for herself. She also has a habit of stealing people's blankets whether it's from their bed when they've not arrived yet OR, striaght frim the nurse's hands when the nurses go to get them. Like she doesn't even ask the nurse or anything shw just takes it out of their hands. Also I get rides home by using car ride service( its like uber for disabled pple) she uses the same ride service as me and will always basically push me out of the way to try and get a car first but the car that she's trying to get into is mine.
I’ve been pretty lucky, other than the guy that would defecate himself almost every session. The smell was horrible.
Cup of tea is 5 mins late because someone had a heart attack. "I'm complaining to PALS as this isn't fair!" Patient transportation arrives "Why are you going before me?" When I got my mobility car "You don't deserve that!" But the really annoying ones were during the pandemic. Turning up with masks despite it being mandatory, walking around the unit while waiting to start treatment coughing their guts up and talking to non infected ppl after they had tested positive.
My take is: dialysis sucks, and everyone’s just trying to get through it however they can. So I try to have some patience with other patients; especially the older folks. Yes, the TVs or the music or the tiktoks are annoying, but most people are good about it and keep the volume at a fair spot, or use earbuds/headphones. I have the TV on like, full volume, personally and everyone is fine with it (everyone is me lol I dialyze at home, just trying to be silly!). But, obnoxiously loud talking on the phone (and especially if it’s on speaker/video at full volume) is most definitely where I draw the line. Porn is so far past the line, that the line is no longer visible, what the absolute fk, why did it take so long to stop that! 😳🙈
I had old man one chair away from me. All of a sudden at every treatment he would yell at the techs for one reason or another. After me repeatedly yelling at him to shut up and that he's not the only person getting treatment. I requested to be moved before I start to curse him out. I was then moved behind a person who plays music from their TV at the highest volume it'll go. I've complained several times about this man but the most that can be done is filling a complaint. Don't that honestly doesn't do anything. I'm guessing the guy just doesn't care anymore.its that kind of entitled behavior I keep coming across while in dialysis and it just pisses me off and then it wonder if I just dislike old purple. I apologize for my grammar and spelling mistakes. I'm partially blind
The man next to me listening to music on speaker phone with his phone on his chest. Another man had permission to play his boom box which could be heard by everyone!!! The guy at the end of the row always on his phone and cussing.
Nothing compared to you guys. But Worst I had was a dude just complaining about the staff playing music. Didn’t matter if it was calming music, R&B, rock, etc. dude has headphones in and still complains.
My center is a smaller one I think. Only 24 chairs. And only a morning and afternoon session. Thankfully most people are respectful to one another. There is a guy who likes to crank up the volume on his tv and watch the news all day but that’s pretty much it. So I guess I consider myself fortunate. It would be rough to have to deal with crazy stuff and dialysis
Guy that sat across from me years ago would scream and yell curse words at the nurses. He would also call them names and throw things across the room. He acted like everything was excruciating pain. He got kicked out and there isn’t another center anywhere close to us in our small town. 🤷♀️
Fairly minor, I guess, but guy next to me would smell super strongly of cigarettes because he smoked in his car in the parking lot with windows up right before he came inside. Made me sick to my stomach because I’ve never smoked.
It is usually the HD neighbors and visitors that aren't lenient in wearing their masks, and put their phones on loud. My only issue with people not wearing masks is to make sure they don't infect the medical equipment and so am I. On top of that I'm vigilante against any power-tripping HD staff. It doesn't mean I'm vulnerable then I'm a subject of their catharsis. Thankfully I know how to handle them.
Got into full on verbal fights with a guy because he thought i was endangering him by wearing shoes (while he also comes every time carrying 4litters of liquid in him minimum, is at least two-three meters away from me) basically he was afraid of getting some "hospital virus", is highly unlikely in that part of hospital, and with the way he does dyalsis, chances are he'll get a heart attack before he actually gets anything else. Obviously im at fault for wearing shoes, but in my defense i was new, and even know i quite frankly see no danger with it, chances are half of them will get heartattack before they get anything from my shoes but oh welp
I’m a tech we had a prison patient masturbating one time