written on August 15, 2014
I went and took a tour of a new dialysis center this morning. Looks the same as the center I’m currently in, but it is larger (25 seats versus the 18 in my current center) and it so much quieter. I couldn’t believe with that many chairs how quiet it was. That right there should be reason enough to switch.
I decided earlier this week that switching might be better for me. I know I have less than 2 months before the transplant surgery, but I’m tired of getting migraines every day that I dialyze. And I don’t feel like my current center is listening to me when I tell them I’m getting migraines every day. They’re not changing anything to see if we can eliminate them. My doctor is also not following up on my blood pressure to try and get that lower. Since I need to have it closer to 130/80 before the surgery (it’s currently 180/102 while I’m sitting in the chair), I think I either need different medications or we have to adjust dosages again. Since I switched to afternoon dialysis last week, I haven’t seen or heard from my doctor at all. I’m under the distinct impression that no one is paying attention to my dialysis information (they’re re-testing my Kt/V again today (fourth time in the last two weeks) because it’s still low – Kt/V measures the efficiency of the dialysis machine in cleaning your blood – mine’s been low since I started and it’s never gotten higher – which means the dialysis isn’t cleaning my blood as well as it should – maybe the remaining toxins are what’s causing the hypertension and migraines).
Monday I’m going to go see my prior doctor, the one I stopped seeing in March because he said he couldn’t do anything for me any longer. Now I’m at a point where a second opinion is of more value to me than any help. Besides, he might know something I haven’t thought of or haven’t come across in my research.
The social worker at the new center is very nice, so is the head nurse. They both asked me questions about why I would want to switch facilities, what’s been going on with me at my current center, how they might be able to help solve the problems (they have another dialysis patient who also suffers from migraines due to the dialysis). My first impression is that it will be a better experience for me – it’s also only about 1.5 miles from home, so I could walk there or walk home if necessary (my current center is like 7 miles from home, and let me tell you, when a migraine gets really bad before I leave here, it’s always questionable whether or not I’ll make it home).
Hopefully when I request a transfer it won’t be too problematic. The new center did ask if I had told my current clinic I want to switch. That’s a big fat no. I also haven’t told my current doctor that I’m firing him (mostly because of two reasons – first, he’s hard to get hold of via phone, and second, I might need him to fill out a supplement claim for dialysis because the state wants to stop my disability insurance on August 30 (hey, I’m still on disability!))
I have to say, if I had known how complicated all of this would be, I probably would have just gone back to work. It might have killed me, but it would have been a lot less stressful than fighting the battles I’ve been fighting – with my doctor and the center over my quality of care, and with the state over my disability claim. Together, these two battles have been adding so much stress to my life every day. I finally received some disability money this week, which has helped us tremendously. One less stressor. Now I just need to get these medical problems under control, if I can. Living through two more months of frequent migraines and the requisite fatigue that goes along with that is really not how I want to live. I’m tired of it. I’m hoping a new dialysis center can help me with that. Guess it’s a wait and see at this point.