Another reason I hate my Nephrologist

IF YOU ARE EATING OR HAVE A WEAK STOMACH, YOU MIGHT WANT TO SKIP THIS ONE.

Last week after they injured my renal artery, I had a lot of blood in my urine, as one would expect. The day I got out of the hospital, I had the feeling I had to go pee but nothing would come out (a feeling I told the kidney doctor about earlier in the week but at that time was still able to pee). A catheter was used to drain my bladder and then removed. I peed normally and was discharged. I came home, ate lunch, peed again, and then took a nap. When I awoke the feeling was back and I couldnt pee. After eating turkey, I went to the ER where another catheter was installed and left in.

Today I went to an Urologist. I told him of what had happened and he said that this would be easy to fix. He seemed shocked when he asked if I had seen an urologist while in the hospital and I told him no. I have a couple of prescriptions and the catheter comes out tomorrow.


A lot of people have asked what it is like on dialysis. The answer is pretty boring. They hook you up to the machine and a blood pressure monitor. You weigh in before and after dialysis, which for me lasts 3.5 hours. There are around 20 people on dialysis at the same time and place I am. Usually 5 nurses are there. They rotate who has which group of patients each month. This month I am lucky to have the nurse that all of my fellow patients try to avoid. She is extremely lazy and not much of a bedside manner. I have been spoiled the last 2 months with the 2 nurses that everybody loves to have. Anyway, while on dialysis you are supposed to be still. Most people sleep. I usually bring a portable DVD player and watch a movie. In my end of the room there is a guy in his 60's that is almost blind and had a foot amputated. He makes musical notes when he snores and has an airbrushed T-shirt that proclaims he has his oil changed 3 times a week (a reference to the dialysis). Next to him is a woman that talks to herself and wears a shirt that says not to talk to her when she is talking to herself. There is another woman at the end that I havent gotten to know as she comes in and goes straight to sleep. Next to me is the first patient to have received dialysis from the clinic. Nice grandfather type. He reads the paper and listens to a walkman to kill time. A few people down is a guy that didnt come too often until the staff threatened to put him in the hospital. At the far end is "chatty cathy". Not sure of her real name but she likes to talk to everybody about everything. There is 2 office staff people that come in and out, a director of nursing that used to be at the clinic all of the time but is having to spend some time at another clinic right now due to some staff problems, a dietition that comes in and out, a social worker that comes in and out, and then the occasional visit by a doctor. I am the youngest person there. Some are there because of genetics others because of hypertension or diabetes and then there is me, who is there because of an incompetent quack. On Mondays, a lot of the patients are there really early because they are miserable, most likely from not following their suggested diet, since they havent been on dialysis for 2 days. Sounds like a fun place to be, huh?