I have come to the conclusion that dialysis is boring.
Wow. Took you this long?
Well, no. I always had a feeling that it was boring, but I'm just now realizing HOW boring.
Since rerun season is now officially upon us, I find myself watching 15 minutes of every show on television, of course, I watch this 15 minutes of every show 2.5 seconds at a time since all I do is surf the channels. First, we go up from channel 5 straight to 53 (with about 6 blank channels along the way.) Arriving at some stupid movie I have either seen 8 million times *cough* Jurassic Park*cough* or a western I care nothing about, I cycle my way back down. Eventually, I give up, turn the TV off and toss the remote into the holder thingy on the side of the machine before I begin to bore a hole in the back of a nurses head.
This is when one of 3 things will happen.
Option 1: The nurses are oblivious to my plight. Aren't they supposed to serve my needs?
Option 2: One of them will realize that I'm slowly boring a hole in their head and will come over to talk. This will either result in another conversation about my crazy family or the offer of a People Magazine. I prefer the magazine.
Option 3: I get handed a crossword puzzle. Sweet, sweet crosswording. If I could remember how to write an ode, I would write one to crosswords. Right after I write one to my precious, precious catheter.
Unfortunately, Option 1 happens 90% of the time and, after 5 minutes of unfruitful staring, I begin watching 2.5 seconds of TV again for a few minutes before the process repeats it's self.
If I get really, really lucky? My machine becomes aware of my boredom and rings off just to make someone come over and cater to it.
True story:
"What's going on?" Super Nurse asks with a smile as she pushes some buttons.
"My needs are not being adequately met,' I reply, pouting as I stare up at her.
"And what can I do to solve that?'
"Make sure my needs are adequately met."
*Insert really bad Who's On First? gag here*
With a snicker, Super Nurse replies that she'll get right on that, having caught on to my stalling gig. She disappears briefly and just as I have resigned myself to another few hours of nothingness, a crossword puzzle and a pencil magically appear in front of me. With a sigh, I begin, silence descends on the unit and all is right with the world. Until I discover that it's Tuesday and the puzzle is too hard and I can't answer anything after the first 39 seconds.
So, did I come to a point with all of this? Probably not. Most of my entries are really rambly. Just stick with me and pull your own moral from the story, mmm'kay?
"Option 1: The nurses are oblivious to my plight. Aren't they supposed to serve my needs?"
HAHAHAHA! When I had my last dialysis treatment before my transplant, I was given a card, signed by the nurses that said "To Our Queen Pain-in-the-Ass". LOL
... whoops, I broke my own no cussing rule. OK so cuss, just don't do it excessively.
K2
I will with hold the f-bombs. Everythin else is fair game though, right?
The boredom is the worst part of dialysis. Sure, you might have to deal with an infiltrate here and there, occasional cramps, etc, but the boredom is CONSTANT. And television doesn't help, because with all of the channels available, there's not much on worth watching. I like to read, but when I did it on dialysis, I would fall asleep. The only thing that kept me from boredom was to bring my laptop and either play games or go online (our dialysis unti had wireless access for patients).
Jeff
Try to conquer the sense of boredom and restlessness by thinking positive talks. I know it is not easy to do so being hook up on the horrid dialysis machine. When the physical reality cannot be changed, the only way is to change your attitude. Do other things to distract yourselves too so that time can pass faster.
Give me a good old crossword puzzle any day. Movies come and go, but crossword puzzles, they are always good for ending boredom. sorry you are bored for the reason that you mentioned, but hopefully it's more comfortable with a good puzzle.