HI--I am a 59 year old male, I have been going with my sister to dialysis that she has been resistant to, but seems to be more willing to do lately. The resistance took forms of the care facility she is at requiring her to go to the hospital after 3 refusals.
Yesterday went somewhat better; they had been giving her Ativan for possible anxiety on days she went, but every time she went through it about 1 1/2 hours into it she said she was getting dizzy, wanted to get off because she felt like she was having a breakdown. Yesterday she did not take the Ativan and did not feel dizzy. I want to get an overview of the drugs they have her on. She has been manic depressive and the lithium they put her on cause the kidney disease according to the doctors. The kidney doctor said they should have started the dialysis a year earlier, I don't know what the delays were. Any recommendations would be appreciated.
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Tomstrees
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I have been on dialysis since January, this year. I also have a diagnosis of bipolar and took lithium for 25 years, which we believe cause my kidney failure. I have anxiety while being on dialysis, (I hate it!), but once while I was there, I took my anti-anxiety pill and my blood pressure dropped so much that I got sick and threw up! Never did that again. Also a few times my blood pressure has dropped, and I was sweaty, dizzy,felt naseus sp? and they realized it and stopped the pull. At that point they finally told me not to take my BP pill on the mornings of dialysis. Duh, should have been told that from the start.
Also I sometimes cramp while on dialysis. At that time they stop the pull of fluid, and sometimes give me a little saline solution. It is very uncomfortable but I have wonderful techs and nurses that help me through it.
My advice is ask questions, lots of questions. Educate yourself as to what is happening to her body, and what to do to make it easier. I am still learning after 6 months of being on dialysis. Good luck and God Bless!
Questions are centered around the treatment and medications. She has gotten a doctor go ahead for more physical therapy which is vital with her.
And the lithium ruined the kidneys too in her case.
How about the other drugs? She has been on tegretol, depacote, abilify, a statin med., a high blood pressure med., pain killers, etc..
If the ativan was causing her dizziness and maybe other side effects, it is known for this and the nurses did nothing because they assume she is "mentally ill" therefore unreliable as I have heard them say.
"Common Ativan side effects may include:
dizziness, drowsiness;
weakness;
slurred speech, lack of balance or coordination;
memory problems; or
feeling unsteady."
How about the other drugs? Her mobility has been getting worse for years, was that connected to the meds. or something else?
I am not a doctor. I have been on some of those drugs and others for bipolar and anxiety. You need to ask her Dr about the other drugs she is on. And it was very unprofessional and nasty for the staff to say that she "is mentally ill and therefore unreliable"!
When you have something going on that is new and you are not grasping nothing , you act out. I've been there. I do Peritoneal, everyday, 4 times a day. Sometimes it's time consuming but it's so worth it.
You keep being there for her. Hold her hand. Go with her to treatments. On days that is a good day, go to out eat, movie, anything that is fun.
Everything's changed and that might be the problem.
I like what you said, go out to eat, anything is fun! God is not an unreasonable God, we already had hard enough three days on machine, He is our Father, He loves to see His children have a fun and relaxing day in between the runs!
I'm thinking that the whole stressful set of ordeals last year with the arm surgery etc. which took forever to heal was a mistake. She was not able to do aquatics, swimming etc. due to that needing to heal which is so therapeutic for her. At this point bed ridden and getting weaker but doing dialysis is not helping her much. I contacted her former social worker and we need to go over the heads of the Cassina people and nursing home.
The other question is dialysis really that helpful for everyone who is on it?? I have spoken to a number of the patients there at Davita and none of them say it is helping them.
This is ultimately THE question. Is it possible to schedule some sort of a conference call where you can pull all your sister’s medical team together for a group discussion?
Have you met with her nephrologist (kidney doctor) yet? Any medication questions have to be monitored and ordered by him. You can help by being there with your sister and observing and reporting what you have seen as far as drug side effects. It does help her to have family support as she is going through this new and scary time of her life. I remember being scared and anxious when I first started dialysis, but I got through it with the help of my staff and my husband. I also asked and continue to ask lots of questions of the staff until I felt more comfortable with the dialysis process and how to help myself feel better. In fact, yesterday I had a very scary, painful thing happen when my nurse put the arterial needle in (I have a fistula). Once she taped it down I had a lot of pain and it turned out she had pushed it into a nerve bundle. She took that needle out and we started over in a few minutes to two new sites. She gave me some good advice afterwards - to look at her and concentrate on her instead of the pain. She said I tend to zone out when I'm in pain or upset and this actually increases the pain and makes it last longer. I bet that would also help with anxiety. Good luck to both of you and do let us know how things are going!
My fistula is shallow, but every time the techs put needles in they tended to go in straight then to tilt it up ( that's what they were taught to do), it usually caused me extreme pain, to the point I requested to learn to do it myself, I go in almost levelly, therefore avoided a lot of pain.
I have spoken with the kidney doctors and the other former one who goes up to Davita. I'm afraid that since she has manic depressive and has had imperfect attendance at Davita she is being judged by the personnel there. But I have gone up with her a number of times which helps because he has no one really to talk to up there, a big cultural difference but has been getting a lot of visits at the nursing home. I want to see her regain mobility as she loves swimming.
I lived with Georgia over 4 years and about a year and a half ago it looked like the kidney issue was getting bad enough to be alarmed so she had the arm surgery to prepare. I asked the kidney doctors if one of us in the family wanted to donate would that work? He said she is too unstable for that though she has been pretty stable in the last month.
I am looking at all options and really want to try to help her. I'm afraid my older brother and sister take the always trust the doctors and nurses attitude. But she hasn't had a real doctor in quite a while since she ended up in the nursing home back in March. Also the nursing home put in an application for Medicaid which could take a while; I spoke with some elder care lawyers who just said she had to be under $1600 in assets; I'm afraid my brother as the conservator emptied out the bank account for the nursing home!
A very tough situation and I believe the path forward for her is aquatic therapy as she loves to swim unfortunately her YMCA contacts don't return calls and no one at the nursing home has suggested how she could get back into a pool as they don't have one. I was thinking another nursing home should be a good option that has aquatics but since her Medicare is exhausted that is going to be hard.
Does she have a kidney Doctor? He can answer your questions about medications and side effects. Also, does she have a psychiatrist who writes her scripts for the bipolar and Ativan? You could also talk to him about whether she is emotionally stable enough to go through surgery for a transplant. I am bipolar, and function very well. I am stable and able to make decisions, and even take care of getting our bills paid. But when I went for testing for a kidney transplant (which is very rigorous, a two day process which includes a psychologist testing) I was hesitant about whether I was stable enough to deal with the whole procedure of the transplant, and the ensuing regimen of drugs that you must take afterwards. You could contact a hospital that does kidney transplants and ask for more information on the transplant. Good luck and God Bless
She has not seen a psychiatrist since last November but the nursing home does have two doctors spread out over many patients. Unfortunately as far as I know they do not do serious reviews of the meds., and the place is dysfunctional.
One example; yesterday she had $100 taken from her room, I asked the aides on the 4th floor and they said talk to her social worker who seemed unconcerned.
From what I have heard the nursing home is substandard compared to other area ones. One Davita patient said they often give patients on a floor sleeping pills and you have to threaten them to get their attention. If the families of the patients are not asking the questions they don't take the patients seriously.
And on the meds. all I have to do is get my sister to ask for the list and they must give it on a day by day basis.
I am starting to go over their heads to the district social worker oversight on why she is not getting physical therapy which she wants and other issues. I need to get the medical proxy for her so they will speak to me about her care or lack thereof.
She has not had physical therapy since July 1 with no plans for more at the nursing home, for her to be bed ridden with no real physical therapy is just wrong. She has aged years since she has been there. I'm sure there are worse places and fortunately the business manager has a high success rate in Medicaid applications. No one in the family has the money or will to pay for physical therapy.
The other question is dialysis really that helpful for everyone who is on it?? I have spoken to a number of the patients there at Davita and none of them say it is helping them.
We met with the Davita professionals yesterday and went over her progress. She is hopefully being allowed to restart the physical therapy at Cassina. I also requested applications from better nursing homes than where she is.
I finally got a list of the meds. she is on, any feedback would be appreciated. Are these dose proper for a bed ridden patient? She is also give
Atorvstatin 20 mg
Carbamazepine 200 mg
Depakote 250 mg, 3 tablets 2x a day
Metoprolol 100mg
Norvasc 10 mg
Sensipar 30 mg
Vesicare 5 mg
She is also give Ativan on the dialysis days and pain killers for a cuff rotator issue.
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