Thanks for the reply and all the great info. Some of it I hadn't heard before. I guess I'm pretty fortunate the girls at my unit are top notch and take pretty good care of me. Since my kidneys aren't my only issue I occasionally LIKE being able to go in several times a week to be checked out, adjust meds etc. I did have some problems with the shunt initially, took them 4 times to get it to work.
Additionally, I pretty much dictate to the gals how much I want pulled and how fast to do it. I know how much I can handle and they know If they don't go with my program they get to watch me puke in the trash can.
It sounded in your reply that you had a LOT of problems with your dialysis unit. I can only assume you were going to a large or busy facility in densely populated area. Fortunately I go to a small place in a rural area, but still I hate going on Mon, Wed, Fri, because of how busy it is. I've been to dialysis in Hospitals and they really suck.
P.S. I thought I was the only one that called them vampires!
We do live in a fairly congested area (on the fringes of one, actually) with a lot of ESL (English as a Second Language) techs; additionally, there's a nepotism thing going on in the units (all of them, apparently). Additionally, ours is used in affiliation with a big socialized-medicine provider (Kaiser Permanente), which is always a negative factor. There are also several myths afoot, the most outrageous of which is the following: "It's normal to have cramps during dialysis." And it is TYPICAL for them to pull too hard and then run the fluid (including blood) from the tubing back into you to bring your blood pressure up so you don't faint afterwards, their covering excuse being that you need the blood...we didn't manage to escape without a blood infection (enterococcus sp.) JUST before switching over to PD, and the whole outfit then attempted to cover THAT up with an admitting diagnosis of pneumonia (yeah, septic, complete with spots on the lung distributed consistent with the circulation on that side -- glad I asked what the admitting dx was and got to see the film -- I don't think the admitting ER doc liked it either), and then an attempt to skew the CDC statistics with (unnecessary) gallbladder removal, citing that as the offending organ of causation. We're talking an 84-year-old man here with fairly uncomplicated current issues at that particular point in time (a year ago), who did NOT need a GB removal. That would have effectively covered up the offending agent: the tech who opened his port at some point during the procedure and then covered that up with the schedule showing him being off the dialysis machine 15 minutes earlier than he actually was. We've never learned WHY his port was opened and the whole process delayed, by the way. This is the same RN-tech who ran 500 mls. of saline into him BEFORE the dialysis session started the first time we dealt with him (so where's the runback of patient's blood excuse in THAT scenario). And during that hospitalization the epidemiologists on staff absolutely REFUSED to talk to me, and fronted the hernia repair/dialysis port surgeon to promote the GB removal. They actually lied about his CT GB results BEFORE they got them: "he has gallstones." My response, an outright lie: "No, he doesn't" -- because I knew they hadn't done the test yet but they didn't know I knew that -- and then I stated to the surgeon, "Half the American population has gallstones; that doesn't mean there's an infection there. What's your proof? How can that be tested for?" And then, after hesitating, he coughed up the appropriate test to rule that out: a HIDA scan -- which hadn't been done.
See what I mean? Get into the mindset of knowing as much or more as the people you're dealing with, right up to department heads, or you're not going to make out as well as you should; I guarantee it. (Not being bossy here: this is the best advice I can give you.)
Having good staff to work with is important, and I hope if we ever have to go back on HD it will be in a smaller community for the above reasons; but there are other intrinsic factors that make PD better. It is absolutely less convenient from some standpoints and don't let anyone tell you otherwise, but it IS healthier in terms of longevity and we learned that from the internet (where we've learned a whole bunch of other good things they never told us). God bless you (and don't wait for them to look out for your best interests -- learn everything you can about dialysis vs. nutrition, US vs. European approaches, etc.)