r/dialysis

Today one of my worst nightmares happened right before my eyes and I don’t know how to feel about it.

I do in-center hemo and since being moved to the other side of the clinic I consistently have worse techs and it’s very stressful, on top of the stressors us patients already face I have to worry about incompetent people handling my lifeline and making mistakes like what unfortunately transpired earlier today.

When I sat down and learned I had this particular tech I was nervous but hopeful, nothing bad had happened as of yet but I never liked how she handled my catheter and seemed very unsure of herself. After aspirating the lines and uncapping a saline syringe she froze and seemed unsure of how to proceed realizing she had to take labs. She re-capped the saline and drew the labs but must have forgot to clamp the line when she was done because next thing I know I’m bleeding out of my catheter into this girl’s cupped hand and she’s asking me “Why is it bleeding?” I SCREAMED for the other tech to come over quick and thankfully just as he did it must have clicked that she needed to clamp the line.

I was so bewildered I didn’t even know how to respond.. Even though she’s well past graduated from training many simple tasks she seems to forget or not understand, like how to put the safety clip on after connecting or in this case drawing labs before doing a flush, which I often have to direct her on how to do. But today crossed the line into dangerous territory and I’m so shaken.

At the end of treatment I discreetly told the nurse what happened and he said he’d talk to her, but also agreed that shouldn’t be happening as she’s past training. The problem is she’s very dependent on the male tech I previously mentioned, following him around and asking him for help on every little thing, having him take over if she’s not confident enough. In my case he was over behind the desk when this all occurred.. but we all have a right to competent, safe care and I just feel this is absolutely unacceptable.

Has anyone else dealt with techs like this?

Two years ago I found out the hard way that my kidneys were failing when I ended up in the hospital in a hypertensive crisis and my lungs filling with fluid. My kidneys rebounded a bit for about a year, with my gfr rising to 22. But they've been steadily declining since December 2025, now sitting at 6. And I feel like shit. All the time. I'm so tired of being tired.

I have my surgery to get my PD catheter put in this weekend, and honestly I'm excited about it. I know it's going to come with a whole new set of challenges, but I feel like after 2 years of waiting to get to this point, it's finally here and I'm taking a step in the right direction. And a step closer to getting a transplant.

Did anyone else feel like this? I'm a little afraid I'm going to get a rude awakening. But I'm pretty optimistic about it, and also ready to adapt to whatever new hell that life decides to throw at me.

I had about 12% kidney function left when I started dialysis in July. I still make pee, although my output has decreased but that could be explained by me restricting fluids consistently. Over the last two weeks, I've been urinating pretty regularly and twice now I've been awoken in the middle of the night with the desperate need to pee and I've dumped a lot of fluid both times. Both incidents happened after I'd had a day where I got more ohysical exercise in than usual. The last two weeks, I've only gained minimal weight between sessions. Between Thursday and Saturday, I only gained 0.2 kg and I ate breakfast in the parking lot right before walking in to be weighed so the food in my stomach would account for some of the weight gain. The previous day, I'd had roughly 64 oz to drink. On Saturday, they drew a bunch of labs and said they're testing kidney function. They told me, and I understand that this doesn't mean I'm cured obviously. It's just weird. Have any of you ever experienced this?