I don't know what you do, but I Read Before I sign!

For the life of me, I don't understand what would make someone think that they could hand me a stack of papers and ask me to sign the front page and think that I wasn't going to look through them first! I read every word of my lease EVERY year! They have it in the tiniest print possible too and I take weeks to read it!

Well the dietician at dialysis wanted me to sign the top of several sheets of paper regarding my treatment. Now my access is in my right arm. I am right handed. I told her I couldn't sign it with my right hand. She said well can't you sign with your left? I said I'm right handed. She said well it doesn't have to be perfect. I said my tech will be sure that I sign it at the end of treatment. She again said I could sign with my left and be done because she really needed it. I raised my eyebrows and and twisted my mouth TIGHT and said I will sign it AFTER treatment.

So with a slight attitude, she left it. After treatment I picked it up and started reading and I got to about page 3 and saw that it said I was not getting all the fluid off to where my "dry weight" is. That is supposed to be your weight with no extra fluid. Well depending on what I eat, sometimes my dry weight fluctuates. Never anything huge, but it does. So she had written that I was not reaching that weight because I was leaving treatment early because I couldn't sit through a whole treatment.

Um, back when it was still snowing, I had fallen and bruised my tailbone super bad and had to go to physical therapy and the chiropractor 3 times a week because it had caused a pinched nerve. During that time I did have to cut my treatments short because even getting off the machine to walk around some and do stretches before getting back on for the remaining treatment didn't relieve the pain. So I would stay as long as I could but during that time, I often left in tears because it was so painful. I very politely wrote on the side, the short version of what I just told you.

During this time I was on an antibiotic for 9 months because years ago I had been exposed to TB. I had been carrying traces of it for 16 years. Most people have trace amounts in their system but the body naturally keeps it at bay. Well, since I'm a candidate for a transplant and those trace amounts could possibly be something that could make a new kidney reject, I was put on this medicine.

When I ate certain things, it made my blood pressure rise. If I didn't have abnormally low bp, it would have been dangerous. My pressure is usually anywhere from mid-to high 90's and when I'm lying down and relaxed, can get into the high 70's mid 80's (thankfully the surgeon that usually does my procedure knows and will give me pain meds accordingly during. They generally will not give people much medicine if their pressure drops). I have been checked out thoroughly by two cardiologists who have both said that my body is healthy, just not normal as far and my heart rate and pressure.

I also couldn't take ibuprofen (the one OTC pain medicine I can take as a kidney patient) while I was on this medicine, so when I fell, my doctor prescribed 100% Hydrocodone.

Anyway, during this time my pressure was sometimes 145/90 at the highest and I'm reading this document and it said that as part of preventative treatment, she'd given me information on how to lower my high blood pressure! I very politely marked it out and wrote the real deal.

I read several pages further and again it said that I was not staying my complete treatments. I thought about it...she works during the day and I dialyze at night. She does rounds with the doctor ONCE a month. We have doctors visit usually 1 a week. There are things that are discussed that she has no knowledge of. I had talked to the head doctor in the summer months, after my back problems were over and asked if I could shorten my treatment time to 4 hours as is normal during the day treatments. I still work full time and I was getting home after 2 am and having to be at work at 8 am. The doctor agreed to it and agreed to have my blood flow raised during treatment. I promised him that if it affected to effectiveness of my treatment for the worse, I'd go back to that extra hour (most nocturnal patients run about 6 hours and only a couple of us still work). In the beginning I would come in by 8:30 pm and would do dialysis for 5 hours and get home a little after 2. I started asking the doctor to cut my treatment time by an hour with the same promise to go back if my blood wasn't getting cleaned well. Almost every time, I had the best labs.

Then as I read further, they analyzed my psychosocial behavior while being on dialysis and said that I was still working full time, being with the State of Illinois for 15+ years. Um I've never worked for the state. I work for another branch of government and I've been there since 1989. Slightly more than 15 years (ya think?).

The more I read, the more I got pissed. What if they were sending copies of that to the transplant team? I would have signed papers saying I don't go to full treatments. They would interpret that as not taking care of myself and they will NOT give an organ to someone who doesn't take care of themselves. You a heavy drinker, smoker, drug user? You will NOT get an organ! You can't keep your blood pressure at a decent level, can control your diabetes? No Son, no organ for you! If they had gotten me booted for sending that false information, those heifer hoes would pay dearly! (I borrowed that from my little cousin. I'm a cusser, I REALLY wanted to say some mf's b's and other things. I'm a work in progress).

So I did the only thing I could do...after crossing out all the false information in that document and hand writing the corrections, I wrote her a nice little note right on the front after the doctor, social worker and dietician had all signed it already. I said you rewrite my document with the correct information and let me look at it again and I will sign it.

My best friend is attorney and I have several attorney friends who have taught me well. If your name is on a docket, ALWAYS show up. If you are required to sign, READ BEFORE signing. If you don't understand what you're signing, find someone with a legal background (don't overlook legal secretaries either) to decipher what the document is saying.


I was SO livid, that I couldn't do anything but write. On the one hand, I'm happy because I have had writer's block for a loooong time. On the other hand, I took a sleeping pill about an hour ago and I'm still so riled up. I need to go to sleep. If you stopped by, I thank you much.