Dressed to the Eights

I apologize for the delay in this latest installment but Candy Crush has taken over my life, I am thinking of starting a support group, anyone is welcome ;).

So you are probably confused about the title of this blog. I would like to thank my mom for the title, I had a different one in mind but she came up with this.  You know the old saying "dressed to the Nines", well obviously this is not that! Let me elaborate.  When you go to dialysis you are there for the long haul. It is important to be as comfortable as possible since you must stay put for 4 hours.  The variation in comfortable dialysis clothes is quite interesting as one might think. One man's comfy is not  the same for all.

I have my dialysis uniform as I like to call it.  A variety of black yoga pants that have never once seen the inside of a yoga studio, a tank top or t shirt with a V-neck (need access to chest catheter easily if you have one) and some lightweight long or -3/4 length sleeve shirt.  When you have a fistula access in your arm you need to have your arm exposed the whole time.  Can't wear a heavy sweatshirt or the blood pressure cuff won't fit comfortably.  I have a variety of colors that I can mix and match.  I always match and coordinate, cant stand to leave the house if I clash!

On the other hand there are some patients that have adopted there own version of a dialysis uniform. I have seen it all people and it aint pretty! There are the sleeveless folk, I am not referring to tank tops, I mean the people who literally cut the sleeve off of 1 dress shirt to expose the arm needed for dialysis. I kid you not, You can imagine that this would mostly be men who do this, but no, sadly there are a few less than fashion forward woman who lop the arm of the shirt and call it a day.

Then there are the slicers, those that slice an opening in the front of a shirt to allow for catheter access. So they sit for 4 hours with a gaping hole in there shirt with tubes hanging out, not pretty.  There are many elderly people on dialysis and I have learned that becoming old means you are cold all the time, so most of the winter we were all bundled up, well some of these nice people are still bundled up. They wear hats, gloves, long johns! Not joking! Pajamas with slippers, oh and my all time favorite is the socks they give you when you stay at the hospital, the beige ones with the no-skid marks on them.

It is most amusing to see the parade of torn and worn dialysis uniforms.  I have gained a new appreciation for my wonderful sense of style and fashion ;)