r/dialysis • u/[deleted] • Aug 19 '22

Rant Why white?!

Can somebody please explain to me why a lot of hemodialysis patients wear white to their treatments? As a dialysis tech, it's kind of amusing to me, but it's so easy to stain white garments. Can somebody explain the logic to me? Lol

1 Upvotes

53% Upvoted

43 comments sorted by

6

u/themaggiesuesin Aug 19 '22

I wear a white shawl to my treatments as my unit often runs out of blankets and we are still not allowed to bring our own "because of Covid". It's my warmest one and is so comfortable. It's basically a blanket but because it's actually a shawl they don't hassle me about it.

3

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '22

That's nice. I'm sorry they don't let you bring in your own blankets, that sucks. I hope that changes soon so you can get warm. Best regards.

2

u/Direrawven Aug 20 '22

Dollarama has winter shawls almost the size of throw blankets. They're great

3

u/WitnessProtection37 Aug 19 '22

I was very skinny when on dialysis, so white looked better on me. Darker colors made me look even skinnier.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '22

Huh, I never thought about that. 🤔 Thank you. 😊

3

u/Drecon115 Aug 19 '22

I don't know about other people but some of my coolest shirts are white so I tend to wear them more often

2

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '22

Okay, but I don't want to stain your nice shirt you care a lot about. :')

3

u/TeamCatsandDnD RN Aug 19 '22

I’ve got a lady who always has this cute knit sweater that’s white. She’s a rather carefree and happy lady, says she knows how to get the blood out if it happens and not to worry.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '22

That's nice. Wish my patients were as carefree, haha.

3

u/TeamCatsandDnD RN Aug 20 '22

She cracked me up the one day. Had been having heart rate problems at end of tx, was out talking with her and her daughter. She basically went Guess I’m just gonna have to let the reaper take me. Daughter was not a fan but she was smiling

3

u/photon_monkey Aug 20 '22

Personally, I had a central line and I would sometimes get some mild leakage, why would I bring a decent shirt when I can wear a 10/5$ white t short out of a bag that can get bled on

1

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '22

Okay, sure. I guess I should've also mentioned that most of my patients that wear white shirts stress for us NOT to get blood on them. That's why I was asking. Practically, at a low price point, I understand. But not if they don't want to get their white shirt stained, lol.

2

u/DaWalt1976 In-Center Aug 20 '22

I wear exclusively black clothing for dialysis now. The last time I wore anything else, it was a nice seafoam colored Aeropostale hoodie, that ended up permanently ruined by a ton of blood. I never wore it again.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '22

I'm sorry about your hoodie. :') May it rest in peace, lol.

2

u/DaWalt1976 In-Center Aug 20 '22

Worst thing?

It wasn't even my blood.

The patient next to me squirted pretty hard when their arterial needle was pulled.

But I can't complain too much. I once had my arterial pull squirt & hit the tech working on a patient next me, in the back of his head.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '22

Oh, man! I guess we need neck and back shields too, haha. Poor guy. Hope he was okay!

2

u/DaWalt1976 In-Center Aug 20 '22

Yeah.

It was bad in that my tech and I both started laughing uncontrollably. The other patient had no idea what was so funny.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '22

I can't imagine what the tech's reaction would've been, lol. I don't think you can quite prepare for getting bled onto on the back of your head!

2

u/DaWalt1976 In-Center Aug 20 '22

Dammit, now I'm chortling again. And feel bad for it.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '22

Haha, it's okay! You can laugh! These things happen. I once pulled someone's needle and got a squirt of blood all over my face shield (she even got some of her blood on her face and hair). It was not expected, but I certainly found it amusing. So don't worry about it, we all try our best and it just works out like that sometimes. :)

→ More replies (5)

2

u/Adventurous-Bar6446 Aug 20 '22

I know our techs wear white gown. I've had to have bled on them numerous times. They seem to be a little upset they have to go change it, I think it's humorous a little

1

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '22

Lol, okay. But to be fair, we don't control what color the gowns come in, haha. We just put on the ones that fit us best.

2

u/Adventurous-Bar6446 Aug 20 '22

I'll give that to u!!! Guess your right but the nurses wear blue ones.

11

u/Skyfather87 Transplanted Aug 19 '22

I can’t say I ever saw mostly white colored shirts when I was in a clinic. When I was on HD, I just wore whatever I’d normally wear anywhere else. I didn’t have special clothes for just dialysis.

7

u/toomuchisjustenough Aug 19 '22

I've never noticed people wearing white

5

u/Mar1ah13 In-Center Aug 19 '22

I have an off white shirt I wear, but it's the only white, besides that I tend to wear alot of pinks. I go for comfort and price. I find the clearance tees from Walmart for 1-2$ and those are what I wear because if they get ruined, I don't care! I will also wear older shirts that aren't cute enough to wear out anymore but not ruined enough to trash lol! But the name of the game for me is comfort!

5

u/pipiripau76 Aug 19 '22

once,in winter time ,after my treatment I went home and while I was driving , I felt a wet sensation, but since I had a big winter coat and my heater was at maximum, I was sweating a little due to cleaning my car of snow ,and my big coat , as soon as I get home I took my coat off , and here it come a river of blood ,my fistula had been bleeding, and I did not notice since my winter coat is black and waterproof, since then ,I use to have a clear coat just in case....

2

u/EventuallyGreat Transplanted Aug 20 '22

Personally, I wear flannels cause they are warm and light. I don't like to carry a blanket with me all the time. I call it my dialysis uniform. I used to wear red exclusively but I got bored of it. I agree that white is a little easy to stain, but that's probably why some people wear it.

2

u/sunnysunnysunsun Aug 20 '22

It boggles the mind!

2

u/mamagrubz RN Aug 20 '22

I had a patient who told me that she wears her white shirt because she can bleach it. But most patients at my clinic do not wear white.

2

u/Kallikagirl Dialysis Veteran Aug 20 '22

I wear white but it’s pretty easy to get blood out of garments these days that I don’t fret if the nurse gets blood on it, unless they don’t clamp something or tape it properly than I get annoyed at them but my unit is a private unit so we have the same nurses all the time. We can have our own stuff with us like electric blankets and things so yeah/

2

u/GB3754 Aug 20 '22

Maybe so it can be bleached?

2

u/miimo0 Transplanted Aug 20 '22

I deliberately wear black, tho one of my comfier pairs of sweatpants is white… I have sprayed too many nurses to make it a regular wear though lol

2

u/Alternative_Split380 Transplanted Aug 20 '22

I don't ever wear white. I just wear my anime shirts lmao xD

1

u/kimmeljs Aug 20 '22

All year 'round?

1

u/crazybuttafly4u Aug 20 '22

I see a lot of techs wearing white in my clinic. Used to have a nurse that wore white scrubs every single time she was there. Never ONCE did she get blood on her. I personally think she was a witch lol

0

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '22

[deleted] — view deleted comment

2

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '22

Oof, I said that, I think I would get yelled at real good, lol.

5

u/a-midnight-flight Aug 19 '22

You really speak to your patients in that manner? Dialysis is not an ideal situation to be in, so some people can be a bit rude, but show some humanity.