Living Kidney Donation

Home Dialysis – not always a picnic!

Home dialysis has great advantages over hospital dialysis. With hospital dialysis generally one goes about three times a week and each session lasts 3 – 4 hours.  Not every hospital can do dialysis so ofter the person has to travel very long distances each time. The whole day can be taken up.

With home dialysis that aspect of it is gone. Instead the person has dialysis over night while asleep using a different method to that in hospital. It takes much longer perhaps 8 – 10 hours, but at least it is at home and in the night so the days are free. Also becuase it is done daily theoretically the person should feel healthier as there shouldn’t be a build up.

But …. isn’t there always a “but” ! …. it does not come without problems. Things do not always go smoothly. Of course there is the phone to call for help and advice, but even so, it is a tremendous responsibility and when things do go wrong can be very stressful and worrying for all concerned.

My dear friend in Oklahoma, USA (you can read part of her story under the Blogs link) – Judy Ladd cares for her husband. She had a bit of a scare yesterday. Things didn’t go as they should. Read her account here:

 Home PD Dialysis – not always easy

Judy had been emailing me that morning and with her permission I was going to quote from her email anyway regarding supplies of dialysis equipment. 

Judy says:

Every month the company that brings his supplies calls for a order.   I just have to tell them how many cartons of each item we have and they figure out what he needs to last another month.  The problem is the weight of the cartons.  Lots of different supplies such as drain tubing and such that is not heavy.  The solutions he uses in his treatment weigh 26 pounds each. We have about 70 boxes right now each weighing 26 pounds along the wall in our bedroom and we are low because we get another delivery at the end of the month.  I’m very worried about the weight being on that floor so I’m trying to figure out how to put all those boxes in the front bedroom where I work, no traffic much on this floor.  We have wood floors so I don’t know how much weight they will really hold.   So even though we are low on supplies we have 70 boxes each weighing 26 pounds making a total of 1820 pounds plus 4 more boxes of a different solution that weighs even more. This weight is on a inside wall and the floor is starting to be weak.  Well shot now that I added it up I know I need to move them to a outside wall for more support.   
 
You know PD dialysis is better for the patient and they hate to go to the dialysis centers and sit in those chairs for 3 plus hours while that huge machine takes their blood out and cleans it.  Gary likes the home dialysis much better.   The tubing is in his stomach lining and dextrose fluid is put and it stays there for a hour and drains out. It’s taking out poison as well as draining out the solution that has been dwelling there for a hour.  A drain tube is in the toilet stool and that’s where it drains.  He does 7 of these exchanges every night about 10 or 11 hours if we don’t have any problems.   For the one that takes care of the dialysis patient its so much work.  I do allot of lifting and cleaning up in the morning when he comes off and in the evening when he gets on.  It took me a hour and 1/2 last night.  I had to call tech support because machine would not work after all that setting up.  I had to start from scratch all over again then it worked. 

I’m not complaining just overwhelmed today I guess.

It is that last sentence “I’m not complaining just overwhelmed today I guess” …. overwhelmed! I can imagine reading that and the link to her blog post just how overwhelming it can get.

I have posted this becuase I wanted people to know, that although dialysis takes over from the kidneys, it is certainly not an ideal solution. The lives of not only the patient but the carers, family and friends is disrupted. Some people have been on dialysis for 20 years plus even. Not everyone is suitable for a kidney transplant, but those on dialysis that are, the wait for “that call” must be unbearable at times.

PD Dialysis

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