[Leilee]

My mother is at the beginning of dialysis and has to take shots every two weeks for now to prepare her self for the actual dialysis to come. I'm just her daughter and my father likes to keep me in the dark and I don't know if it's becuz they don't know for sure or what , but she's stayed off this point so far for about 9mos simply by watching her diet, but now it's gotten too bad and she is 73yr old after all.

I'm scared to death to live with her, what can I do to assist her in these crazy times. Anyone, anywhere out there have any assistance pls share your wisdom? Thank you ahead of time. Mahalo!

if she goes on dialysis, she will probably have a schedule of going three days a week. MWF....it can take from approximately 3-6 hours. she is just sitting in a recliner and the dialysis machine is filtering her blood.

it is NOT painful. inserting the needle is the only thing that happens that is invasive.

she will be given strict instructions about her diet and please, please, please help her follow the doctor's instructions to the T. limit the fluids as they tell her to and make sure she gets plenty of rest.

dialysis can prolong her life. be meticulous with her hygiene and do common sense things, just as you would be doing if she weren't on dialysis.
and love her............xoxoxopat

[SweetSunshine]

Leilee~

My mom was on hemodialysis for a few weeks while her peritoneal site healed up. Then when that did she went to that . I always remembereed that the hemo took so much out of her. She had no energy at all. And basically slept all the time afterwards. The Peritoneal is a more natural way of dialysis. You have to do more with it every day instead of the 3 days a week with the hemo. But to us it was worth it cause she had some energy to talk to us after. My mom was 71 when she went thru all this. The one thing with Peritoneal is that you have to keep the tube site very sterile. And if I remember correctly no air units could be running because you couldnt have the dust oround the house moving . Another precaution . But it was fairly easy to hook up and do this for her. Just a matter of emptying out what fluid you put in there and then putting some back in to absorb all the impurities that you kidneys used to filter out. This I think had to be done 4 times a day. But it can be done while your in bed, in a car, sitting at a desk.. in a chair etc. So really it doenst take alot out of your life time wise. Hope this helps a bit!!! And good luck with everything.

[Perna]

Were I you, I'd learn (like fayerody taught so well) about dialysis and think of ways to make her long weekly appointments better. Get her books/magazines and maybe offer to drive her to her appointments/pick her up if you want to help?

I worked in a building that had a dialysis clinic and we got to know some of the more "colorful" patients as they waited for their rides in front of the building afterwards (a lot were on welfare and took special vans/taxi cabs). Were I you I'd get to talking to people around your mother; nurses, aides, other patients and their families, etc. and "get into" the experience that way. Dialysis can keep people alive indefinately, it's a "fix" for that problem but is very time consuming and can get complicated. I'd start with getting comfortable with dialysis and then that might help get me more comfortable with my mother again.

There are also dialysis programs where it can be done at home. the machines are easy to work and th e person has a "port" (a permanent IV tube surgecally placed in the body) so that that the person just needs to open the plug and put in the machine tube. it works for an hour placing a chemical fluid into the body which will clean the blood. then latter that night the person reopens the plug puts the machine tube in and the machine removes the toxin filled chemical fluid. The person can continue on with their day.

The home machines can also do longer term dialysis where the person sits watching tv reading whatever and the machine pumps thier blood out of the body through the vchemicals in the machine which removes the toxins from the blood and then pumps the blood back into t he persons body. the same way that when people dopnate plasma and whole blood at blood donation places at hospitals, red cross and other agencys that are in the communitys where they pay people to donate plasma and whole blood for $10 a visit.

Its not painful but sometimes tiring. Those that I know that are going though the process say they prefer the home dialysis over the going to a hospital and doing it in the outpatient room and they sometimes sleep for a few hours afterwards but for the most part continue on with their days like normal afterwards.