Dialysis Treatments

Several in the family may have dialysis treatments and know something about them. But I want to write a bit anyway. I go to dialysis MWF for four fours on the machine.And it takes about half an hour to get on and another half hour to get off. Actually, MWF are "dialysis days" and we can't plan anything else. It usually consumes about six hours on those days.

A tech hooks me up to the machine. Before leaving home Chris puts numbing medicine on my shunt so I don't feel the needles much. The needles are "horse size needles" They have to be large in order to extract blood from your body then return blood to your body. The tech sticks me first with one needle going one direction to take the blood and then sticks me with the other needle to receive the returning blood. The circulation continues for four fours. My blood cools while it is out of the body so patients keep covered with heavy blankets while on the machine.

Four hours of sitting go slowly. Fortunately we have some new chairs that allow lying back, which I usually do and go to sleep. A small TV is available at each chair but reception is poor and it is difficult to handle the controls. I have a blood pressure cuff on the right arm and can hardly move it. The shunt with needles is in the other arm which must stay very still the entire period.

A shunt is usually a surgically inserted piece of one fourth inch plastic tubing.This is what I have,actually it is my third or fourth one as they wear out. Some patients have veins strong enough they do not need plastic shunts, but few.

There are sixteen chair positions at our clinic and three shifts per day MWF. Each attendant cares for four patients.

While the blood passes through the machine, the machine extracts poisons the kidneys would otherwise void, fluid which the kidneys would void, and otherwise cleanses the blood. I would likely die in seven to ten days if I began missing treatments. In reality, the machine and the process keep me alive. Sometimes my body weight is seven to eight pounds lighter when it is over than when I went in.

Dropping blood pressure is something nearly all patients experience. Mine dropped to 43 over 36 one day last week. Usually it doesn't drop that much but we are not allowed to leave the facility if our top number is below 100.

A second serious problem for all of us occurs when we can't stop bleeding when the needle is extracted. I've had a couple trips to the emergency room lately because I couldn't stop bleeding.

The third serious problem is the washed out feeling after treatment. No good the rest of the day. If my treatment is in the middle of the day, many times I go home and go to bed, staying there until the next morning. Even the next day has its share of washed out problems.

There are many dialysis centers across the USA (even a cruise available) but the threat of going into a new place keeps most patients from traveling. Your life depends on the person assisting you, your machine, and Chris.So while it is technically possible to travel and have dialysis in different locations, I would find that difficult.

Actually the machine has an aritificial kidney. It is changed by the technician for every new patient and cleanliness goes without saying.

I don't want to be crude or socially insensitive but since some tendencies run in our family for these diseases, every night before you go to bed you should thank God you can pea.

I am alive! Thanks to God and the prayers of hundreds of people. This month I begin my SEVENTH YEAR ON DIALYSIS.