Dialysis 104

Welcome back Kidney Warriors! It's hard to believe that it was 15 years ago this month that I was first diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Disease. So much has happened in that time frame; everything from kidney failure to kidney transplant to kidney rejection. It has been a great joy to share my experiences with all of you. I hope you are finding the information in the blog to be useful and easy to understand. As always, I want to thank Northeast Kidney for giving me this opportunity share my journey. I am a firm believer that it is the responsibility of each and every kidney patient to spread awareness about kidney health issues and organ donation.  And I hope I'm doing my part by sharing this blog with you.

Today I want to get back to our discussion about dialysis; so far we have discussed in~center hemodialysis and the different types of home hemodialysis. Please refer back to blog posts Dialysis 101, Dialysis 102 and Dialysis 103 to get a refresher on all things dialysis. Now we are going to discuss a completely different form of home dialysis called Peritoneal Dialysis. 

Peritoneal Dialysis or PD is a dialysis process which uses a patients pertioneum in the abdomen as a membrane across which fluids and dissolved substances including urea, glucose, and albumin are exchanged from the blood. Fluid is introduced through a catheter or tube which is placed in the abdomen via a surgical procedure. 

*Peritoneal Dialysis manual process*

This process is done as either a manual exchange usually every four hours or a on device called a cycler which is used at night as the patient sleeps and automatically does the exchanges for them. One of the most critical parts of doing Peritoneal dialysis is learning to care for the catheter because it is the patients lifeline and can easily become infected. Keeping the catheter clean and dry is imperative to keeping it healthy and usable. This is the biggest disadvantage to PD and is also the reason I stopped doing PD after two and a half years. Some of the advantages of doing PD including not needing a care partner, doing dialysis treatments at night while a patient sleeps, and provides better management of symptoms due to the continuous nature of PD. Peritoneal is usually done everyday when using manual exchanges or 6 to 7 nights on the cycler.

*Peritoneal Dialysis cycler process*

As you can see peritoneal dialysis also gives you freedom from being in a dialysis clinic and more freedom for your life. It is a good home option especially if you don't have a care partner. And another advantage is that it is completely ready to travel whether you do manual exchanges or on a nighttime cycler it can go anywhere you go. I hope this give you a good understand of this dialysis option. And I hope it inspires you to talk to your nephrologist about all the dialysis options especially the home options. Doing dialysis at home has given me a sense of control over a disease that can make you feel helpless. Take charge!

I want to thank you for joining me on this journey, I look forward to all your questions, comments, and concerns.

Keep on fighting,  Kidney Warriors!

~KidneyBlogger