In-center Hemodialysis Only: How many Hours of Hemodialysis Do YOU Do?

[Zach]

I felt TTS suited my work life more because it meant I could get 3 full days of work in a week rather than 2 if I did MWF.

Same with me, on evenings.
It also fits well when I travel for work:  Fly on Sunday, film all day Monday and return Tuesday.

[pdpatty]

3hrs 45 mins. Thought that was long until I read replies.

Was 3hrs 30 mins ,doc added on 15 mins because my clearance wasn't high enough.

By the time I am off,my butt is really complaining, have to admire anyone who can sit there for more than 4 hours.

[jamoman]

8hrs 3xweek-other

[Bajanne]

m,w,f     4 hours

what she said, for me.

[pam49]

I go 2hrs 45min. 3 times a week.I guess I'm lucky.

[RichardMEL]

By the time I am off,my butt is really complaining, have to admire anyone who can sit there for more than 4 hours.

I bring a pillow for my back and one for my butt! And even then it's still sore and uncomfortable by the end of the session! Even though the chairs have generally improved since I started they still suck long term... and it bites when visitors or doctors come in and exclaim "my those chairs are so comfortable!!" - yeah sure - sit in it for 10 minutes it's great. 3+ hours no thanks!

[kitkatz]

When I started they had big cushy comfy chairs, now they have gone to hard, plasticy icky chairs.  *Sigh*

[swramsay]

I do 3 hours 4 x's a week because I was clotting after 3 hours. This way I get my run in before I clot. I think I feel better going that extra day even though the total hours are the same.

Those of you who are getting mega hours in with the daily and nocturnal.....you have GOT to be feeling better than those of us only getting 12 hours/week RIGHT? You must feel as good a normal and your labs must be much better -  no?

[RichardMEL]

I would say the more dialysis and doing daily (or 6x/week) nocturnal would be great - you can sleep and get the D and don't have to worry so much about fluid or diet restrictions. The downside of course is having to sleep with a machine pretty much every night....

[Zach]

I would say the more dialysis and doing daily (or 6x/week) nocturnal would be great - you can sleep and get the D and don't have to worry so much about fluid or diet restrictions. The downside of course is having to sleep with a machine pretty much every night....

Six-days-a-week nocturnal (8 hours) is the Gold Standard by which all other hemodialysis prescriptions must be judged.

[swramsay]

Six-days-a-week nocturnal (8 hours) is the Gold Standard by which all other hemodialysis prescriptions must be judged.

Zach,
What do you mean exactly....
Do my labs need to be as good as nocturnal patients? or my uremic symptoms? Or was your statement more of a wish for dialysis standards?







EDITED:Fixed quote tag error-kitkatz,Moderator

[Kitsune]

4.0 Tues, Sat.

[Zach]

Six-days-a-week nocturnal (8 hours) is the Gold Standard by which all other hemodialysis prescriptions must be judged.

Zach,
What do you mean exactly....
Do my labs need to be as good as nocturnal patients? or my uremic symptoms? Or was your statement more of a wish for dialysis standards?

The best clearances occur from long and frequent hemodialysis.

[RightSide]

Technically, it's 3 hours, 3 times a week for me.  But I usually end up having to be connected to the machine for longer than 3 hours.  The damn machine stops for any number of reasons: 

Arterial pressure too high. 
Kink in the line. 
Bubbles in the line. 
Any number of reasons.

The thing starts beeping its alarm, and the nurses come running to reset it.  Rarely do I get through a whole three hours without these interruptions.

And there's setup time at the beginning, and then at the end they have to get the blood back into you.  Add it all up and it's a good 3 1/2 hours.

Once, I even had the dialyzer clot, and they had to tear it all down and set up a new dialyzer. 

[AlasdairUK]

The longer the better, it also depends on your blood volume. If your access is not great and you process a smaller amount over your time - you then need to run longer to make up your total blood volume through the machine.

When I stopped, I was doing 4 hours M/ W/ F at a pump speed of 500 mls/ minute. On Mondays I quite often ran 4 and a half hours to make up for the weekend, it also meant that my fluid would come off at a more gradual rate after the weekend.

Just because your URR and Kt/V are adequate, I would recommend not reducing your time on the machine.

[JeffKinzer]

I believe it is based mostly on weight - at least here. For example a lot of the female patients and light men in my unit do 4 or 4.5 hours (one man is like 48kg and he does 4 hours) while the heavier folks do 5 hours. 5 is the max they do here in centre. Every time I whinge to myself about how long and boring it is I try to remind myself that, as Zach says, longer is better for me.. it sure doesn't seem it after 3 hours knowing there's still 2 to go!! LOL

Also I do Tue/Thu/Sat - mostly because that's what they gave me initially - but they then offered for me to move around a year or so in. I felt TTS suited my work life more because it meant I could get 3 full days of work in a week rather than 2 if I did MWF. Yes, my "weekend" is now Sunday/Monday, but it doesn't really bother me that much anymore. I'm kind of used to it and just waiting for the time I won't have to go to dialysis anymore.. and then i won't know what the heck to do with myself on a Saturday afternoon!! 

That's odd, I weigh 108.5kg dry, and I only do 3.45 hours, 3 times a week.  I'm using my cathetar right now, and I get a ktv of 1.45 or so.  When I was using a fistula, I was running 3.25 hours, 3 times a week, getting 1.6 to 1.8 ktv.

Wonder why the discrepancy, do you run the flows alot slower?  (400 on cathetar, 450 to 500 on fistula)

[JasonEb]

The downside of course is having to sleep with a machine pretty much every night....

That's what my girlfriend says about me... ...though I don't think she considers it a "downside".

Anyhoo, I run twice a week (Mondays and Fridays) for 3 hours each time...or until I get sick of being hooked up and tell them to take me off.

~Jason E.

[G-Ma]

4 hrs 3X a week..M, W, F...I'm waiting to hear about Nocturnal close by.

[jbeany]

I just started back on in-center, and I'm doing 4 hours, MWF.  I'm only running at 400 pump speed right now - I was doing 470 on the NxStage.  I'm going to try to convince the doc to let me bump that up a bit, so I can hopefully feel a bit better.  I've already made it quite clear that in spite of a 81% URR, I have no desire to drop down from 4 hours.  My RN nearly keeled over from shock when I said that.  Apparently, I'm the only patient they've got with a "More is Better" attitude.

[paddbear0000]

I can't get my speed above 250 without a massive headache and nausea.

[Chris]

I started out with 3 hours, but ended up with 3.5 hours when I was gooing 3x a wek on T-Th-Sat. I can't exactly remember my speeds since I didn't write those down in my notebook. I just kept track of weight, glucose readings, and time of start and finish.

[paddbear0000]

I bought a nice little leather bound (well, fake leather) journal to keep stuff written in. I must be fairly anal, because I record pre- and post weights, blood pressures, temp, UFR, fluid removed, speed, run time, heparin dose, dialysate speed, dialysate potassium level, epo dose, any other medications I get and their doses, and any problems I have during and after treatment.

[lanemn9]

 I run M/W/F 3.5 hrs and hate every minute of it

[RightSide]

Currently, I do 3 hours 3x week.  But the latest blood results are suggesting I may need to do a bit more in the future.