Does anyone have insight or personal progress?

[Nancy]

My dad has been on D for 6 weeks now and were slowly figuring this new life style out.
They reduced him to 2 1/2 hours instead 3 today. He goes 3 times a week.
Were wondering if he would be able to reduce this to 2 times aweek if his kidneys stated to improve. Does anyone have insight?


Edited: Moved to proper section - okarol/admin

[jbeany]

Anything is possible.  We have a member on here who improved to the point that she was able to get off D entirely. It's pretty rare, though.  There are a few people on here only on 2 days a week, too. 

Watch his lab values, and keep an eye on how he feels.  Clinics are required to keep patients at certain clearance levels for proper payment from Medicare.  Unfortunately, the required levels are quite a bit below what dialysis is capable of doing, and below what most of us need to feel really good.  An extra half an hour saved 3 days a week may just be lost the rest of the week when he is too ill to do anything he actually wants to do.  If he has energy at his current time, then stick with it.  If he doesn't, demand he be put back on 3 hours, or more if necessary.

[RightSide]

My dad has been on D for 6 weeks now and were slowly figuring this new life style out.
They reduced him to 2 1/2 hours instead 3 today. He goes 3 times a week.
Were wondering if he would be able to reduce this to 2 times aweek if his kidneys stated to improve. Does anyone have insight?

The studies I have seen suggest that the more dialysis you get, the better off you are.  Remember that healthy kidneys are "dialyzing" the healthy person 24 hours a day, 7 days a week--100% of his life.  Hemodialysis for 9 hours a week is just 5% of your life.