Cutting dialysis time

[Dry-Pack-Babe]

As I said in my preliminary post, I love the clinic where I am currently a patient. The staff and patients are wonderful and supportive. But. Isn’t there always a pesky but? LOL!

Sometimes I truncate my time on the machine and I’ve been admonished for doing so. I still urinate and actually, when I’ve skipped treatments, I produce more urine. Although I sometimes abbreviate my dialysis time, I feel fine.

The clinic complains, but during blizzards, they’ve slashed our time to two hours. I get that. During rough weather, there are issues with medical transportation. The clinic is concerned about patient’s safety.

So, I understand.

But this past Christmas, the Monday/Wednesday/Friday patients ran on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. And the TTS people came in on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and a result of that schedule change, instead of going two days without a treatment, we went three days sans dialysis. That extra day without a treatment made it necessary for some patients to visit the emergency room.

Also, Christmas Eve, our dialysis time was cut one hour early.

I do feel that the clinics need to consider that some patients health is exacerbated as a result of those holiday schedule changes.

[cariad]

Huh??

So, if I'm understanding you correctly, patients cannot make the decision to shorten treatment for themselves without a great deal of finger-waggling, but the staff can do it for their convenience?! Patients requiring the ER is fairly extreme, don't you think?

Would you be comfortable pointing this out to someone at your unit? For your health I don't think anyone here would defend regularly shortening your time or skipping treatments, but I think we all know that there are circumstances where doing a shorter run is necessary. I do not like hypocrisy from clinics, and I most certainly detest the way the renal branch of medicine appoints itself our guardians and infantilizes patients. Sorry this has happened to you, but glad you adore your unit all the same.

[huldafolk]

Be very careful about cutting your treatment times.  Just because you still urinate does not mean that you are clearing all the toxins etc. that you need too.  You would of course urinate more on the days you miss or cut short because you are more fluid overloaded.  Your kidneys do many things for you, > remove fluid, remove body toxins, RBC production and others.   You need the treatments to keep your blood clean, as well as remove fluid!

[Dry-Pack-Babe]

Cariad, I would feel uneasy discussing the unit cutting patient's time. I'm not a bashful, reticent person. I have no trouble speaking my mind. But my experience with the previous unit was bad. I don't think dialysis clinics answer to anybody. They do as they damn well please and some of them are more professionally managed than others, which for the most part, is the case with the unit where I am presently a patient. Truly, I have nothing but accolades for the staff.

I had complained to Mid Atlantic Renal Coalition about problems, I, a transsexual was having with the Renal Advantage unit and MARC sided with them, accepting the lame lies they presented to them as gospel.  I'd wager that when a patient complains about a unit that MARC sides with the clinic.

The attitude that I got from Renal Advantage was if I didn't like the way things were at the unit, I could leave. But I feel that when a patient is being discriminated against and reviled by staff, those issues should be addressed. But I was told that it was the policy of Renal Advantage that when staff and patients disagree that Renal Advantage takes the side of the staff member, regardless of the nature of the disagreement.

For God's sake, what if a staff member strikes or molest a patient, they are going to back that staff member. Renal Advantage's policy is outrageous, to say the least, and it opens patients up to abuse.

[RichardMEL]

What Huldafolk said. Urination in, and of, itself doesn't mean much. You still need optimal (and usually more) time on the machine to remove toxins. Yes, urinating usually elimates waste, but if your kidneys aren't processing very well (which is why you're on dilaysis) all that is coming out is essentially water. When I was on D the stream was often very clear - an indication that there were barely any waste products in there.

You won't like this next comment one little bit I feel but youwill probably also find that if you cut your own time for whatever reason you may be seen to be non-compliant with your dialysis protocol - and this could have adverse implications down the track, specially if you're looking towards transplantation.

I know dialysis sucks, and we all want out of it ASAP, but really, the more you actually have the better it will be fore you. Cutting short is only doing yourself a disservice in the longer run.

As for the weather situation, people going 3 days etc - that seems like a management issue in the clinic-  but I guess when you do have such bad weather as parts of the US have recently had, there's sometimes no way around stuff like this in order to fit everyone in - so I don't really have a useful comment on that count.