Dialysis Dilemma

[Whamo]

  My doctor gave me a choice today.  I could either increase the volume of my PD cycles or add another cycle.  I hate large volume so I bit the bullet.  I already do 10 1/2 hours 7 days a week.  Now I have do 80 minutes more a day.  Transplant, please!  I hoping I'll be back on the list once my three surgeries heal.  Thank God they're doing well. 

[iolaire]

Sorry to hear that.  You already are committing a lot of time to dialysis...  Bumping that up to over 1/2 a day is quite a lot.

[Jean]

Bummer Whamo. Hope your transplant comes in soon.

[laniepoo7]

I'm sorry to hear that!  I also hate larger volumes with PD, I JUST got used to 2.0L and could not imagine more...

I hope your transplant comes through soon!

[kickingandscreaming]

I'm in the same boat, Whamo.  It is tolerable... barely.  After I lost some of my peeing ability after a couple of hospitalizations, my clearance went way down.  So They changed my PD RX to a program that eats up 14 hours of my day--I do a manual, followed by 6 exchanges on the cycler and ending in a final fill/dwell/drain on the cycler.  So that's 8 exchanges total. It's a lot!  In my case it's somewhat mitigated by my being a high average transporter, so each exchange is not more than 1 hour/25 minutes. And, apart from the manual which is 2L fill, all the rest are 2400ml each.  So a lot of volume.  At first it was hard and then with time it has become quite tolerable.  I'm just a barely 5'4" woman so 2400 is a lot for my stature.  If I can survive it so can you.  Making that change increased my clearance by quite a lot.  I'm expecting that the next time my clearance tanks I will have to go on HD  or go to hospice (since I hate in center HD with a passion.)

[Whamo]

Thanks to all for the kind words.  Kicking and Screaming,  :boxing;I feel sorry for complaining after hearing your plight.  Later last afternoon I learned I will need another green bag.  That is four bags a day.  As Mick Jagger once sang on an "Emotional Rescue" song, "...Life just goes on getting harder and harder..."  Now that I'm healing from surgeries I think I'll use the time to finishing a couple of writing projects.  One is about a man of a thousand voices that never wants to leave Disneyland.  When I was three I was the first kid to go into Fantasyland and I've always wanted to never leave there when I go.  The other one is a story about Captain Cook's fatal voyage around the world three times.  The Hawaiians kill him for some good reasons I reveal in the script.  I'm also anxious to exercise again.  It makes me feel better.