Hemo or Peritoneal Dialysis- Your choice & the reasons why?

[MandaMe1986]

Sween_tone that would be wonderful    and you asking this has actually helped me more then you will know.  I asked a little bit when I first got on the site but this helped a lot more.


And Thanks Paul.Karen.  I have been meaning to read up on PD more. I still have some links to go to. I just have been to lazy to do it.  Eh.  But yeah thanks

[Ken Shelmerdine]

Hi Swee Tone I originally chose apd because I work full time and my residual kidney function was such that I didn't have to carry fluid during the day so it could all be done while asleep. I had the usual teething problems but these resolved themselves after a couple of weeks. Had I known how painfull peritonitis could be I would have thought a bit harder about doing it.

I contracted peritonitis in December last and it was such a bad strain of bacteria that I had to have the catheter surgically removed in order to get rid of the infection completely.

However many pd patients go for long periods with no problems and some have been doing pd for years without ever contracting it. Also for most patients who do get it, it is usually one of the less virulent bacterias and usually clears up with antibiotics within 48 hours without infecting the catheter. Dialysis can then be continued without the need to remove and replace with a new catheter.

I decided that  knowing my luck, if I had my catheter replaced and continued with pd I would eventually get the same type of peritonitis again. I didn't want to risk that so for the last 3 months I have been doing in centre haemo. Although studies have shown that pd gives just as good a dialysis as haemo, some patients fare better on pd and vice-a versa.

For me although I thought I felt well on pd, after under going haemo I am now experiencing the kind of energy levels that I must have forgotten it was possible to have. If I'd known then what I now know, I would have chosen Haemo from the start because Ifeel so well on it. Hope this has been helpful but you must try to get as much info as you can about the two modalities of dialysis so that when the time comes you can make the right choice for you. Good Luck.

[del]

Another thing you should know about PD is that in some people it does stop working and you can become really sick.  Hubby's peritoneum (spelling) stopped working after about 2 1/2 years. Fluid wasn't being removed or any toxins. He became very sick. Some people are lucky and this doesn't happen but some people have no choice but to change to hemo or have a transplant.  For the people that it does work for it is a good choice if they want freedom from gong to a dialysis center. Another dialysis option of course is home hemo.  You have to choose what would be best for you but you need to keep in mind the pros and cons of all types of dialysis.

[Swee_tone]

ok thanks guys. I think there are positives & negitives to anything, but I guess it's good to see in advance the difficulties people have had. ... which makes it a tough decision. I'll do more research, I have some time yet, but wow! this is difficult  stuff!