no dialysis

[tyefly]

No dialysis  for 4 days....  I have a small infection around one of my access sites.... just some redding... has been there for a few days....  So I decided to hold off on doing D and let my arm rest alittle....  I was not worried about a couple of days off  and then day three   and   now day 4......  hate to say it.... but I feel fine.... Ive been watching my weight....  no problems there I have only gained 1.5 K....   but I do notice that my residual function is working alot now....  I am peeing  alot more....    Am I  cured..... do I need D....  I feel pretty good.... If I didnt look at my labs all the time I would wonder if I even needed D....   Am I still sick???   I know I am cause my creatinine is still in the 5's....    my clearances have been really good...up to the 3's and 4's  so I know that I am getting good dialysis...   My arm looks great this morning... no redness...  first time I had this type of redness around my site..... scary.....  dont want a nasty infection.... guess I better do D tonight... I am dreaming of the days of no dialysis.... no ball and chain....  I can go places and stay gone as long as I want...like I use to....  its nice to dream..... someday it will come true.....

[greg10]

It is always good to know you've got some residual kidney function.  Unfortunately, nephron regeneration in mammals and humans in particular, is limited and even though good dialysis can take you back to a better state of kidney function, it is unlikely to completely restore it to a point where you can get off dialysis.  You can dream you are a gold fish though; they can regenerate their kidney completely 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regeneration_(biology)
Kidney
Regenerative capacity of the kidney remains largely unexplored. The basic functional and structural unit of the kidney is nephron, which is mainly composed of four components: the glomerulus, tubules, the collecting duct and peritubular capillaries. The regenerative capacity of the mammalian kidney is limited compared to that of lower vertebrates.
In the mammalian kidney, the regeneration of the tubular component following an acute injury is well known. Recently regeneration of the glomerulus has also been documented. Following an acute injury, the proximal tubule is damaged more, and the injured epithelial cells slough off the basement membrane of the nephron. The surviving epithelial cells, however, undergo migration, dedifferentiation, proliferation, and redifferentiation to replenish the epithelial lining of the proximal tubule after injury. Recently, the presence and participation of kidney stem cells in the tubular regeneration has been shown. However, the concept of kidney stem cells is currently emerging. In addition to the surviving tubular epithelial cells and kidney stem cells, the bone marrow stem cells have also been shown to participate in regeneration of the proximal tubule, however, the mechanisms remain controversial. Recently, studies examining the capacity of bone marrow stem cells to differentiate into renal cells are emerging.[38]
Like other organs, the kidney is also known to regenerate completely in lower vertebrates such as fish. Some of the known fish that show remarkable capacity of kidney regeneration are goldfish, skates, rays, and sharks. In these fish, the entire nephron regenerates following injury or partial removal of the kidney.

[Ang]

get the redness checked, definetly sounds like some thing

[boswife]

this is something that really gets me.  Some of you (hubby included) seem to do ok and even feel great when going off for a certain amt of time.  Is there any checks that can be done to see whre your at at this time as far as creatinine and stuff that would show whre you are w/o D?   Also, how does one go about this as far as nx Stage is concerned.  I mean, how does this go over to your people that you 'report' to.  Neph etc......  We skipped one day (had to) that gave us a 5 instead of 6 day week and i was so scarred that they would call us NON compliant and kick us out. 
Well, im so glad your not feeling ill, and wish you to be healed!!!!!!!!!  really i do!   

[Bill Peckham]

The test would be a 24 hour urinalysis but a blood draw shows urea levels - urea is a small easily removed solute if it has built up in your blood then, the thinking goes, your kidney must not be working ... if it can't control urea then it won't be able to control anything else.


The main symptom I'd have is from fluid so if your output is keeping up I can see not having any obvious symptoms.


There have been cases of people starting dialysis, then stopping and not needing to use it for a prolonged period but I am not familiar with the details to say what,  if anything, people had in common. It's rare but it does happen.

[tyefly]

I wish I was a goldfish....   grow a new kidney and all.....   I did dialysis last night.... but still didnt feel bad and only took 1.5 k off...  not bad for 4 days off....  Not recommended for most people.... the funny thing is when I was doing daily short D.... if I skipped two days I would feel really bad for the most part....  this is the first time I have not done D for such a long time....

Now  what am I going to tell my clinic...... Nothing....  I am going to turn in my paper work like I always do ( at the end of the month )  and see if they notice..  they may.... and if they ask I will say something...  I know what they are going to say ...   I cant do that... if I have a infection then I need to tell them....  start a new access site... go to the hospital...   they will make a big deal of it...   dont get me wrong  I do respect infection.. but I had no fever and just redness... and by the 4 day...the redness was completely gone... I am sure this is not a protocol that I will do all the time... but  I have never had this kind of problem....and hopefully I wont again...   I feel pretty good today....  7 hours of D does wonders...

[boswife]

Im so glad you did what you did, and another learning for you as in how your body handles it, how you handle your own body...etc..... Hubby had to take off one extra day so far (one in 4 months) with doing nxStage and i didnt say anything either.  Was just going to wait it out and see if we were asked.  We wernt.  He goes 6 days on one off and when training, was only doing 2 1/2 hours 5 days a week and his kt/v (back to the #'s thing lol) was good too so think that it should be ok to take an extra day every now and then with doing longer treatments and 6 days a week.  Boy i love the info here!!

[jbeany]

I did NxStage 5 days a week and did just fine.  I didn't have two days off in a row, so I never had to fight the weekend fluid gain, and my numbers were fabulous.  I think if I'd stayed on it longer, I'd have tried every other day eventually.  It would have been a rotating schedule, but I always hated having fat fingers and ankles, and the alternate schedule would cure that.

[Bruno]

I had redness on my arterial access and one of the HT nurses noticed it, said the alcohol wipes were causing it and put me on iodine wipes instead.
That worked.

[texasstyle]

 I am so glad to see you finally got our dialysis in. I was just wondering if the Dr. iwould put an emergency line in so you can have dialysis should something like this ever happen again (I hope not!) About feeling good... I have to share my experience with you. My husband has been non compliant for quite some time regarding his sesions. There has been times he didn't go to dialysis. Last time this happened like this was a Friday that he missed. He "felt ok" his missed day Friday, even the the day Saturday. He last session would have been the Wed. By Sunday morning he was so ill.. He was continually vomiting in the toilet, short of breath, weak etc... all of it. It was a horrible sight to watch. I was so scared watching this because I was watching him begin the dying phase. That's what it was. Now I' m not sure of your medical history, but for him he has to have dialysis and there is no going back. Dialysis keeps you alive. It is a life support. I imagine everyone responds differently to missing dialysis. I understand your situation where your access was not available. Well, basically I'm ust trying to get back to the "feeling fine". You may feel fine for a bit but when it hits, it hits hard and how quickly that postassium level can go up when you're not getting dialysis even if you watch your K! The fluid can build around the sacs even through you may not show much edema. Ok, so I got that out. I just wanted to share to please, please very careful because there is a difference in "feeling fine" & actually "being fine".  I hope everything goes smoothly for you. Sorry if I'm going a little over the top right now, but I guess when you see what can happen from missed D sessions enough, you want to shout it out to others to protect them.

[boswife]

oh TS, im so sorry you have to go through that sad sorry stuff with hubby.  Im afraid i'd loose my mind or will loose my mind if/when im once again faced with horrable sad sorry stuff that kidney failure brings.  It's got to be so much worse when they bring it on themselves..  I think also that you bring a great point here about the feeling vs being.  Thats why im afraid to give hubby an inch for fear he'll take a mile.. (as far as taking off just for the fun of it)  I want tests to see what actually happens 'to him' because he still has kidney function and i like him to use it 

[texasstyle]

I'm used to it Bos lol. (well not realy lol, but the humor helps) I mostly wanted to stress the point I was trying to make about feeling good and actually being good. It is EASY to almost go into a denial when you feel good after a session (temporarily. No need to feel sorry for me anymore . I guess it is what it is.