Home Hemodialysis

[kianhu]

Is anyone here on home hemodialysis?  I have worked as an RN in hemodialysis for 10yrs.  I want to know thoughts on home hemodialysis.     Thanks.

[brenda]

I have been a home hemodialysis patient for almost 13 years. I feel it is a much better place to be that at a unit, especially for me emotionally. I believe, my thoughts only, that people do better at home and have a better quality of life. In the short time I was on the unit as a new patient I saw two people pass away. Not a very good start. Being independent and having control is very important for me. After all it is my body. Being at home is comfortable & quiet. I very much dislike going to the unit now, I don't need to see what goes on there and the really sick people. It just upsets me. Several times at our unit there has been flu bugs and colds go around, I don't need that exposure. I was the very first home patient in my old unit, it caught on quickly and now there are many. In the unit I am associated with now there are three of us only. But this unit has a lot of Sr's as where the other unit was much larger and had a younger population. I will be training for nocturnal dialysis in September.

Now my question to you is if you are an in center nurse why do you ask?

[kianhu]

I just wonder why more people dont choose home hemodialysis.  If I were to ever go on dialysis, I would definitely choose to be at home.  I have also told my parents that if one of them should go on dialysis, I will dialyze them at home.  I feel the same way that you feel about colds going around and different viruses.  My incenter unit has around 140-150 incenter patients at any time.  We also have PD and home hemo.  I will ask my clinic manager how many home hemo patients we have.  I dont think the # is very big.  I have asked some of my incenter patients why they dont choose home hemo, and I got different answers.  I know some people may not have a significant other to help them, but I also heard that it is the psychological part of seeing the machine in their house.  Life on dialysis is not an easy thing.  In my mind, I would think that I would feel a greater sense of control in my home.  I guess there are many different reasons why people choose what they choose.  I guess it also depends on family situation and all sorts of things.  I do love to see people who are able and willing do home hemo.  Tell me a little about the nocturnal.  Is that the one where you have the sensors hooked up to you and someone monitoring you from different location?  I have heard a little bit about this.  As you can see, I have done only incenter, no PD or home hemo.  I very interested in learning everything I can.  So in your free time, tell me anything you know.     Thanks for your reply.

[charee]

I am in my 4th week of home hemo Training( in Australia), I was offered it as the nearest centre which is 35km away was full and the next one was over a 3  hour drive. Since i have started i have found out alot more reasons why home hemo is a better choice, i can do an extra day than centre and also be on longer it is recommended here that at least 6 hours is much better for you I will be doing 8 hours when i get home and when i get very familiar with that i would like to change to nocturnal .We are taught how to read our blood work and be independant and make our own decisions with phone help not far  away also monthly home visits from a nurse.So far we have the machine set up and some of the alarms worked out, the main problem is my fistula they keep hitting nerves but hopefully that will get better soon.I will keep you posted if you want.

Cheers

Charee

[kianhu]

Yes, please keep me posted on your progress.   

[stauffenberg]

I was trained to do home hemodialysis and had the plumbing system of my house outfitted to handel it, but ultimately I chose not to do it.  I felt in many ways that doing it at home was like being a condemned prisoner being required to build his own scaffold and dig his own grave.  Essentially, I was being required to become too intimately involved with the phenomeon that had destroyed my life if I was going to have to invest myself in operating the machine.  Also, with in-center hemodialysis, I could keep the horror of the disease confined to the clinic, but with the machine taking up a whole room of my house, it invaded my life even more  profoundly. 

On a less psychological, more practical level, with in-center hemodialysis all I had to do was sit in a chair for four hours three times a week while someone else did all the work, and I could just distance myself from the whole phenomenon by sticking my nose in a book and reading.  But with home dialysis, I had to set up and take down the machine six nights a week; I had to spend Sundays cleaning the machine; I had to be at home to receive all the supplies for the machine and maintain an elaborate inventory of them for re-ordering; and I still had to go back to the clinic every two weeks for blood tests which could not be performed at home, in addition to all the countless other ancillary medical appointments which further ruin the quality of life of a dialysis patient. So the net effect of taking the machine home was to become even more enslaved by the disease than I had been before.

[susie q]

If I didn't go out for hemo I would be a hermit.. never go anywhere.  real housecat here 

[brenda]

When I was running at the unit at first I saw a lot of people who came to dialysis just to have social contact. Some of the older ladies would dress all up. I thought they were cute.

[jbeany]

With the home hemo program finally becoming a reality around here, there have been a number of discussions among the patients about it.  Some of the reasons for not doing it at home, that I've heard both here and at the center -

No one to be there with them when they do it.  Most home programs won't train you if you don't have a partner.
No space to keep the supplies and the machine, or no space available that isn't over run with pets that might damage the machine.
Too squeamish to stick themselves and deal with the blood and needles.
No family member capable of the amount of effort needed to do the treatments and keep track of the paperwork.
Not a good enough access/flow rate to be allowed to do it at home.

I think you have to be pretty proactive in your own care to consider it.  A lot of the patients at my center are elderly, and have elderly spouses as their only caretakers.  Some of the spouses actually consider the time they drop off their charge at dialysis as the only free time they have in the week.  Brenda's also right - some of the people also come for the social aspect - it may be the only real interaction they get, and they are unwilling to stop that.

[charee]

I met a couple this week that are their late 80's and they have been doing home hemo for 5 years , .The husband does everything for his wife who also has parkinson disease . such devotion..

[keefer51]

home hemo was never offfered to me. neither was pd. I am by my self so i couldn't do it. I am very tired and dizzy after dialysis. In my center no other options are given to us. Most were elderly. I have so much pain with my fistula i know i could never stick myself. I wouldn't mind doing pd. I am on dialysis for the second time. This is the first time with a fistula. I just moved back from nashville so people i knew aren't around anymore. My social life consists of going to dialysis and thrift stores. I envy people who do home hemo and pd.

[kitkatz]

http://ihatedialysis.com/forum/index.php?board=25.0


We have an entire area devoted to home dialysis. Go check it out folks!






kitkatz,moderator

[goofynina]

home hemo was never offfered to me. neither was pd. I am by my self so i couldn't do it. I am very tired and dizzy after dialysis. In my center no other options are given to us. Most were elderly. I have so much pain with my fistula i know i could never stick myself. I wouldn't mind doing pd. I am on dialysis for the second time. This is the first time with a fistula. I just moved back from nashville so people i knew aren't around anymore. My social life consists of going to dialysis and thrift stores. I envy people who do home hemo and pd.

Keefer, do you know if your center offers PD?  It is not too late, you can still request it.  I too used to feel very dizzy after dialysis but once i got in the car, i was feeling better, until i got home again then i always just wanted to sleep.  I would think they would push PD on more people, especially people who are able to do it cuz it isnt as hard on the body and it is much more convenient to do.  If i were you, i would definetly check into it.  Let us know what happens ok, Good luck to you and remember, we are always here for you my friend... 

[del]

Hubby has been on nocturnal home hemo since Oct 06. Took a while to get used to it but we love it now.  He doesn't want to have to go to the unit for a treatment at al now.  Lots more freedom to do the things you want to do. We had about an hours drive each way to get tto the unit.