working and pd

[KarenB]

I work in the surgery dept. at my hospital as a scrub tech.  I am on call half of my life.  I have not started dialysis yet, but my question is:  If I get called out for a case and I am hooked up at the time, can I just turn off everything and be ok?  Sometimes we may be in surgery 6 hours or more in the middle of the night.  I asked my neph about it, but he said it would be ok.  I am not sure though.  Any suggestion?

[Ginger]

I assume you are talking about being on the cycler at night.  There are two concerns here. One, can you tolerate being 'full' and standing for the 6hr duration of the surgery? Two, could you take the time to drain before reporting to work so that you would be 'dry' for the duration of the surgery? Also you would need to take into consideration the type of peritoneal membrane you have, as in what kind of transporter are you.  If a high transporter, it would be better to be dry as you would absorb most of the dialysate during the 6hrs.  If a low transporter, it would probably be best if you could tolerate remaining full.  Either way, your neph is right and you would be ok.  The nice thing about PD is that it is done daily so that if you had to miss one day here and there, you would be ok. (As long as they are not in a row.) I am an RN and worked with a dry abdomen so that lifting and moving patients was easier. I worked on an ortho unit with total joint patients.  I also had a set schedule and did not have to worry about being 'on call'.  I was on PD for 2 1/2 yrs, then hemo for 2 months and then transplanted in April and retired from work in October.
Hope that all makes sense to you and is of some help.

[KT0930]

The only thing I would add to what Ginger said is that your dialysis clinic should test you within the first month or so of starting PD to know if you're a high, low, or medium transporter. Your nurse will be able to answer your question once you get that test done. Ginger pretty much got it, though.