I have a DuMB question, maybe.

[Wat76]

For those of you who are on PD, do you still urinate and if so what I am trying to understand is since it is fluid that you are putting in your body, you don't urinate it out along with the other fluids.  I am trying to understand the 2000 liters, 500 liter thing.  Is the only way for the fluid to drain is by doing manual exchanges or using a machine.  To the ones that carry around 2000 litres, does it hurt.

[Joe]

No question is dumb, please ask away.

 I do still urinate - about 500ml a day ( I know this because I just did my adeqtypicalluacy test last week.) There is still fluid going through my kidneys, just not enough to clean my system. That is done by my performing PD daily. The only way to get the fluid off my system is to do a manual exchange (fill, dwell, drain), or be connected to the cycler, which does the fill, dwell, drain thing overnight. As for carrying fluid, I find that carrying 2000ml doesn't really feel different - maybe because I'm used to it. On the mornings that I've had a negative UF, I do feel the difference when I'm finally empty, after I do my manual drain, but on those days I typically pull 3000ml+. It's not uncomfortable, just different.

[Lillupie]

Been on PD for 5 years now, still pee about 2-3 times a day. 2000ml just makes me feel full. Since I am only 4'11" I only need to carry 1500ml during the day. On the cycler, it is 2000ml fill, and it doesnt bother me.

Lisa

[MaryD]

When I first started PD the fill seemed to alter my centre of gravity.  I had to be careful for the first day or so while walking.  NB.  I have to be careful when walking anyhow because of peripheral neuropathy.

I did not feel at all uncomfortable.  I still pee, but my drain bags always have much more fluid in them than the fill.

There is no such thing as a dumb question

[jbeany]

It's where the fluid is located.  Healthy kidneys pull extra water and toxins out of your bloodstream, store it in your bladder, and then you get rid of it when you urinate.  The PD fluid isn't put into your bloodstream - it is in your abdomen, leaching the toxins out of you.  (It's that old "nature hates a vacuum" thing.  There aren't any toxins in the clean fluid, so they soak from your system into the fluid until there's equal amounts in both places.  Then you drain and start over.)  Your body can't drain the PD fluid through your bladder because it can only drain fluid it pulls from the closed loop of your bloodstream.  To get a wacky metaphor in for the day - you can't squirt your car's gasoline out of the windshield wiper nozzles - the two fluids are in two different closed loops in the same car.

And how much you still pee depends on your own kidney function.  Some people stop peeing right away, some never do.  (The most common occurrence thing is a gradual tapering off as your kidneys get worse over time.)  The kidneys clear fluid and also clear toxins, as well as make certain hormones the body needs, and some other jobs like regulating body temp and blood pressure.  One part can stop working long before the other part.  It's also why some of us have more problems with being cold or anemic, and at different times than other people.  My kidneys shut down hormone production a decade before they quit clearing toxins, so I got epo shots for years before I started dialysis. I still urinated, I still had semi-normal levels of toxin clearing - but I was so anemic I could fall asleep sitting up, right in the middle of a conversation.

[amanda100wilson]

it is possible to pee vast quantities of fluid but still require dialysis because all that is essentially that is being passed out is water and not toxins.

[Willis]

it is possible to pee vast quantities of fluid but still require dialysis because all that is essentially that is being passed out is water and not toxins.

That is true...my particular kidney disease never restricted the flow of urine very much but the kidneys just don't do anything and the result is just water. However, since I've been on PD my urine output has begun to drop some.

 

[shannonwells830]

Not a dumb question at all...You're asking because you don't know and that is not being dumb at all.   

[Grumpy-1]

I no longer urinate.  Jbeany gave you a good explanation of the difference between what the kidneys do and what PD does.  I carry 3000 ml during the night from the cycler until I drain for a manual exchange at work.  I use 2500 ml manual exchanges during the day.  At first the fluid felt different, never hurt, but different.  I have now been doing so long that I don't feel anything - except for some drain pain now and then.    I'm 6 foot and weigh about 236 lbs so I guess that helps in the amount of fluid I can carry.    Grumpy

[Riki]

When I was on PD, I carried 2000mls around with me all day.  I've been overweight most of my life, so it didn't bother me.  The only thing that bothered me was, when I was a teenager, the fluid kind of made me look pregnant, and I got teased a lot.  I was on PD for almost 5 years before I started HD, and about 3 years in, I noticed that I wasn't peeing as much, and after that, it took about a year to stop completely.  Exce,pt for one instance where I peed myself a couple of years ago (which no one was able to explain to me), I haven't peed since 2007ish.. *L*  Everybody is different, though.  There's a guy in my unit who started the same time I did, and I notice that he still goes when he get off dialysis