Hi Ken and welcome! So glad you haven't had to start dialysis yet and hope that your energy levels are still OK (the last 6 months prior to starting dialysis for my hubby found him too tired and foggy-headed to do much).
My hubby does PD at home. He's 72 years old and not very energetic since the kidneys declined. He does have me to help. However, there are
several PD patients that we've seen at the clinic that go it alone. And there are folks here on the board that are also solo.
It's a very individual thing, though: Not everyone is a good candidate for it.
Before we started this, the nurses at the PD clinic (through the VA Hospital) came to our home for an assessment to see if we were good candidates for PD. We had enough physical space to store supplies
; we had a good spot for the machine (close enough to where hubby sleeps and also to the bathroom)
; we have a pool but hubby doesn't use it
; we seem to be mentally competent
; we have 3 dogs
. After a few months of PD, they came back to assess and we got big thumbs up because we kept the place organized, the dogs haven't been a problem, etc. The nurses are looking for anything that might lead to either failure to do the treatment every day or to infection.
My jobs are:
1. Keep the inventory up (that takes a little counting and a phone call once a month and/or logging onto the PC to renew prescriptions);
2. keep the dialysis work area clean (a few minutes daily);
3. Make sure our meals align with the dietary guidelines (this took effort up front and is probably the biggest thing my hubby says he would have simply ignored). This isn't PD-specific though - you'll have diet changes to manage no matter what type of dialysis you land on.
My hubby's jobs are:
1. Hook Up (get the bags, hang 'em up, connect to the machine's tube cassette, get the cassette into place, cuss at the machine, roll out the tubes, wear a mask, clean and disinfect hands, connect).
2. Sleep - wake - sleep - wake (we're still having problems getting to a full night's sleep because the machine complains often about 'slow drain' and the alarm goes off to make my hubby sit up to drain).
3. Disconnect (tidy up the tubes and empty bags, stack empty boxes).
4. Give himself a shot every 2 weeks for anemia.
5. Take pills with meals.
6. Clean and dress the catheter exit site daily.
We both go to the clinic which is good because there's often much to talk about and listen about. I imagine at some point, it'll just be routine, but during this first year, there was a lot of evolution as his blood work showed changes (phosphorus and anemia being the biggest issues).
I hope that helps you get an idea about whether you feel you can do it alone.
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