Sorry for the delay in response... I lost your message and I wanted to throw in some cents too. I found it again.. Don't let it scare you... Here I go:
Clean room area is important as to minimize the risk of getting an infection. Keep your hands clean and sanitized when touching the tubing and transfer set. Wear the mask. Minimize air flow and you might even want to get a HEPA air cleaner. Though that might be going extreme that is being safe than sorry.
If you work 11 hours 4 days a week you are going to be very busy.. Also you need to consider supply delivery time. Clinic visit time. Blood draw time… This might be very challenging for you.
Either method you choose it is a pain in the you know what. Don't let the dialysis center give you a false sense of this is easy, you will have much more free time, you could eat more foods you would otherwise have to be careful when doing Hemo..... All is grand in candy land with sugar plums and ginger bread people. Now back to reality…….
Reality is you will be spending more time dealing with PD then you would at Hemo. PD is a 7 day regimen. Difference is you will be doing it mostly at night when sleeping but it probably will cut into your evening hours... If you need 4 or 5 exchanges and over an hour and a half dwell time that is over 9 hours therapy time ..... Wait to you get the news the numbers are not what we have as goals. You need more solution or dwell time….. Don’t rule out mid-day exchanges…
You have chosen to do PD but it may not work for you. Depends on the numbers and how well your peritoneal cavity is for transferring out the waste / fluid. This all has to do with more exchanges, solution percentage, dwell time and is not known until you start doing the treatments.
Dealing with the solution bags and drain bags is not fun. The amount of supplies is nothing. The mess is something. If you are lucky enough able to connect a couple of drain line extension together and have it dump into a nearby toilet that is good. As mentioned above tape the line to the toilet rim, duct tape, so the thing does not take a big leak on the floor. You will have a small flood… If going the drain bag route man I do not care how careful you think you are…. It is going to happen… Yep all over the rug…. The issue with the drain bag I use is with the line clamp… poor design… If it is not clamped the rubber end cap will not hold back the liquid……… Get a plastic tote and put those things in the tote so when it does spill out the tote will catch the liquid and not the rug. I learned the hard way to put those bags in a tote. Also extra solution that is left and not used for treatment put those in the tote as well after disconnecting the line. Ruined a not so old rug……… You cannot carpet clean it because it leaked all the way to the pad. You are talking 11000 to 12000 ML plus your waste fluid just under 15000 ML of liquid…………….. Yea.. Not a happy place… and certainly not in candy land.
If Hemo did not have some bad side effects I would go back to Hemo and toss this PD stuff out the window. ….. Both methods have down sides…… Did Hemo first then got into PD…. Done them both… Catheter was in in over a year…. I told them no fistula and held out on the NO!!!.
https://www.azuravascularcare.com/infodialysisaccess/faqs-dialysis-access/Any other questions feel free to ask.
Ken
I Hate Dialysis Message Board
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