Kind of a morbid question, but a question nonetheless...

[knmiller]

Hey everyone,

I was talking with a friend the other day about dialysis and kidney disease. He asked me a question, however, that I've never been asked before and it kind of stumped me.  His question was this...If something happened and you were not able to do dialysis for a long period of time, how long would you have before you passed?

I had no answer to this and was curious if anyone has thought of this before, or have been asked something similar. 

Days, weeks...?  I'm sure that it depends, of course, on how severe your disease is, but it's a pretty good question to think about.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[willieandwinnie]

Hey knmiller, I knew someone that was on dialysis and stop (went under hospice) and lived for 2 weeks to the day from his last treatment. Sad, but he had many health issues. Hope this helps.

[kidney4traci]

I had talked about it with my nurse when we talked about hurricanes and evacuation.  She said avg is 2-3 weeks. 

[knmiller]

Thanks for your help. It's definitely not something I would like to think about, however, my curiosity got the best of me.  

After talking with my friend that day, it really kind of hit home how dependent I am to the damn dialysis machine.  I've done a pretty good job of continuing life as usual...I work 40 hours a week still and hang out with friends as much as possible, but am definitely slowing down.  18 months on dialysis certainly hasn't been a picnic.

I don't get on here very much because I'm trying to go on with things as much as possible without being reminded of my health problems, but after reading more posts, I feel like I can really open up with everyone here.  It's a good feeling.

Thanks again.

[boxman55]

stick around we like the company...Boxman

[ODAT]

I just sent this information to my sisters. Visit this site http://renux.dmed.ed.ac.uk/edren/EdRenINFObits/NoRRT.html.

[Sluff]

This has been discussed before in the forum and I believe 2-3 weeks is the average however the point of no return might be shorter.

[paris]

Hi knmiller--we do talk about kidney stuff, but we have a lot of fun here too.     Hope you feel at home and come as often as you can.   

[stauffenberg]

The general rule is that patients die anywhere between 10 days and 1 month after ceasing dialysis.  One nephrologist mentioned to me that he had a very old woman who discontinued dialysis and seemed to be getting stronger and healthier all the time until she died, suddenly, after about 30 days with no care.  She is a memorable exception, however, since for most people, nausea, vomiting, exhaustion, uremic frost, somnolence, and coma mark the gradual stages of death, which can be quite a torture for people, especially if fluid is not kept off the lungs.  Some people go to dialysis for fluid removal but not toxin removal, but this just seems foolishly to prolong the torture.  The best thing is just get on the plane for Switzerland, where there is an organization of physicians who, for a nominal fee, will legally and painlessly put an end to the problems of endstage renal failure forever.

[Bajanne]

I just sent this information to my sisters. Visit this site http://renux.dmed.ed.ac.uk/edren/EdRenINFObits/NoRRT.html.

I went to that site but found it rather discouraging.  My brother was very ill, went blind because of diabetes, started dialysis, had loads of health problems and at first was only dialysed twice a week (for a few years) and with all that he still lived 10 good years.
Also you might have heard of Art Buchwald, who decided not to have dialysis, and he ended up living one more year.
My dad died from kidney failure.  He was refused dialysis because he was nearly 90.  It took him months before he died.  But as was said on the site, dying from dialysis doesn't seem to be a painful death.  But right now, I am thankful for dialysis.  Look I got to meet my IHD family!

[st789]

We are here to educate each other.  It also depends on how you take care of yourself and what other medical conditions beside kidney failure.