Short Daily Hemo

[Rain]

My dialysis center is offering Short Daily Hemo.   You go 5-6 days a week for 2 - 2.5 hours at a time.  The only catch you have to needle yourself.

Question:  Does anyone do short daily hemo in center and work full time?  I'm just worried I"m going to have no life.

And
2.  How do you get over the fear of needling yourself?  I couldn't even give myself epo pre dialysis. 

I just want to start feeling better and get my urea levels more even.

[boswife]

Wow!!! thats wonderful!!!  I mean just to offer it is great!!  We do home hemo but originally, i was hoping to keep him incenter with me needling him (im needle phobic pretty extreem... i do his needles now, but still cant watch him do his insulun/epo etc. )  I was so scarred but also so determaned, or stubborn.  I was really afraid to come home with machine and all, but it has worked great.  The benifit of 'incenter' would be that you could  go in, hook yourself up, have them there to set up and take down which would save a lot of time...  The only thing i see is,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, we "thought" that when we came home we would be 2 to 2 1/2 hours as well, but we go 3 1/2 to 4 just to slow it down.  I would love to hear more about it though as it could surly solve the having a 'partner' requirement to bring it home.  We're all set now and comfortable at home, but i surly would have loved that option..

[mcclane]

I do home hemo, and the idea is 6-8 hours every night.

however, sleeping with the damn machine is nearly impossible.  So what I usually do is m-thurs i do the overnight run, but when it comes to the weekend, i shorten my runs greatly to 2-3 hours.  I find if you do short runs, it won't clear out the fluids that well, but it will clear  out the potassium/phosphorous ok.

[monrein]

I did that at the Sheppard self care centre in Toronto.  You were not required to needle yourself but I chose to.  Needling yourself is mostly a mental thing but once you manage to do it you gain a huge sense of control over the whole process of D.  I've done home hemo in the past and the more time you can manage to get on the machine the better in terms of keeping healthy and feeling better.  I live near the self care centre and I liked not having all the stuff in my house.

[Rain]

I think I"m going to ask if I could start learning how to needle on the 3 times a week hemo.  Until I Get use to needling then maybe try the short daily to see it how it works.

[mcclane]

you asked about working full time and then doing the 2-2.5 hour dialysis 5-6 times a week.

I do mine at home, but I find it exhausting.  From the setup of the machine, to the stirp down, then gathering the supplies for the next run, for me it is pure exhaustion.  I am tired both mentally and physically (ironic as my bloodwork is pretty decent).  My travel time is walking from the living to the bedroom to do my dialysis.  Depending on how far your centre is, you have to factor in the travel time too.  However, you'll save oodles of times from not having to setup/clean the machine though.

However, because you're looking at 5-6 times a week, it will start becoming a drag, even if the dialysis time is short.