How Long Does It Take to Die Once You Quit Dialysis?

[lmunchkin]

Harley, could you tell us more about yourself.  I did not see your intro, so don't know enough about your situation to offer any suggestions.  Like are you acute or chronic.  Are you diabetic.  What caused you to be on D in the first place?  Those things we would need to know.

Please feel free to go to Introductions first, then ask your questions.  Welcome at any rate!

lmunchkin

[harley123199]

Iam on my 7th day and feeling fine I got chronic kidney disease in 2009 and justtred of living this way they told me that my heart would not take a kiddney transplant does anybody have a good idea about how long it will take

[cdwbrooklyn]

Hello Harley,

It’s not the end of the world; however, I also was told I will not receive a kidney because of damage veins.  I’ve been on D for 14 years and I was told this information after the doctors temped to give me a transplant 7 years ago.  I was disappointed and hurt but learned to accept it.  There are people who live active healthy lives on D.  You are not the only one with this issue.  How I was able to handle this, I keep myself very busy.  I am involved with so many ministries, committees, etc.  I find it very fulfilling because I don’t think about D until I get home.  Also, I work a full time job.  I do D in my house either late at night or early morning therefore I can enjoy my days.  Please do not give up.  You can live a healthy life.  Can look into home D?  It will help you cope better.  I don’t want to see another member give up on something that can keep you alive and healthy while you enjoy your life. 

Just my concerns! 

[jjneyjr]

Harley, that would depend on a lot of factors, but the most important factor is do you still make water? If you don't make water (pee) probally 7 or less days. If you make water it could be a very long time.
Just my 2 cents!
 

[emma67834]

I am Harley123199's wife. He passed away on 2/3/13. His last dialysis day was on 1/25/13. He lasted 10 days but went peacefully. It was a hard decision for us both to make. He had multiple health issues and every time he went to the doctor there was another diagnosis. He is in the promise land now and has the body that he deserves. Just thought I would let you all know what happened with him.

[jjneyjr]

I am truly saddened and sorry for your loss.

[CebuShan]

So very sorry for your loss.

[okarol]

I am Harley123199's wife. He passed away on 2/3/13. His last dialysis day was on 1/25/13. He lasted 10 days but went peacefully. It was a hard decision for us both to make. He had multiple health issues and every time he went to the doctor there was another diagnosis. He is in the promise land now and has the body that he deserves. Just thought I would let you all know what happened with him.

  Deepest sympathy for you and your family Emma.

[babydave]

When my transplant failed, and rejection took over, i believe I came pretty close to dying before I went to the ER and got back on dialysis. Of all the nasty symptoms I experienced during those days, I believe the worst was the confusion, severe depression and extraordinary loneliness that took over. My mental issues hid the other physical symptoms that I was experiencing and I believe that if not for an intervention by a friend, who came to my home and gathered me up and took me to the ER, I might well have stroked out that very night. I had stopped eating, but still took in fluid and had moved more or less permanently to an ottoman in front of the TV. I was huge and puffed up and had to be supported as we walked to the car. four days of intensive care with lots of dialysis and clarity was restored. So I can't recommend renal failure as a means of suicide. 

I think we sometimes forget or ignore, that the poisons that build up in our bodies between treatments, or if we choose to go without dialysis, don't just affect our breathing, or our ankles, blood pressure or arteries, but those toxic chemicals also hang out in our brains and affect the clarity of our thinking and our mood in general. Whenever I get down about my situation I discuss my feelings with my nephrologist. We consider whether I need anti-depressant medication to counteract the effects of long-term dialysis or whether I just need to get out in the sunshine a little more. A little vitamin D can go a long way in getting over a little down patch. I always choose the sunshine route because I am not fond of the list of possible side effects from anti-depressants, but I understand that many dialysis patients do take them. The point I hope to make is that dialysis and all that goes along with it can damage even the sunniest disposition. If your relationship with your facility, or with your doctors, is adding to your bad mood, do something about it. Reassert yourself to insure you are getting good treatments and try not to give in to that bad chemistry that sometimes goes on in that brain.

[eyecreate]

I know for a fact it isnt painful to die from renal failure...i watched my 86 year old mother, die after being given too many toxic pain meds in the nursing home, phetanyl patches all over...the next year at age 90 and with perfect mind, my 90 year old father was given psych meds for a uti and horrendously stong chill pills, the depacote caused heart attack in 90 year old diabetic, he survived the massive heart attack only to have his kidneys fa il the next day...this too was the doctor and nursing home, yet both undeserved, they went peacefully, very peacefully, and so did my father in law, whose kidneys failed at79 due to diabetes...i m  adopted, so there is no diabetes, i had a very rare disease attack me acutely, FGN, and with the bun level of 171, the highest ever recorded at my hospital, and  a survior...I too shouldnt have been here, i was only a couple hrs from death andmy family was called in...im only 52, yet i survived in a bliss denial that anything was wrong, and i blissfully kept slipping into hallucinations etc...no pain and didnt even realize i wasnt beathing hardly at all....wheeeeeeeeeeee...now i worry...

[christijo]

 My husbands doctor said it would take 7-10 days. The people I knew of did not last that long. They died in 3-5 days. My husband has 25 pounds of toxins taken off his body a week. So 25 pounds of toxins on his heart when he is already in heart failure, would be quite taxing. I don't think he would last more than 6 days. Doc is  nephrologist, been around a long time, he said 7- 10 days. This is hell. It is a nightmare.  I pray everyday for God to have mercy on him. He has little functional life.  He cant make himself give up because he is afraid but he wants to die and is miserable. God have mercy. PLease God Please have mercy

[Simon Dog]

My husband has 25 pounds of toxins taken off his body a week.

I have about 20lbs of fluid taken off each week in my 3 hemo sessions, however, that does not represent "20lbs of toxins".  If I were to drink more water, more fluid would be removed, but that would not indicate an increase in the quantity of toxins.

[502Blues]

I tried it, i didnt die and finally decided to go back. i went without dialysis for a week and half. My body especially my face was so bloated and swollen, I could hardly speak, could hardly get out of bed. It took a while to get to looking normal again because they could only take so much fluid off at a time. Things turned around for me and i got a transplant in 2010

[babycake]

there was a older lady
at my unit
that lived 6weeks
after she quit
her treatments
she hardly came as
it was
but when she did
she was there
she was a spunky 90yrs old lady
her son
had died a few months
prior
from a heart attack

[G.Lively]

I lasted five months before I lost consciousness.  I wasn't in pain but I was hallucinating.  My abdomen stuck out so far that half of me entered a room before I did.
With the news of someone dying from renal failure, I get down.  It is so sad.  We need to invent artificial kidneys or figure out how to do without.

[Dman73]

Death by renal failure takes too long (7-10 days) and if you you decide to end D it is better to go from zero to light speed in 1/1000 sec or less.

[Charlie B53]

So many tears for all that have gone, and the family, friends, left without their loved ones.

I am sure that we ALL think of ending D at one point or another.  This thread has answered a lot of questions, yet poses so many more.

What am 'I' going to do?  Keep on keeping on, not only for myself, but for the Grandson that I help raise.  The neighbor that I help with his boat.  The neighbor that I help with his garden tiller.  The neighbor that I help with his lawn mower.  We touch so many different lives, we don't realize how many people are affected by are presence.

I also need to be more thankful for that health that I still have, and to take better advantage of that health, to share more of myself with those around me.

This thread should be REQUIRED reading for many, and not just those on D, but everyone that has or could have any health condition that needs continuing treatment.

[Simon Dog]

Death by renal failure takes too long (7-10 days) and if you you decide to end D it is better to go from zero to light speed in 1/1000 sec or less.

I would strongly suggest avoiding that methodology - death by ballistically induced subcutaneous aperature is messy, and very inconsiderate to those who have to deal with your corpse.   

[babycake]

im not sure
if i posted
this before
there was
a elderly lady
at my center
she had pretty much
gave up on day one
but she came when
she wanted to
but then quit
she lived for 6weeks
her youngest son
died a few weeks prior
from a heart attack

[happyonhemo]

It seems like we have all asked our docs the same question and why wouldn't we? Mine,as many others,said about two weeks but I think we all know that it's gonna vary among us because we are each so unique thankfully. I myself have wanted to go to or get hospice help but was told that I would have to stop dialysis before Medicare would cover it.I suffer from b2m amyloidosis and I can't walk at all and my hands are so contracted that I really can't do too much at all.They really can't tell me how long I can expect to be here cuz they don't know enough about what I have and supposedly it could effect any body part at any time.Oh,well, I'm still thankful for each day I'm here.

[okarol]

It seems like we have all asked our docs the same question and why wouldn't we? Mine,as many others,said about two weeks but I think we all know that it's gonna vary among us because we are each so unique thankfully. I myself have wanted to go to or get hospice help but was told that I would have to stop dialysis before Medicare would cover it.I suffer from b2m amyloidosis and I can't walk at all and my hands are so contracted that I really can't do too much at all.They really can't tell me how long I can expect to be here cuz they don't know enough about what I have and supposedly it could effect any body part at any time.Oh,well, I'm still thankful for each day I'm here.

Medicare now allows dialysis for comfort while a patient is on hospice. They don't make you quit, from what I understand.
More info here http://www.esrdnet5.org/Files/Education/Meetings---Presentations/ESRDHospice7-08.aspx

[Rerun]

Why drag it out, unless it is just a puff to get some fluid off.  Then eat some banana cream pie.

         

[Whamo]

My doctor of the month prescribed "sensipar" to help bring down my phosphorus.  I got sicker than a dog.  I was throwing up mucus all night.   It was horrible.  I wanted to cut my throat.  I got weaker than a kitten and lost all stamina.  If I stood up I was tired, and I needed to lay down, for two days.  I didn't eat anything.  Needless to say I'm not taking sensipar anymore.

[cassandra]

But sensipar is supposed to bring down your PTH. Do you know what your Dr of the month is going to do about that? You feeling a bit better now?

Love, Cas

[Charlie B53]

I am very thankfull that PD is working so well.  How long?  I can only hope, as my needle phobia would make going on Hemo a traumatic experience, every time.

I don't know much about how long a person can last with no treatment, but we did lose our pal/budddy/pet, Herbie, the Love Bug, the one-eyed Beagle we bailed out of the shelter when his original owner beat him in the head with a hammer at only 3 months old.  Broken skull, right eye hanging by the muscles and nerves. We paid part ofhis bills and adopted him ten years ago.  All he wanted was to wrap his paws around your neck and love us.

Herbie laid down one day, didn't want to get up, play, go outside, anything.  I had to lift him up to put him into bed as he always sleeps alongside me. Took him to the Vet the next morning, Friday, the new guy, young, gave him a shot of steriod and told me to bring him back Monday if he was still not better.  He had a better rest of the day, and Saterday wasn't too bad.  Sunday he wouldn't move again.

Monday morning toolk him in and say the old Vet, he was busy in surgery Friday.  Dr Frank took one look at Herbie and said he needed to keep him and run some tests, he didn't like what he was seeing.

Tuesday morning very early, like 6 a.m. Dr Frank called and told me it wasn't good.  Herbie had gotten up and went outside with him to go P, but on the way back inside Herbie convilsed, and went into a coma.  His kidney had failed, he is diabetic, and we never knew.

We went in and held Herbie while Dr Frank slipped in the needle to let him go.

Thursday to Tuesday, not a long time.

I don't doubt it could be quite similar for some people.

I am so mad at myself for NOT noticing anything during the (?) months, or years, that anything could have been wrong with Herbie.  I'M DIABETIC, since I started PD.  I COULD have tested and given him insulin, if I had known.

It's too late for Herbie, but any person seriously thinking about stopping dialysis really needs to think long and hard about what they are doing.  You decision doesn't just affect you.  It affects everyone around you.  You can have support, but take the time to check out all of your options while you can.  You may not get a second chance.  You might be surprised how much people care and are willing to help if you just talk to them.