Why so often?

[tyefly]

All I know is when I do dialysis   I  dont urinate very much ...but when I dont do D that day I go alot.... really alot... and if I skip a day  I still go alot.....   Seems like my kidneys work better when I dont do D.....   

[jbeany]

All I know is when I do dialysis   I  dont urinate very much ...but when I dont do D that day I go alot.... really alot... and if I skip a day  I still go alot.....   Seems like my kidneys work better when I dont do D.....   

Urinating does not equal cleaning toxins when you have ESRD.  You can pee constantly and still have toxin build up.  If you are still urinating, though, it makes sense that you would urinate more on the off days.  The machine has pulled fluid from your bloodstream while you were hooked up.  On the off days, there's more fluid in the bloodstream for your kidneys to expel.  They don't necessarily work better - they just have more to work with.

[billmoria]

What is crazy is that everyone is different. I went from no dialysis to dialysis over one weekend! One week my kidneys were doing the job and the next they had failed. I, personally, wish I had started earlier. Like most people, I was scared to start but within 2 months I felt better than the last year of kidney function.
Now I have up and down days - it is very hard to plan anything. I do in clinic M-W-F at twilight. For some reason Thursday is usually my worst day - but today it was not!!!
Good Luck

[Marina]

Urinating does not equal cleaning toxins when you have ESRD.  You can pee constantly and still have toxin build up.  If you are still urinating, though, it makes sense that you would urinate more on the off days.  The machine has pulled fluid from your bloodstream while you were hooked up.  On the off days, there's more fluid in the bloodstream for your kidneys to expel.  They don't necessarily work better - they just have more to work with.

There  are  many  patients   who   still urinate  alot,  but like  Jbeany  mentions    toxins  still build  up.
The  reason  for that  is that  even though the  kidneys  still  make  urine,  they're  unable  to  filter out  toxins,  so  dialysis  is  needed  for that.

[texasstyle]

I just have to wonder here, and of course I to am trying to figure all this out (and probably never will lol), but  I always seem to think along the lines that having 8 or even 12% kidney function is pretty the same as having 0. I guess that little bit left is enough to sustain life function for a while but with the way you get sick with symptoms to me again again takes me back to it's life having 0. How does having at least some very small residual benefit you? Example: keeps you urinating etc... so confusing!

[tyefly]

I think that if a person has some residual function than it will help with the fluid buildup....   I dont have to take much fluid off and that is because I still have to urinate...  even tho I still urinate I still dont go enough to take off all my fluid....So doing dialysis help me keep the fluid down.... so when I dont dialysize over several days I end up going more often...but still not enough to not dialysis...after a few days I see that my weight is up my 2k then 2.5 k and then 3   then I feel like a fatso.....  and usually dont feel that well and then I have to do dialysis....and then I back down to my correct weight.... 

I think everyone kidney function is different depending on why there kidneys failed.....  Some people kidney do things that other dont..... for example .... some people dont have to take EPO...as there kidneys still do that function while others ( like me ) have to take EPO to keep our hemoglobin up.....

[Marina]

I just have to wonder here, and of course I to am trying to figure all this out (and probably never will lol), but  I always seem to think along the lines that having 8 or even 12% kidney function is pretty the same as having 0. I guess that little bit left is enough to sustain life function for a while but with the way you get sick with symptoms to me again again takes me back to it's life having 0. How does having at least some very small residual benefit you? Example: keeps you urinating etc... so confusing!

My  nurses  always  reminded  me that  every  bit counts.  Even  if  it's  1  or 2%,  it  still helps.   NOTHING    absolutely  nothing  can  come  close  to the  work the  kidneys  do.
Due  to  the  fact  that  I  still had  residual  function  left,  I  was  able  to  have  a more  liberal  diet  than some  of the  patients  who didn't have  any function  at  all.

I  used  to  tell people  I  only  have  8% kidney  function left.  But  after   my nurses  told  me  about "every bit helps"   I  changed  my  reply  to  "I  STILL  have  8%  function left"         I  decided  to  see  the  glass  as  full  instead of  half  full or  half  empty.                   

[jbeany]

Yup, the more you have left, the easier the diet and fluid restrictions are.  Plus, different functions can fail at different rates for each person.  I needed epo 7 years before I even started D, when my kidney function was still above 20% in terms of clearing fluid and toxins.  So I could eat and drink like normal - I just had a hemoglobin of 6 and couldn't walk up a flight of stairs until I started on Procrit shots.

[texasstyle]

Thanks family for helping me to understand better!