Newbie in Canada

[justagirl2325]

Hello, I am the wife of man on dialysis (42).  He was diagnosed as Type 1 diabetic when he young and his kidneys failed in June of 2014 (dropped to 6%).  He saw doctor July 2, got a catheter and started in centre hemo July 9.  His doctor recommended him to do home hemo 4 hours a session, 5 times a week.   We have been trained and have performed home hemo for the last month starting with 4 hour sessions, 3 times a week.  I was handling things ok until we went home.  Home hemo is alot harder on me than I thought it was going to be.  He's had a couple of scary sessions (passing out, getting sick, BP dropping while on the machine to 74/54) but he just takes them in stride as his attitude has always been that you can't control when you die so if it happens it happens.  He just had fistula surgery this week which seemed to go ok.  He had eye surgery last week as he lost vision in one eye due to his diabetes.  Hoping that recovers. 

I found this site over the summer but just decided to join now as he really doesn't want to listen to any of my concerns so I thought maybe someone here will 

[cassandra]

Welcome to the site justagirl2325

       

We'll always listen.   

Take care, Cas

[Rerun]

Welcome.  Here in the U.S. home dialysis care givers can take a break for a month and the patient has to go into the clinic for dialysis.  If it gets to you too bad ask about taking a break for a week or two to give yourself some mental rest. 

Hang in there.

Rerun, Admin.   

[PrimeTimer]

Welcome, justagirl12325!  My husband does home hemo and I am his Care Partner. We've been using a NxStage cycler for one year. I'm the one who hooks him up and runs the machine. We usually do the same length of treatment each time (we do 5x a week) for 3.50 hour sessions but, depending on his blood pressure at pre-treatment, I may set the UF rate to remove fluid from him faster or slower. For example, if my husband's blood pressure is on the low side pre-treatment, then we use a slower UF rate to avoid nausea and cramping. If we try to take too much fluid off of him too fast when his BP is low, he gets nauseated. I can always speed it up during treatment later if things are going well. If his BP is normal or even on the high side, then we set the UF rate to go a little faster. We check his BP and Pulse every 30 minutes. If we see his Systolic (the top number) getting below 100, I watch him like a hawk and check his BP every few minutes. Especially at the first sign of nausea. His, not mine...joke. If it gets much lower than that, I open the white saline clamps and give him a small saline bolus and slow down the UF rate. We decided that if he needs more than 2 saline boluses, then we take him off the machine but, since I've learned to slow down the UF rate and that has worked for him, we usually don't have to end early anymore, we just take it slower. That way we avoid saline boluses (adding fluid back on him) and he gets to complete a full treatment. Good luck to you. This stuff isn't always so easy but it feels good any time you get over another hurdle. Damned disease....

[justagirl2325]

Interesting, we use the AK-96 Self Care machine.  I'm not sure but I believe once we have set the amount of water to come off we can't change it.  We can only turn it off.  Which he's reluctant to do.

He went in clinic for dialysis Thursday (have to go once every two months) and they want him to start doing it every other day...he's fine as long as his weight stays relatively stable.  They've also told him to stop eating while he's on the machine (you think someone could have said something earlier). 

We'll see how it goes. 

Thanks for the welcome.

[PrimeTimer]

Interesting, we use the AK-96 Self Care machine.  I'm not sure but I believe once we have set the amount of water to come off we can't change it.  We can only turn it off.  Which he's reluctant to do.

He went in clinic for dialysis Thursday (have to go once every two months) and they want him to start doing it every other day...he's fine as long as his weight stays relatively stable.  They've also told him to stop eating while he's on the machine (you think someone could have said something earlier). 

We'll see how it goes. 

Thanks for the welcome.

My husband has Type II Diabetes and is Insulin dependent. He says as food digests, it affects blood pressure and can actually make it drop. He usually eats 3-4 hours before dialysis and afterwards but never during.   

[Darthvadar]

Hello, and  to IHD...

I too was a carer for many years.... A tough road, but I wouldn't have changed it for anything....

I look forward to seeing you here posting often....

God bless...

Darth... Moderator...