Greetings all!!

[Mainstreetmagic]

My name is Steve, and I have been a dialysis patient for over ten years now.  I just discovered this board and thought that I would give a shout out to all.

As I mentioned above, I started out on dialysis back in 2004. I had one of my kidneys removed many years ago due to an extremely large stone. My second kidney also through the years shut down due to my lack of keeping myself dilated. It finally shut down while my wife and I were at Disney World in 2004.  I have been on dialysis ever since. 

I have done PD for awhile, but got infected and went back to hemodialysis.  Then several years ago the clinic I attend in Sandy Springs, Georgia began nocturnal.  I was one of the first group of patients on nocturnal and have been since then. I haven't had a chance to look over this site yet, but am following the rules to post a welcome message first  (except that I cannot find how to specify my gender (male). 

I look forward to posting more and reading about others as well.  I hope that I can fit in with the group here as well.

[Charlie B53]

Hi Steve,

Welcome to the site!

We are always glad to hear from others that have made a successful transition to living on dialysis.  Some many have great fear and to hear from those that have already gone through it really helps.

Take Care,

Charlie B

[iolaire]

Then several years ago the clinic I attend in Sandy Springs, Georgia began nocturnal.

Welcome.  Please can you describe your nocturnal shift, hours and what you do after you are done with your shift? 

(I ask since most of the nocturnal shifts I read about are only part of the night and you get kicked out at like 5 am so the next shift can setup.  Which to me sounds like part of a night. So I wonder do you go home, to work or what when you get kicked out.)

[noahvale]

*

[cassandra]

Welcome to the site Steve

     


Take care, Cas

[Darthvadar]

Hello Steve...

  to IHD....

Take a good look around, visit and post often... We like the chatty ones!....

God bless....

Darth... Moderator...

[Simon Dog]

(I ask since most of the nocturnal shifts I read about are only part of the night and you get kicked out at like 5 am so the next shift can setup.  Which to me sounds like part of a night. So I wonder do you go home, to work or what when you get kicked out.)

I have heard of so-called nocturnal shifts starting at 8PM or so.   When I was new to dialysis, I thought nocturnal would be great - then I found out is was something like 8PM to 4AM, and I would sleep in a dialysis chair, not a bed ... so it became much less appealing.

[Bambino_Bear]

  Steve!

[kristina]

Hello Mainstreetmagic and welcome to IHD,
Yoiu raise a few very interesting points...
Like: how come that your second kidney shut down due to your lack of keeping yourself dilated ?
How did you get infected whilst on PD? ... And how do you do on hemodialysis during the night?
Can you actually sleep through the treatment?

Thanks for your answers and best wishes from Kristina.

[Mainstreetmagic]

iolaire -

First, sorry that I took so long to reply.  To others I will post more info about my nocturnal in the proper area. I just wanted to respond to this question.

My nocturnal hours are 8 pm til 4 am.  I usually arrive around 7:15 and the staff will sometimes allow us to come in early.  There are approximately 20 of us who are on this shift (Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday). Not all of us are put onto the machines at the same time (duh) but the 8:00 time is the first shift. There are beds in our clinic instead of the reclining chairs.  Each of us has our own television which require ear phones to listen. Our nocturnal is very similar to a regular shift except that after we all get settled in and the staff has gotten all of the paperwork out of the way, the lights are turned out.  This usually occurs around 10:30. That is when I usually try to sleep. There are some patients who will sleep as soon as they are hooked up. There are a few who actually stay up all night watching television or reading or doing something on their tablet/iphone/etc (love this new technology.)  Providing that no alarms delay my treatment, my treatment ends around 4 am. It takes approximately 1/2 hour to get unhooked, etc. which means that I am out at around 4:30. I live across town so it takes me about 20 - 30 minutes to get home (which beats the 1 hour to get to the clinic.) Once home, I climb into bed and sleep for another 3 hours , getting up around 8:30 in the morning.  There have been times in the past where I used to stay up after getting home and sit on the computer, but since we got a dog, that has stopped because I don't want to wake the dog when I get home and then have to walk him. (ok.....going a little too far here.)

So that about is my daily routine.  Do you have any other questions concerning nocturnal? As I mentioned, I will be probably hanging out in the nocturnal area of this site from now on.

EVERYONE TAKE CARE. 
 

[iolaire]

I usually arrive around 7:15 ... which means that I am out at around 4:30.

Thanks for the great details. 

That is the type of schedule that makes in center nocturnal appear to be a bad fit for me. 

I work and I'm married and I just can not see going to the center for a partial night, even if it leaves time for a nap in the morning.  Basically that would mean I head directly from work to the center, skipping time with my wife, come back in the middle of the night and likely be quite burned out for work the next day.  FYI: I'm on 3:15 to 7 PM or so, 3.5 hours, 1 hour commute to the center via public transportation and my wife picks me up afterwards and we have dinner when we get back home.  So I leave work at 2:15 PM three days per week. (I prefer that to a T/TR/Saturday shift since I want my Saturdays free.)  Luckily my employer of 16+ years has been quite flexible with me.  I do find it hard to get what I need done with the shorter schedule.  But then I've probably always had more to do than time...

I could see it working ok if you are at home most of the time and don't have all day commitments each day.