Work AFTER dialysis treatments?

[Alex C.]

I may have a decent-paying opportunity available, but it is an overnight position, which leaves me wondering what would be the better way to do dialysis; after (early morning), or BEFORE work (late afternoon)?

FWIW, the job is essentially a desk job, with little physical action on my part, aside from being up and working on the overnight shift. If I kept my afternoon schedule, I would be out by 6, have dinner, and maybe be able to nap a couple hours, until I had to go to work. This would allow me to go to sleep right when I got home, and would allow me a full sleep schedule on my "off days", and nearly full sleep on my dialysis days (with whatever napping I can manage while on the machine).

OTOH, if I went for early morning, I would go in about 6-6:30, and wouldn't get home and to "real sleep" until about 11. My partner would get home about 5, and hopefully wouldn't wake me until about 6:30, for dinner. On my "off days", I would be able to sleep until maybe 2, un-disturbed.

Aside from things like the gauze/bandages (which I could keep covered), my only real concern is the ability to keep going through the night after a treatment. I could always take a protein shake and drink coffee. FWIW, I usually just feel a bit sleepy about 3 hours after treatment, but usually manage to stay awake until my usual bedtime.

Has anybody else done this?

[iolaire]

I usually dialyze in the afternoon after work, but some days I do it in the morning due to travel or events in the PM.  I end up hating being at work each time I come from dialysis.  About the best way to describe it is that I feel like I have a cold, I'm out of sorts a bit, feel tiered, unfocused and am generally lagging.  I tell my coworker each time that I need to stop doing morning shifts.  On the flip side when traveling I usually go in the early AM, and I drag for a few hours afterwards but then by the afternoon I'm less affected.

So my recommendation is to dialyze after work.

[Vt Big Rig]

I dialyze at home 5 days a week (Sunday through Thursday) after work. On a good day that gives me an hour or two after we are done to get stuff organized for the next day, make lunch, etc, etc. Not much relaxation time till the weekends.

On vacation soon we are going to try to run early in the morning and then enjoy the day (I hope). I would guess doing after would be better for how you feel if it works with your sleep schedule.

Good Luck

[cattlekid]

I had the same full-time desk job (IT department) before dialysis, while I was on dialysis and now that I have had a transplant.

I started with in-center dialysis.  My weekday treatments were on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I would leave work at 2:00 and be hooked up and ready to go by 3:00.  I took my laptop to the dialysis center and would work from 3:00 to 5:00 or as long as I could focus.  I would leave the dialysis center between 7:00 and 7:30, eat dinner and crash until it was time to get up for work the next day.

Once I went to home hemo, I would work a normal schedule, come home and set up my machine, eat dinner and then be on the machine for three hours four nights a week.  I left one weekday night free and one weekend day free. 

I don't know that I would have ever wanted to have to assume that I could go to work after a treatment.  I liked getting work in first so that I was focused there and then I could relax as much as possible during treatments. 

[iolaire]

I took my laptop to the dialysis center and would work from 3:00 to 5:00 or as long as I could focus.

What type of access did you have?  I have a lower arm fistula and don't think that typing would work well.  Also did you still get tiered and nap during your session?

[Michael Murphy]

I worked for two years while on dialysis, My shifts were 12 hours.  I  went to dialysis Monday, Wednsday, Friday, and worked every Tuesday, Thursday, and every other Saturday and Sunday.  I finally stopped working because the company I was employed by out sourced all their benefit and personnel work and mistakenly claimed I owed them A months pay.  So they took two week pay and were telling me they were going to take another two week.  When I finally convinced them they admitted they did. Not have any way to return my money.  I was afraid the idiots we're going to just take the money.  Then I looked at my benefit package and found that they would pay me 60% of my salary till I was 67.  That's 4 years so I applied for Disability and recieve a nice check on top of my SSA disability check.  If I was working for a reasonable company I would still be working.  It was IT work and I didn't have a problem with the schedule. My devise would be to go to dialysis after work since you could nap during it,  then go home and sleep as much as you need to.  The up side is dialysis is much easier if you are asleep it makes the time go by so much faster.  The reason I tell the story of why I retired is to explain why I stopped working, I loved my job, I was a UNIX admin for 35 years of fun work.

[Simon Dog]

You may wish to consider home dialysis - you will be able to adjust your schedule as needed, and try various times until you find the ones that suit you best.

[cattlekid]

At the time I was in the dialysis center, I had a chest catheter.

My sessions were from 3:00 to 7:00 PM.  I was alert and focused for the first two hours most days and to be honest, that was when I got my best work done because there were no other co-workers to interrupt me with questions.  After 5:00, I was definitely useless as far as work went and would either nap, watch TV or read a book or play a game on my Nook. 

I was definitely the most wired person in the center....it took me a good five minutes to unpack all of my electronics before I could settle in and get hooked up.

I took my laptop to the dialysis center and would work from 3:00 to 5:00 or as long as I could focus.

What type of access did you have?  I have a lower arm fistula and don't think that typing would work well.  Also did you still get tiered and nap during your session?

[Sugarlump]

To be honest I am always sleepy after dialysis and if I have it later in the day (after dinner) I have home haemo so more flexible, I usually just go to bed.
I like to go to the gym three mornings a week but have to go before dialysis rather than after...otherwise I can't manage it.
Listen to your body/bodyclock and try to adjust your times to suit.

[noahvale]

^