Hello all, recently I have been faced with the challenge of having to take care of my mother full time. My mother had a Stroke on the 17th of last month that affected her left side of brain, back and her brain stem, which has caused major outbursts. She now yells repetive words all day long. Her agitation increases as the day goes. There is no dialysis center that will take her because of her constant yelling , outbursts and agitation. We or now considering home hemodialysis for her. The problem is we don’t have 7 weeks to get trained . My question is is there any facitities in the Flordia area that send licensed nurses out to the home to do the hemodialysis until I’m trained to do it myself. Please assist if u can. Thanks Porsche
There are dialysis clinics in Florida that do what is called “staff-assisted home dialysis”. You can find them on the Home Dialysis Central “Find a clinic” database here (http://homedialysis.org/clinics/search). Some of them also offer daily home hemodialysis, That means those clinics train patients or their care partners to do daily home hemodialysis. Some private insurance (long-term care or company) may cover staff to do dialysis, but Medicare doesn’t. Medicare does cover the dialysis treatment at 80% under Part B. You could ask if any of these clinics will train you at the home while you’re mother is getting dialysis. The dialysis regulations allow clinics to do that when it’s needed for patient/care giver need.
As a social worker and patient advocate, I believe I need to ask this question. Does your mother have an advance directive or has she talked with you or others in the family about what she would want or want to forego if she experienced a devastating health crisis like she has experienced? Some patients and family choose to forego dialysis and to get hospice care and support and medications to keep them comfortable for as long as they live without dialysis. Most major religions consider this as stopping an extraordinary treatment and not suicide. You might want to talk with her doctor about this option. It may be the most humane thing to consider. Here’s information from the National Kidney Foundation about stopping dialysis.
I’m extremely curious in finding out how this ended up since I see that it was written in April… if you would come with an update that would be amazing!
and that’s just not fair that nobody wants to treat her because of her agitation… there are medications that help to stop these agitations like Valium, Xanax etc. etc. (but they are quite expensive so look for coupons to get them cheaper, like for example alprazolam coupon and such) hope so much that she’s fine by now.
can someone please explain what “staff-assisted home dialysis” is?
Staff-assisted home dialysis is offered by some dialysis clinics that send a dialysis technician or nurse to the patient’s home to do their dialysis (usually home hemodialysis) when the patient isn’t able to do it himself/herself and doesn’t have someone to help for free. As a primary insurance, Medicare covers the cost of the dialysis (machine, supplies, and support services at the clinic) at 80% under Part B, but it doesn’t pay for the technician or nurse who does the staff-assisted home dialysis. Some other health or long-term care insurances may cover that service.
Hi Porsche, did you find the home care for you mother? please share your experience.