3x week nocturnal

Has anyone done 3x week nocturnal as well as 6x wk nocturnal? I am wondering if you can describe how well you felt at 3x noc. as compared to 6x noc.? Because 3x noc. is 24 hrs a week as compared to SDD which is only about 12-18 hrs./wk., although there are 3x as few first hrs.

Yes, I’m a bit skeptical about SDD - all those perishables; all those cannulations…for 12-18 hours dx per week??? :?
I personally think the NxStage (unless used for some form of nocturnal) is best kept as a travel machine. Altho that may change I guess…
I do 3 nights of about 9.5 hours and a Sunday evening of 6-8. So my weekly ‘dose’ of dx amounts to about 33-36 hours. With slower UF and generally easier-on-the-body dialysis. I’m a pretty big bloke (O.K., a ft bst*rd :smiley: ), so I need a fair bit. Some of you smaller, thinner folk could comfortably do just 3 sessions.

Hi Heather
Same as Bear, I do Mon, Wed and Friday nights but usually 8 to 8 hours 20 minutes and then a shorter run Sunday evening of about 5 hours. i can’t stand the thought of doing 2 nights running and my blood tests are good, so good I even have to add phosphate! Nocturnal is flexible enough so that if I don’t want to do the Sunday run I just do alternate nights on Nocturnal so I guess that is 3 and a half in a week, I don’t feel any “less well”.But I like the routine of knowing what nights I have free each week. I don’t really seem to limit my fluid too much with this as I compensate with exercise and have no diet restrictions so I see no reason to increase my time anytime soon.
If you don’t have a heap of fluid to take off (for me that means under 3 litres) and can use low pump speeds with Nocturnal,a couple of hours after you come off you feel quite well, a couple more hours and you feel great!

I have been running Nocturnal 6 nights a week eight hour runs on the NxStage machine. I realy love this set-up. The machine and the treatments. I have a nice Lazy boy that I sleep in while I am on the machine. I feel great compared to four hours 3x a week in-center using the largest filter they had. Also my labs are better now then when I started PD over 12 years ago. Hemo gets a better phosphorous clearance then PD does according to my last dietician. I wouldn’t want to cut my treatments though. Peace;
LSB

I was doing treatments for dad every other night 8hrs. He was doing good but I changed to 6hrs 5 nights a week and he is doing even better.
Although I’m not. I think it is going to be interesting what Pat reports on her and her husbands change from the Fresni Nocturnal and the NxStage
Nocturnal. Should let us know also if weight will be a significant factor as Pat says her husband is a big man and didn’t consider doing daily with the NxStage just for that reason. Bear, I have read the reason short daily treatments are better than in-center treatments is because… even though they are the same amount of hrs. most of the toxins are removed in the first hr. of dialysis. I also read somewhere than those patients doing nocturnal 6 nights a week only had a down time of about 10 minutes after they got off the machine. I don’t know if this is true but when I was doing 6 nights with dad he did seem to get up and get going faster.

Marty, if you’re doing 6 hours 5 nights a week for your dad, when do YOU sleep? Wouldn’t it be easier to do 8 hour treatments so you could try to get a full night’s sleep?

Yes it would be easier. But right now 8 consecutive hrs. of sleep doesn’t fit into my schedule.

Marty, can you remind me why your dad is gets 6 hours of dialysis instead of 7 or 8 which would let you have a better night’s sleep? If he did better going from 8 hours x 3 days (24 hours) a week to 6 hours x 5 days (30 hours) a week, it seems like he would do even better with 7-8 hours a day x 5 days (35-40 hours) a week and both of you would get more sleep.

To be honest what we are doing doesn’t affect dads sleep. He goes to bed while I am setting up the machine and when it is time to put him on he his sound asleep and doesn’t wake up. Sameway when taking him off he doesn’t always wake up. If he does wake up, he can drop back off to sleep in minutes. I have other responsibilities besides dialysis and right now I need to give up sleep to keep everything else rolling. By getting up early I can get things done and if I am really tired I can sneak in a nap in the early afternoon.

Take care of yourself too. Caregivers often neglect themselves and their health to take care of the person who is ill. When they do, they place themselves at risk which could in the long-run harm the ill person more.

Beth,
Once Ralph is on and I have checked in with the center, I go to bed and we both sleep all through the night.
We are on by 9:15 pm and off about 5 or 5:15 am. I take him off start the Frecie into cleaning, take a shower and he goes to the livingroom to watch what ever show he has taped the night before (like WWF). Once cleaning is done I shut off machine and Ralph does the rest of the cleaning later on in the day and I am off to work by 6:30am. 4 days a week.
Pat

I’m glad to read that you’re getting 7-8 hours of sleep a night.