[QUOTE=Bill Peckham;3955]No, no, no. The five year figure comes from extrapolating the average yearly mortalityn rate - always remember: Averages are made of extremes. The average mortality is above 20% a year for all people on dialysis. So if you take a group of 100 people starting dialysis and there is a 20% yearly mortality rate, then after 5 years fewer than 50 of the initial 100 people will remain alive.
However, there is no upper limit on how long someone starting dialysis today will live - I know someone who has been on dialysis continuously for over 34 years and another person who has had ESRD for nearly 40 years (she is on her forth transplant). I started dialysis in 1990, no one knows how long someone who started dialysis in 1990 will have; let alone how long someone who starts dialysis today will have. When you consider the healthier options that we have today - more frequent dialysis, especially more frequent nocturnal dialysis - there is no way to know what that means in regard to mortality.
You can live a long time while using dialysis to replace your kidney’s function but studies have shown that those who do best on dialysis are those who take an active role in their treatment. By coming here, to this web site, you have taken the first step. The next step is making healthy treatment decisions.
Terry - tell us more about the situation. Are you the one with diminished kidney function? Where are you in the process? This board is a great resource - just keep asking questions - ask us but more importantly ask questions of your renal care team.[/QUOTE]
My husband has had a transplant and we are back on dialysis, due to a virus. Sometime he get so angry and becomes hateful and I just want to go away, I work hard and try to pay all the bills, but it gets hard and he gets mad because he can not spend money any old way. He says that he is going to die and then I will be ok, that is not the point, he is a husband, father, grandfather and uncle to many. What can I do to help him.