Which type of dialysis

I am trying to decide which dialysis treatment to use , hemo or peritoneal
and then which form ccpd or capd. I am 43 years old and work full time as a children’s librarian and I’m trying to keep working. I feel fine so its hard to decide or let alone acknowledge that my kidney is shutting down quicker now Because of my work setting I’m worried about infections, theres a lot of dust and stuff at work and the night one I worry about the fact that I’m single and on my on at night . I d like to hear about other peoples work experiences and physical feeling when the fluid is dwelling, bloat and what clothing works best :roll:

Hi Cleaf, and welcome to Home Dialysis Central.

There’s no doubt that this is a scary and disorienting time for you–and reaching out for information is a great way to retain control of your life.

You may want to also post your message to the HD Patient board and/or go through the threads (you can search them) and see if others have asked your questions before and learn from the responses they got.

In the meantime, a few on-line resources for you:
• We have “topic of the month” articles on this site on topics like choosing a treatment, PD as a first therapy, and lots more. You can read these at: http://www.homedialysis.org/v1/news/#tom

• Kidney School™ (http://www.kidneyschool.org is our free, on-line kidney learning center. You can pick whichever modules look helpful and go through them at your own pace or download & read them.

• The patient stories on this site may give you some info about what it’s like to live with different treatments. You can read them at http://www.homedialysis.org/v1/profiles

cleaf:
I’ve been on both HD & PD - and I really think PD was easier on me physically & mentally. With PD I was able to continue to work full time. HD left me exhausted at the end of each treatment - could barely drive home some days, then all I wanted to do was sleep, but not so with PD. When on HD I couldn’t work full time, HD was only offered in my area in center - and the closest one was 65 miles away - so I had quite a bit of travel time for treatments, and would often have to depend on others to get me to & from treatments.

Yes, there is the bloated feeling when on PD - especially noticeable if you do the manual exchanges. But, I did not notice it as bad when I switched over to the cycler at night.

I will say if I ever have to go back to dialysis (I had a transplant on May 16) that I would again choose PD with the cycler. I have more time for me & my family as well as a better level of energy. Hope this helps. CJ

cleaf,

I agree with CJ. Even though I am not on Dialysis, my 83 year old mother is. She tried HD and it left her very weak after each treatment. She then went to manual PD, and it was still demanding of her time and energy. Now that she is on the cycler she feels much, much better, not to mention the feeling of having her days free to do as she wants. She is still living with me until I am convinced she can “load the machine” without any difficultly - and she is very close to that point (remember she is 83), you should have no problems at age 43. As I have learned from this site, all PD patients say to keep everthing CLEAN - VERY CLEAN. She also has no feeling of “bloating”. PD Cycler is the way to go…

Cleaf,
I also agree with CJ, I have been using a night cycler for almost 2yrs now and find it very easy to do. It is very gentle on the body and I have plenty of energy to continue to work. There are connectors that make it easy to disconnect in an emergency. It is one therapy that is easy to do by yourself. I have continued to work in a hospital so am exposed to many bacteria. By doing the night cycler, I do not have to make any connections in the work environment, and my days are free of dialysis.
You will make the right choice for you. Continue to gather information.
Ginger

Hi,

I’m 37 and a librarian also, so I’m in about the same boat as you. I chose CCPD because I wanted to keep working, and it’s worked out great for the year I’ve been doing it. I work all day, do an exchange when I come home, and don’t have to think about it again until bedtime. I feel great, take no meds except binders, and have no fluid restrictions. I can’t recommend PD highly enough, if you are one the lucky people for whom it works.

Before I started PD, I had to do 8 weeks of hemo to get ‘stablized’. During that time, I felt ill pretty much all the time, and not a day went by that I didn’t consider throwing in the towel and going on disability. Even though librarianship is not a physically demanding job, I came home bone-tired at the end of every day. I don’t think I could have kept that up for much longer.

In conclusion, I would say you should at least give PD a try. Sometimes doctors will try to discourage you, giving reasons why it won’t work in your case, but in truth you don’t know how it will work until you try it. I have zero residual function and lots of past abdominal surgeries, so I was a poor candidate for PD. But here I am! Good luck with your choice,

Sean

[QUOTE=Anonymous;7868]Hi,

I’m 37 and a librarian also, so I’m in about the same boat as you. I chose CCPD because I wanted to keep working, and it’s worked out great for the year I’ve been doing it. I work all day, do an exchange when I come home, and don’t have to think about it again until bedtime. I feel great, take no meds except binders, and have no fluid restrictions. I can’t recommend PD highly enough, if you are one the lucky people for whom it works.

Before I started PD, I had to do 8 weeks of hemo to get ‘stablized’. During that time, I felt ill pretty much all the time, and not a day went by that I didn’t consider throwing in the towel and going on disability. Even though librarianship is not a physically demanding job, I came home bone-tired at the end of every day. I don’t think I could have kept that up for much longer.

In conclusion, I would say you should at least give PD a try. Sometimes doctors will try to discourage you, giving reasons why it won’t work in your case, but in truth you don’t know how it will work until you try it. I have zero residual function and lots of past abdominal surgeries, so I was a poor candidate for PD. But here I am! Good luck with your choice,

Sean[/QUOTE]
Hi Cleaf have you to tried PD yet? I will tell you my story. when the doctor told me I had to go onDialysis he said Hemo. but I told him I wanted to try PD. . so the nurse started to train me , after a couple of days she said you can’t do it you can’t learn how to do it . so I went back and proved to her that I could do it . I have been on it for 3 months and loving it now I am on the night cycler. I am 84 years old . so you can do it. good luck
Cheers virtsma.

My husband has been on PD since January and has done so well. We would recommend anyone to try this first. You have so much freedom with PD.