Ok…
When it comes to dialysis treatment, it is necessary to go 3x a week to have your blood cleaned by a machine that acts as your diseased kidney can no longer filter out itself. Your kidneys, when working correctly, can filter out the toxins and fluid input effectively: Well, even though I hate going to MercyHealth dialysis today, i still go there because of my history of using a catheter for treatment instead of having a working fistula and/or graft: My fistula never matured to be used and my graft lasted 9 months before it clotted off for good. I have no more veins and arteries to create a new graft or fistula. I have been using a catheter from April 24, 2019 to the present date of April 2025. When my graft was functional, I had 9 months of freedom to shower whereas with a catheter it is not easy showering and not getting the catheter wet. Anyway, I find dialysis a part of my schedule 3x. a week and at 8 hours and 15 minutes a week so important to add to my already busy weekly schedule.
As far as dialysis is concerned, I have to keep up with my weekly schedule and routine because no one else is going to. I want to remain healthy as long as possible despite the fact that I have kidney disease and 2 hours and 45 minutes of my M, T, and F is sitting at a clinic in a large room of chairs and machines (20 of them) in a cubby hole type of saw setting, so be it. I will be there.
Like I said, in many words. I am who I am—🙃—I will obey a doctor when he or she says that coming to dialysis 3x a week is plenty of treatment for 2 hrs and 30 minutes at each sitting will suffice. Otherwise, dialysis is not worth it missing a treatment. If you do not go 3x a week, the time being on the machine and not being on the machine will add up to problems because your own kidneys can no longer filter out the toxins and urination becomes non-existent as your kidney continues to fail and thrive. It can be, I’m sorry to say, you die. Well, I am not ready to die, so I will go to dialysis 3x a week to have some normalcy in my life, and in 1987, finding out I had the need to have a transplant and 37 years since my transplant worked for 31 years before chronic kidney disease had plagued my transplanted kidney (my mom donated her left kidney for me), I felt I had a normal life. Well, although dialysis ties me down 8 hours and 15 minutes a week, I feel I am living a normal life. Although I need to worry about myself getting to and from dialysis, I wonder why other dialysis patients think it’s ok to miss a treatment. I am going to say that it is not a very good idea to miss a treatment. Why? You can feel sick and feel yucky real fast. I know by experience when I have missed a treatment from time to time because my caregivers may not get to me in time due to weather and illness. Yet, I wonder why I worry about others who choose not to go to the clinic, when I see or hear that someone did not come in today. It actually angers me that other patients do not come in for treatment 3x a week. I have a heart and I do care for others, too.
Ok…
I have said what I needed and wanted to say.. Please forgive me getting on my soap box for a few minutes, ok? Thanks for understanding.