157) Home Dialysis?

August 30, 2007
Thursday

El Milagro: As I rush in and weigh myself I’m a little cognizant of a display in the corner and two women standing there talking… and hear something about peritoneal, so I assume it’s another peritoneal sales job going on out there. Later I find out from Rosie the Tech that it’s a ‘show and tell’ about home dialysis… the way El Milagro can make more money by having folks do the dialysis themselves at home and not even utilize the resources of the center.

Anyway, I shoot past there and settle into a corner chair (not ‘my’ corner), saying “Hi” to John on the way. Rosie comes over to poke me and we talk about home dialysis (HD) and she reports about her best friend who is on HD and how it takes more time to set up and take down than he wants to use, so she ends up helping him out with it. She warns that it isn’t all its cracked up to be since there is about an hour of set up/take down, 3 hours on the machine, and you do it every day.

Rosie finishes with me and then Phyllis the Nurse comes up to listen to my heart and she starts in… “Jack; HD is something I’d think you’d be excited about…” saying you get better clearances and can take less binders. She says Bear loves it and he takes less binders as a result. I counter that I’m lazy and it seems like a lot of work… and I conclude that I like coming here and being served by the staff cause they are so nice and competent. She laughs at that and shakes her head at my honesty. So, I guess I need to think more seriously about HD as an option.

Just off the top of my head, I lean away from using HD. But then, a few minutes later, one of the HD minions hired by the establishment to sell the system to all us chair-tied people comes up to talk to my neighbor about HD. Michael the HD guy says, “When I get off I feel the same as when I started. I don’t get that wiped out feeling. Also, while dialyzing I can stand up and move around some. Sticking yourself is the hardest part. They ship supplies to your house.” And various other things in response to my neighbor’s questions.

My own thoughts that are leaning away from the idea of HD include 1) having Shayna see me dialyzing every night; 2) dragging the machine on my 4 to 5 out-of-town trips every month; 3) having to deal with this dialysis stuff EVERY day instead of three times a week; 4) having to learn and be responsible for my own treatment… and I’m sure there are others. All these notions are in the face of Phyllis’ statement that HD is better for me… so, maybe I need to really consider that too. So it goes.

Notes: In at 74.8 and out at 72.2 kgs.
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