| Author | Subject: Dad on hemo and NOT DOING WELL-HELP!!!! |
| Meg | Posted At 00:30:40 10/02/2002 My dad is on hemodialysis from a bad 1.5yrs of PD. He was in the hospital for 5 weeks over the summer and is still trying to recooperate- but is not doing well. He can't seem to eat. Consequently, his albumin has dropped to 3.5 and his Hg/Hct are LOW-everything is out of wack. HELP!!!!! |
| Beth Witten | Re: Dad on hemo and NOT DOING WELL-HELP!!!! (Currently 0 replies) Posted At 22:42:19 10/03/2002 If I were you, I'd ask the dialysis clinic to set up a family conference with the nephrologist and members of your father's healthcare team (nurse, dietitian, social worker). Write down questions you have and take them to the meeting. Ask the nephrologist about your father's condition and what, if anything, can be done to help him get back on his feet. He/she will probably review your father's dialysis records, his diet and fluid prescription, lab results, medications list, and check his dialysis access. Ask the nurse how your father's dialysis treatments are going. He/she will probably review your father's treatment records and explain how well his treatments are cleaning his blood and reasons for any problems. From your description, it sounds like your father wasn't getting good dialysis from PD and it may take a while for hemodialysis to get the wastes out of his blood. If he has a catheter for dialysis, it's possible his dialysis adequacy isn't as good as it would be with a fistula or graft. The nurse can suggest what things your father and the clinic can do to help your father be as comfortable as possible during dialysis. When people aren't comfortable at dialysis, sometimes they skip or shorten treatments. If he has missed or shortened any treatments this can affect dialysis adequacy, anemia, energy, appetite, and how food tastes. Skipping and shortening treatments increases someone's risk of being hospitalized or dying early. Ask the dietitian about his diet and what things he can eat to bring his albumin up. Changing from PD to hemodialysis may have changed his diet, but the dietitian may have special instructions if he is malnourished. Malnutrition causes weakness, makes it easier for people get infections, and even makes hospitalization more likely. Changes of treatment type, lengthy hospitalizations, anemia, malnutrition and just feeling sick and tired make most people feel out of control, hopeless, and depressed. The clinic social worker can talk with your father to find out what things he enjoyed doing before and work with him to set goals to get back to doing those things again. Sometimes it helps to see a counselor away from the dialysis clinic. The social worker or counselor can talk with your family about how you can help encourage him to start doing more for himself to give him back a sense of self-worth that sometimes is missing when people have to be dependent on others. If the doctor prescribes it, the social worker or nurse can refer your father to a rehabilitation professional (physical therapist or physiatrist) to evaluate and prescribe exercises to improve his physical fitness, strength, endurance, snf independence. It could also help to stimulate his appetite. Interestingly, many people on dialysis believe that they cannot exercise when actually it is an essential part of the treatment plan. Finally, ask the staff at the dialysis clinic if there is another patient who has gone through a similar experience that your father could talk with. This might help him to see that there is hope. Talking with someone else with kidney failure who has coped well with it could help to motivate him to do more than he thinks he can do now. Good luck! |
| Answer | Re: Dad on hemo and NOT DOING WELL-HELP!!!! (Currently 0 replies) Posted At 15:01:27 01/06/2003 Transplanting is a commercial option. See http://www.liver4you.org about kidney transplants instead of waiting forever It will be paying ( 85 K ) prior to the information. Its not for everyone. |