Today, I'm sharing about dialysis and how the two types of dialysis work.
Chronic kidney disease patients need dialysis when they develop end-stage kidney failure. Dialysis is a way of cleaning your blood when your kidneys can no longer do the job. It gets rid of your body's toxins, extra salt and fluid, and helps to control your blood pressure.
There are two kinds of dialysis:
In hemodialysis, two needles connected to tubing are placed in your arm and blood is pumped out of your body through one needle to a dialyzer, also referred to as an “artificial kidney”, and then returned to your body through the second needle.
In peritoneal dialysis, the inside lining of your abdominal cavity, known as the peritoneum, acts as a natural filter. Rowan is currently on automated peritoneal dialysis (APD). A soft, plastic tube called a catheter was surgically placed in his belly while we were still in the NICU about 3 weeks before Rowan started dialysis. Before his treatment begins, we prepare the cycler machine by connecting the cassette and tubing to 2 bags of the cleansing fluid called dialysate. The third tube from the machine is connected to Rowan’s catheter. During his treatments, the cycler delivers the dialysate fluid into his belly through this catheter where it sits or “dwells” for about 45 minutes. After the filtering process is finished, the machine drains the fluid through the same catheter into a large drain bag. This treatment is done in multiple cycles throughout the night over 12 hours while Rowan sleeps. In the morning, we disconnect Rowan’s catheter from the tubing and place a sterile cap with iodine inside to keep the catheter clean. We empty the left over fluid from the used dialysate bags and the drain bag into the sink and then throw all of the tubing and bags away.
The peritoneal dialysis process is pretty routine for us now but can be exhausting and frustrating. You have to keep up with ordering the correct supplies, watch Rowan’s blood pressure and weight to make sure the dialysis is doing its job correctly, watch for cloudy drain fluid which would be a sign of infection, and deal with loud alarms from the machine at night when he doesn’t drain enough fluid. But this treatment is also keeping our baby alive, and that makes me thankful to have all of the equipment and means to do this treatment every night in our own home.
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