A day off from dialysis

Most (all?) people on daily dialysis, whether the short version or the nocturnal version take a day off from dialysis during the week. There is no medical basis for this. Kidneys don't take a day off so theoretically there shouldn't be a day off for dialysis too!

For some reason, however, we all take a day off.

When I started doing daily dialysis, I took Sundays off because well, everyone else on the internet I knew was doing the same! When I did not dialyze on Sundays, I slept better. I've never had serious problems sleeping on dialysis but the sleep on Sundays, not hooked to the dialysis machine were really 'sound', if you know what I mean. For example, I would go into deep dreams only on Sunday nights.

Over the last two and a half years of being on nocturnal, I have mixed feelings about taking Sundays off. On the one hand, I feel a little relieved that I don't have to suffer the needles and the associated pain (yes, I use buttonholes - two pairs, if you will and no, it is NOT painless). On the other hand, I don't like the feeling of having extra fluid on me. There is a little discomfort in my chest by mid-day Monday.

One reason for this fluid build up is that I have a holiday at work on Sundays and due to this I have more spare time. So, I end up drinking more fluid. When I'm at work during the week, on the other hand, I am so absorbed in my work that I don't drink that much.

Also, on Sundays, I usually go for a movie followed by dinner out with my family or friends and tend to go overboard at times drinking a cola or some mocktail.

I've been thinking lately of changing my day off to a weekday and dialyze on Sundays. This will remove both the factors that contribute to my fluid weight gain and the subsequent discomfort. I will be at work and hence drink less and I will also not usually go out to eat and will again, well, drink less.

One advantage of learning the ropes of starting treatments is that I can start on Sundays without worrying about whether my tech will agree to come on Sundays. I can start off myself, get him to come on Monday morning to close and give him a weekday off.

Should work out, I think. Let's see how fast I can put this plan into action.

Comments

IGA Nephropathy said…
Its interesting to read your thought process. Thanks for sharing it.

I have no idea whether this is sound advise but just wanted to share what came to my mind: I think you should take a day off to have atleast one good night of sleep and some sense of normalcy (whatever that means). Further, with the emergency management situation in India (especially if nobody else at home is fully trained), you should not do it on days you wont have the tech around.