I have been dialysing for six nights a week for a long time now. I did dabble with various other routines and settled on six nights a week. That worked well for me. For the last year or so. I have been having Carpal Tunnel Syndrome which did not allow me to sleep beyond very early in the morning and I would get up with severe numbness in my left hand. Strangely, on dialysis nights, I could sleep up to 5 am. So, it kind of made sense for me to do dialysis on more nights!
Recently, I got operated for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome on my left hand and my right hand is getting better with a device under clinical trial. So I am able to sleep till longer. I thought recently that I should try to do five nights instead of six nights and see how it goes. I have been doing that for the last two weeks and find it going quite well. I will be continuing this for some time now.
What, you might wonder, do I like about my nights off-dialysis? Well, who likes to dialyze? Who likes their fingers to be tied with a string to prevent the hand from moving too much in the night so that the needles don’t come off? Who likes needles in their arm, isn’t the first place? Not me! I also like the fact that I am alone in my room. I feel free. Honestly, it is difficult to describe.
I have been putting on less fluid weight recently and that has helped to make this decision. If I know me well enough, the less fluid weight gain is not going to last long. In that case, I will switch back to six nights a week. That is the whole damn advantage of home hemo. You can choose when to dialyse and when not to. You can choose when to start your session and when to end it. You can dictate your treatment without worrying about schedules, about timings, about so many other things. I am so grateful that I have access to this wonderful modality. I so wish many others could do this as well!
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