It's been a while since i updated the blog but i only try and put really useful information up on the blog so that's my excuse.
The topic of Nocturnal dialysis is floating about now allot so with myself being on Nocturnal dialysis now since early March 2014 and i must say it has really changed my life i decided i better tell you all about it and the experiences.
Ok at the start its a pain, more training in the hospital about 3 days of 8 hours yes that's days not nights i know why would you do training during the day and not night i guess it was for the reason that bloods can be taken and you get the results on the same day etc..
Apart from doing dialysis at night time your dialysis machine needs to be setup for Nocturnal dialysis Baxter the dialysis company who look after my machine do this on behalf of the hospital.
The blood flow will only run at 200 now so you'll see your pressures allot lower than before
I normally do 8 - 9 hours a night sometime 9.3 hours as that's how long all my stock i use on the machine will last for
The machine is set for a max of 10 hours so that's the maxium time i can do with out doing a clean and setting up again , but why would i do that ;-) 9 hours in one night is nearly twice as much as i was doing before in 2 days. I now do 4,5 night a week thats 36 or 45 hours a week i was only doing 4 hours 3,4 times a week a max of 16 hours if it was 4 times a week..
I now use heparin and use it for 8.2 hours of the 9 hours there is a heparin stop time of 40 mins before you come off the machine.
My room has now a bed , initially i had the bed in the room before i went on Nocturnal dialysis, my room is not that big so i bought a 3ft, 3" bed and modified it myself to 3ft ( and no i am not a carpenter but i've a good set of hands on me) i post a picture soon of the room and bed, it cosy to say the least...
It took a while to reap the rewards as your whole routine will be very different espically if you work like me. First you feel allot better and you'll probably need to come off phosphate binders straight away , in fact in some cases you have to add phosphate while your on treatment.. You get to eat all them good foods you had to give up, milk , yogurt etc.. these are to help level out you phosphate as it will drop after 8-9 hours of dialysis.
With doing 8,9 hours of dialysis each night or every 2nd night like me you'll start to feeling much better you see that you much healthier and you'll have allot more energy as your eating much more normal foods...
I have always had high Blood Pressure and i mean very high since i was very young and was always on BP tablets but now you'll never believe it but i do not take any BP tablets at all. It took a while for this to happen so don't worry if you don't see the affect straight away.
The big problem i had was not being scared of the needles falling out as they are in very secure but the noise of the water pump and the machine keeping me awake. It did take me a few sessions to get use to it all along with using ear plugs and turning down the alarms and light on the machine.
Well that's all for now i hope you get a bit of a insight into what its like, If you any questions regarding the of my posting please do drop me a note I'd love to hear from yea...
posted by Francis at 1:20 PM 
