Dialysis machine?!


Question: Can someone live off a dialysis machine forever?

Is a kidney more effective than a dialysis machine?

If you were to choose, would you choose a kidney or dialysis machine?


Answers: Can someone live off a dialysis machine forever?

Is a kidney more effective than a dialysis machine?

If you were to choose, would you choose a kidney or dialysis machine?

Dialysis keeps a person alive but at the same time slowly kills them. However you can live on dialysis for a long time especially if it is nocturnal heamodialysis for six nights a week. This sounds like a lot of time to spend on a dialysis machine but it is done while you sleep (for 8 hours a night). It is very gentle and removes most fluid and diet restrictions that many dialysis patients have. Nocturnal dialysis mortality rate is about 7% while Kidney transplant is around 4% depending on what country you are from and which drugs you take. I believe dialysis 3 times a week for 3 or 4 hours has a mortality rate of around 17-20% (depending on country).
It also depends on your age and health, is kidney failure your only problem?
A kidney transplant gives you more freedom to eat and drink what you want as well as travel when and where you want, but you have to take anti rejection medication for the rest of your life. Some of these drugs can have severe side effects so it is up to the individual to decide.

I am 30yo and was on dialysis in hospital 3 times a week for 5 hours at a time for about 4 months befor i went to nocturnal dialysis 6 nights a week 8 hours a time and was very healthy, didn't have to take any medication and my blood tests were fairly normal. (was on this for 2 and a half years)
Got a transplant 7 weeks ago it was pretty traumatic and didn't go exactly according to plan but it is starting to work better now. It has given me much more freedom to do what i like and go where i like, as well as work when i need to. your life isn't set to your dialysis timetable.
The only drawback is the medication i have to take everyday some of it has quite severe side effects.

If you have the choice i would definately choose a kidney transplant however if it is not possible you could certainly live a reasonably long and healthy life on nocturnal heamodialysis.
Hope this helps.

I suppose it would be possible to live a long time on dialysis...not sure forever is the right word. A kidney is more effective than a dialysis machine.....And as for the question which i would chose... hands down a kidney..... I watched my mother go through 4 years of dialysis and those years were so horrible for her that when the transplant doctor told her she only had a 20% chance of surviving the transplant surgery....my mom went ahead with the surgery. i'm sure not everyone has such a difficult time with dialysis as she did but at the very least you are hooked up to machines for several hours everyday or every other day, you have to restrict your fluid intake to about 32 ounce of liquid a day (that is not much at all) and you are put on a very restrictive diet...... and other than some medication you would have to take life can return to pretty normal following a kidney transplant.





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