Is there anybody that was on dialysis and then later was taken off?!
Question: Hi my dad was started on dialysis but for the past few months when he sees the doctor there at the facility they keep telling him that he is doing real well. He still produces urine unlike the rest of the patients there he is the only one that produces urine. My dad would like to know if it's possible for someone to be taken off of dialysis. His primary care physician told him that maybe down the line they might take him off. My dad is desperate because he's told on a weekly basis by the nephrologist that he is doing great but yet noone says anything about if he's going to come off or not. My dad has come down to the point of thinking it's all about the $$. THat doctors don't really want you to get better so that they can continue to charge Social Security more $$$$. ANybody have any stories to share. I'm bored and interested in reading about your stories. I thank you in advanced for sharing!!!!
Answers: Hi my dad was started on dialysis but for the past few months when he sees the doctor there at the facility they keep telling him that he is doing real well. He still produces urine unlike the rest of the patients there he is the only one that produces urine. My dad would like to know if it's possible for someone to be taken off of dialysis. His primary care physician told him that maybe down the line they might take him off. My dad is desperate because he's told on a weekly basis by the nephrologist that he is doing great but yet noone says anything about if he's going to come off or not. My dad has come down to the point of thinking it's all about the $$. THat doctors don't really want you to get better so that they can continue to charge Social Security more $$$$. ANybody have any stories to share. I'm bored and interested in reading about your stories. I thank you in advanced for sharing!!!!
With chronic kidney disease, once kidney function drops to 15%, renal replacement therapy must be started in order to sustain life. Renal replacement therapy can be done either with dialysis (hemo or peritoneal) or transplant. At that level of function, new (functional) tissue will not grow back (scar tissue can grow however). Acute renal failure can also occur, and is marked by sudden onset, but is often recoverable. Sometimes during acute renal failure, emergency hemodialysis via the superior vena cava is performed. If you father has already been on dialysis (hemo I'll assume) for a "few months" it's more likely a chronic condition rather than an acute one.
The reason why the doctors are telling him that he's doing "real well" and that "things are going great", is because he is probably responding really well to the hemodialysis. Some people don't respond well and they can have complications. The fact that he still produces urine is not surprising. A functional kidney is determined by how well it removes metabolic wastes (creatinine and urea) from the blood not how much urine is produces. I've been on dialysis for almost three years now, and I still produce over a litre of urine daily; although, I'm on peritoneal dialysis. Being able to still produce urine means that (much) excess fluid does not have to be pulled off during dialysis, a process that, depending on the amount of fluid, can be painful/uncomfortable.
Not sure why his priary care physician told him that they might take him off, unless he was referring to transplant. Other than dialysis, your father may be in excellent health which would make him a prime candidate for transplant. The system would encourage him to consider a transplant because it is much less costly to provide treatment for transplant recipients than dialysis. Plus it would open up spaces for new patients.
I think doctors are too altruistic about patient health and welfare to care about making excess profit, that's part of what the Hippocratic oath is about. There will always be people in need of dialysis. The only people worried about making excessive profits would be the administrators and executives at private companies in the field. That is why drug companies don't research cures, only treatments. There is more money to be made by treating diseases than curing them.
Side note, some people are able to delay dialysis with a kidney function under 15% by following a strict very low protein diet, but special amino acid supplements are required to make up for the amino acids not produced by the body and would be found in protein.
yes if the kidney start functioning then there is a option that the patient is taken off from dialysis. check your father creatinine clearence in urine do let me know i can then inform you later . however it seem good news