What To Expect When Living On Dialysis

How To Cope With Challenges

The most common challenges individuals face when they first go on dialysis include seeing their blood leave their body, having the needle remain in their body, meeting a team of specialists, feeling limited in what they can do, and soreness. However, patients who have been receiving treatment for multiple years report they did adjust to all of these common issues. For the most part, it is simply a matter of learning a new routine. Many of these patients also report doing research and obtaining as much information as they could before treatment began, which helped quite a lot during their adjustment period.

Other significant challenges for some patients may be in-hospital treatments or depression. Though dialysis often starts this way, patients can do their treatments at home, even during the night. So if going to the hospital is too much of a challenge, patients are encouraged to speak with their doctors to investigate the ability of at-home dialysis instead. Depression occurs in up to sixty percent of dialysis patients. The best way of coping with this particular hurdle is for patients to discuss the situation with the doctor leading their healthcare team and how they can go about treating it. The most common solution is to engage in the services of a mental health professional, such as a psychologist or psychiatrist.

Continue reading to learn about diet recommendations patients living on dialysis can expect.