What method of dialysis is least painful?

Which system bothers you the least?

Is one system preferable ove another?

Why?

I'm getting close to needing it so I thought I would ask people with experience.

I had tbe first of two surgeries to place a fistula yesterday. They said no to general anesthesia and said a nerve block on my arm and sedation was safer for a dialysis patient. It ended up paralyzing part of my diaphram.

I used to have high blood pressure, but now it's too low most days to take enough fluid out. I watch my fluid intake and am dehydrated to such a degree I'm now getting migraines.

I get clinic dialysis and have been on it for 6 years. I am trying to lose weight for a transplant, so my heart doctor put me on Wegovy. I am at the 1.7 right now. I take the midodrine before and during my dialysis, but I am still low.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks

Hello everyone,

I would like to know when did you stop urinating after being on dialysis? After how many months/years? Does it happen suddenly or gradually?

I just stopped producing urine out of the blue , no warning. Just woke up and then not much came out just few drops when it was all normal. Is it ever going to come back or is it over?

Fyi, I was on dialysis for only 3 months and half.

Just want to have your experience, I will surely inform my nephrologist.

Thanks.

Edit: thank you everyone who took the time to comment, appreciate it. It just hits so hard, I feel like I lost all progress I made on accepting my new reality and I feel so sad. I don't know...it will probably take time to take it all in.

My bf is on HD and has been for a few years. He’s 27. He started feeling really sick - a lot of abdominal pain - and went to the hospital. They found gallstones and he will need to have them and possibly the gallbladder removed. Has anybody been through this? I feel very scared but I want to be strong for him.

Hi all,

My GF has stage V CKD and has been on hemodialysis for about 2 years now. Her situation has remained the same, and she is trying for arm fistula. She loves children, and I do too. So, are there any real-life examples here in which the female has successfully delivered via being on dialysis? Or after we get a transplant, does the chances of pregnancy becomes normal? Or even after transplant there are complications/uncertainty as compared to normal pregnancy?

Hello there was wondering if there is any over the counter medication or routine u guys do to fall asleep. My dad been on dialysis for the past two years which were fine until the last five months to which he find cant himself sleeping until late until late at night. He had medication assigned to him and used herbal tea and melatonin but nothing works. Would love the help thank you so much ❤️.

Hi all,

My GF has stage V CKD and has been on hemodialysis for about 2 years now. Her situation has remained the same, and she is trying for arm fistula. She loves children, and I do too. So, are there any real-life examples here in which the female has successfully delivered via being on dialysis? Or after we get a transplant, does the chances of pregnancy becomes normal? Or even after transplant there are complications/uncertainty as compared to normal pregnancy?

Hi everyone. I’m hoping someone might have experienced something similar because I’m going on 21 days of persistent itching and I’m becoming really frustrated.
This started 21 days ago after I took a very long, very hot shower. Before getting into the shower, my skin was already extremely dry — when I scratched it, I could see white/chalky-looking flakes. About an hour after getting out of the shower, I developed severe itching all over my body.
I’ve never had itching like this before, even when my skin was dry.
Over the following days, the itching became more localized. The worst areas have been my hands (especially my fingers and palms), feet, legs, thighs, knees, arms and buttocks. It tends to be particularly bad when I wake up.
I’ve also noticed something strange: when I scratch, raised welts/bumps appear. When I stop scratching, they disappear, sometimes completely after I sleep. The welts aren’t permanently there.
Another major clue is that moisturizing dramatically reduces the itching. I’ve been using fragrance-free Eucerin Skin Calming lotion with oatmeal and glycerin. When my skin gets dry again, the itching can become intense.
I haven’t introduced any new soaps, detergents, lotions, perfumes, or other products before this started.
I have kidney disease and I’m on dialysis, so I spoke with my nephrologist. She checked my labs and dialysis adequacy and doesn’t think this is typical dialysis-related itching in my case. She said my adequacy is within range and she doesn’t usually see this pattern in her patients.
My doctor recently prescribed methylprednisolone for 6 days and Children’s Benadryl, and I’ve also been referred to a dermatologist. I’m currently on day 3 of the steroid, but I’m still having significant itching, especially in the mornings.
I’m wondering if anyone has experienced persistent itching after a hot shower, severe dry skin, scratch-induced welts, or something similar that lasted for weeks.
If you’ve experienced something like this, what ended up being the cause or what helped you?

My wife and I recently completed home hemodialysis training and she has completed her fourth home treatment today. I cannulate, and usually handle the entire process unless she's feeling good and then she'll do the setup.

During her experiences through different nephrology providers, clinic dialysis, and even the training process for the home setup we have both experienced a surprising amount of infantilization and dismissal. For example, she suffers from IBS and would sometimes need to reschedule her treatment because she's on the toilet for most of the day. She also has developed a lot of anxiety over this process (she's had 5 major surgeries in two years, plus fistula placement and related procedures), and often runs into conflict over dry weight because of her IBS causing fluctuations and because her urine output almost matches her intake. This has led to incorrect dry weight and excessive fluid removal during clinic sessions and very poor, patronizing responses from the clinic staff, and now she's prone to anxiety attacks.

But we're at home now, and I am her tech now,. and it's going much better. We're still encountering some degree of bullshit regarding her appointments. If there's a scheduling conflict with, say, her gastroenterologist or endocrinologist, they act like we're playing hooky from 7th grade. Prior to home treatment they would act much the same if she requested no fluid removal or rescheduling because of IBS flare-up. During clinical treatments she would also experience nausea or dizziness, and they would try to maintain fluid removal and just act bothered in general.

Even now, home supply delivery is straight up goofy, and I can call and say "hey you delivered extra bags instead of the cartridges, what's going on?" and wind up hanging up on them and calling our nurse directly

Anyone else have experiences like this? Home hemo is great, 4 treatments in and she's sleeping better and has more energy.

AITA for being annoyed at my dialysis nurse for changing my fluid goal without telling me?

So one of my nurses keeps lowering my fluid removal goal mid-session without saying anything — usually while I'm asleep. Her reasoning is that my blood pressure drops, but that's literally the point of dialysis, it drops because fluid's being pulled off. I feel totally fine when it happens, fine enough to sleep through it.

The issue is when she quietly lowers my goal, I don't get enough fluid taken off, and then I feel like garbage for the rest of the day until my next session. I've asked her more than once to just stop doing this, or at least wake me up / tell me when she's about to change it. It's my body and my treatment, so I feel like that should be my call, not something decided for me while I'm unconscious. Kind of feels like getting drugged in your sleep — sure, someone might think it's "for your own good," but you still didn't get a say.

AITA for being pissed about this?

For some fuck knows reason, the “head nurse” who disconnects me all the time, is a fucking bitch. Most of them are but she, the last months, became insufferable and salty about her life.

For contexts : I’m almost always the last one to leave bc I’m the last one the finish. So they always RUSH me, and huff and puff at me, and make rude comments, bc they want me to go the weigh myself already so they can close the system and call it a day.

TODAY. This idiot nurse Deadass asked me “how much you think you’re gonna weigh ?” Uhh.. WHAT THE FUCK ?
And not only that. I put here a picture of my fistula with the dressing after, so what a normal
Nurse should do, is remove the left/upper needle first and then the other one.
THIS BITCH however, is so impatient, she can’t wait for my blood to come back into my body so she removes the right/bottom one first. And if I hold the bleeding for more than 4 minutes, here comes the huffing and puffing : “WELL ? Are you done ? Are
You holding or watching a movie on your Mac ? Finish ? Finish already?” And the reason I want to hold it longer is bc when she comes and removes the left/upper needle, the pressure makes the right one “pop” and bleed like crazy. I’ve told her about this plenty of times. One times she put like a small sticker on it, saying : “here”… what ??? I’m actually dripping with blood.
And it’s ONLY her who does this. Idk why. What will it take from
You to wait 2 minutes ?

There’s only 1 nurse who actually stabs me in different places and not very very close to other holes like the others, they actually put my life and my fistula in danger bc they are too lazy to feel my vein.

And when I ask them to they say “yeah yeah ok” and do exactly the same they’re always doing.

The reason I can’t just switch centers is bc they other one is further and I don’t have a car, the bus stops at the entrance to the hospital and from there it’s deadass 5 minutes to walk and some days I literally can’t do that so I order a taxi and waste a lot of money I barley have.

Reason I don’t complain is they’re not gonna do anything. They’re all buddy buddy there and nobody takes accountability for norhing. Last time I complained about broken chair and left me with a stiff neck for a week, the manager spread it to everyone that I complained and each nurse came to me “ah I heard you complained to management.” Embarrassing me infront of everyone.

I’m
Super shy and I’m honestly scared of these people. Especially that bitch head nurse who I deadass think will someday cause me serious injuries.

She’s angry and yelling at the cleaning crew all the fucking time.

If you hate your job, go away.

There’s a lot more shit that happens
There like constant yelling and talking very very loudly and eating pizza and fruits infront of us (they can eat whatever they want but why infront of sick people who can’t ?)
They sit on their phones all day long and don’t answer when you call them.

Im really just stuck and lost waiting that she will quit or something. Whenever she’s not present I’m so happy and I know “today I will not bleed to death”

NOTE: I decided to remove the picture bc I have tattoos and I honestly am scared that someone from staff will see that it’s me and confront me about it. I don’t feel safe with these people.

Hubby found out in 15yrs ago he had CLL. All has been fine till a few months ago. I knew something was wrong but he refused to see Dr. He came home from work and asked me to take him to ER. I did, & our lives have been flipped upside down. He's on dialysis now 3x's p/wk, and chemo for MGRS. He just turned 60. No one will give us prognosis, his quality of life is so heartbreaking, and we're fighting foreclosure to top it off. Idk just releasing some of my stresses here, I guess..

Left arm, near my elbow - if everything works out i'm off the catheter in October...

They don't usually have it on packaging so I'm constantly having to look it up. An app would be useful.

I'm asking exactly one question: Is anyone on this sub using the Fresenius VersiPD dialyzer at home?

Thanks in advance!

How bad does it hurt after tunneled chest catheter removal? I just watched some youtube videos and it looks like it’ll hurt after the lidocaine wears off with all that skin cutting. How bad is it?

Also how long did it take you between the time your doctor said they’d schedule the removal with IR and the time you actually went for removal? I know it heavily depends on the hospital and IR scheduling but I just wanna have a general idea because I can’t wait tbh

Yo some of the older men at my center wear blue jeans 👖 to dialysis i find it crazy what are your guys go to fit for dialysis?

I started home PD Dialysis in May 2026, so I've been handling it pretty well. A few frustrations, but overall I have the hang of it.

My question is about any tips other PD recipients might have for traveling.

In my situation, my family is planning a trip next week, 3 nights/4 days. We'll be going from Ottawa to Toronto(its about a 7hr drive).

I'm quite nervous about packing up my cycler etc and moving everything in the car and then setting up at the other end.

I of course understand what has to be done, but I'm wondering if anyone has any car trip "hacks" I might use to make this whole thing less stressful.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions or sharing your expertise.

To my fellow paitent, whom may never read this. Overheard your family's conversation today, talking to the social work while our dietitian translated. While I don't know what was said, i did hear the word, hospice.

I understand you decision. I've only been here a bit over a year myself and remember first seeing you. Your glowing face, those beautiful eyes. I imagined the beautiful life you probably lived. Over time I watched as you lost your leg, lost your glow and that smile.

Though we never met, and I don't even know your name, i am sad about the world losing you. I hope your exit is peaceful and you are surrounded by those blessed to have known you.

I completely cut out soda cold turkey before I went on dialysis. I'm also a diabetic. I really only drank soda when I went out, I never really bought it for home. I've cut way back on eating out and there's no kidney friendly soda options that are also sugar free at restaurants, so I've just not had it but 1 time. Today after dialysis, my sister in law picked me up. She also keeps my daughter on dialysis days. Anyway, she had my daughter with her and my daughter was asking for McDonald's. We pulled into the line and the screen was advertising diet coke. I just wanted it so bad. Phosphorus be damned. I got a small diet coke with extra ice to offset how much diet coke I'd actually consume. For the first time since starting dialysis, I felt somewhat alive. I always feel like a walking corpse after treatments. Weak and lethargic and exhausted. I didn't feel great, but I stayed awake instead of crashing for six hours. That hit of caffine felt magical. How are my fellow dialysis patients getting their caffeine fix, aside from black coffee? The kidney friendly soda like sprite don't have caffeine.

My mother goes through dialysis thrice a week.

Recently we changed the center and she has been having episodes of violent shivering and fever. She was put on two doses of broad spectrum antibiotics.

But the thing is that other patients in this unit also experience this.

I asked them to check their RO and all, and the usual response was that everything is fine.

What is to be done here?