New beginnings

[Lalay40]

Hello everyone. After my post 2 months ago, my husband was admitted again pneumonia. This time, he was advised to undergo weekly dialysis as his creatinine level increased to11.2.Since then, we have been travelling twice weekly for his dialysis sessions in the city as we live in an island.Life is a struggle but there is no other choice but to keep going. He is doing quite well though, he suffers from anemia despite erythropoietin injections on a weekly basis. Any advise on what to do with his frequent episodes of anemia? We are waiting for the result of his peripheral blood smear.

[Bassetmommer NKF Ambassador]

HI Lalay,

When he is tired, let him rest. Talk to his doctor about anything else to take to help support the anemia. It takes a while for the body to adjust to the new changes with the dialysis.

Have you ever looked into home dialysis or peritoneal dialysis? I am not sure where you are or what is available. Here is a link with more information.

kidney.org/atoz/content/hom...

[Lalay40 in reply to Bassetmommer]

Hi. My husband had two bags of blood transfused last week as his hemoglobin went down to 6.1. Home dialysis is not available in the Philippines so we nees to travel to the city twice in a week. What I find confusing is that he does have erythropoeitin injections biweekly along with iron supplements but still his hemoglobin went down. Do you think it has something to do with the heparin used during dialysis?

[LorrieC]

Research the antibiotics he is taking for pneumonia. I swear my GFR dropped from 59 to 40 from the IV antibiotics I took during my hospital stay with bacterial pneumonia.

[KidneyCoach NKF Ambassador]

The anemia will be chronic as long as his kidneys aren't working. The kidneys produce a hormone telling the bone marrow to make red blood cells. So naturally the injections help but will likely be needed as a lifestyle change due to kidney failure. I've been doing dialysis for over 17 years and needed those injections consistently the entire time. Check out kidneyschool.org for more info etc. Blessings