I would like to know if if will improve the quality of my life or make it worse since I am 93 and also have CHF and low platelet count and receive injections every other week to increase the count. I have lost weight and am very tired.
Thank you for your response!
Petluv, this is a difficult situation. Since I'm not a medical person I can't tell you whether you'd feel better on dialysis or not. But I can share what I've decided to do for myself.
I've decided that I'll try dialysis. I don't know that any of us will know how we'll feel and function on dialysis until we try it.
If I'm not feeling and functioning better on dialysis I'll work with my treatment team to try to resolve the problem. That could involve tweeking my treatment protocol or trying a different form of dialysis.
Once I'm convinced I've given dialysis a reasonable try but find that I'm still not feeling or functioning reasonably well, I'll discontinue treatment.
For me this will always be about overall quality of life. I'm the last person alive in my immediate family. While I cherish life, with no family left there is really no reason for me to prolong life when I'm neither feeling nor functioning well.
My mother battled cancer. We thought she had beaten it but within a few months of thinking it was gone, they discovered more cancer. I'll never forget how sure she was as she wrote her definition for quality of life on the DNR paperwork at the hospital. She showed me what she had written and then asked if I was okey with it.
I remember responding that that really wasn't the question. I then said the question was whether she was okey with what she had written. She nodded her head affirmatively while blinking back a few tears. I then said that I would support her decision and be there for her.
Her final comment to me about the DNR was that what she had just been theough for 14 months with the cancer treatments was "no way to live." So, when my renal failure treatment plan reaches a point where my life has become "no way to live," I, too, will discontinue treatment.
I don't know that any of this will be at all helpful for you. Please know you're in my thoughts and prayers.
Marj
Thank you for your response. I also believe it is quality of life NOT how long you live if you are so sick that you can no longer care for yourself or in a lot of pain it is time to say enough! I also have seen too many people suffer from cancer and the outcome was still the same and it was the family that had to watch their loved one suffer.
My heart goes out to you!
Dear Petluv, the reason you lost weight maybe the machine took a lot of fluid you had cumulatived over the time, sorry that you feel so tired........hope the EPO shot, the red blood growing shot that we all used will make you feel better. will pray for you. I appreciate your courage for doing this. One guy in our apt, He couldn't do dialysis though it's time to do it, because his body won't stop bleeding, so he never able to get a fistula or catheter, he passed up just recently.
Prepare for dialysis.
Starting peritoneal dialysis!!
Problem with staff at dialysis center
First day of dialysis
Update! (Cancer, dialysis & bypass)
