Hello there,
I am in search of better ways to manage my CKD. Doing peritoneal dialysis three time a week at nighttime. How do you keep up with your demands and schedule?
What do you find works the best for you while struggling with ESRD?
Anyone loves to journal this stage of our lives?
Your post is a little vague...do you still work?? If so what is your schedule at work. You have to build your dialysis schedule around your work schedule (or other main activities). I work 7-4 Monday-Friday, and I do PD six nights a week for 8.5 hours each night. So Sunday-Thursday my schedule looks like this: 4am up, disconnect and breakdown the machine, shower, breakfast, walk my dog, work, set up the machine, fix dinner, dog, miscellaneous chores, at 7pm I’m connected to the machine and around 9pm I go to bed. Repeat. Yes, it does take a bit of strategy, but I couldn’t stand HD. Friday and Saturday, since I don’t have to be up at a certain time, I can connect later.
Do you use a planner to help stay on track?
How are your energy levels?
No, I do not work but take care of alot of things during the day. Dialysis at nighttime do not allow me to sleep well thus my days are groggy. Thanks for your response!
The only thing I keep track of is doctors appointments. No I don’t use a planner per se, but everything goes into my iPhone if it’s something out of my normal routine
Hi mhawk123,
I have a lot of trouble sleeping as well when I have fluid inside. Right now I work from home, so that helps a lot in saving me commute time (and from looking tired in front of coworkers). I am hoping that sleep part will get better over time as I experiment with different ways of sleeping. I currently do my exchanges from ~6pm to ~8am. In the evening, I set a lot of timers on my phone to reminder me when to do what. I do find that my life is much more on a schedule now to fit everything in. Also, sleep deprivation makes it hard to remember what I have to do, I write a lot of things down. If I have certain events in evening, I would plan a day or two before, to see how I can fit exchanges at other times to accommodate the event.
Thank you for your reply and I hope the sleep gets better for the both of us. I find myself up at night journaling to keep my focus good.
Hi 3Kidneys,
I thought PD is everyday. How come you can do only 6 days? I would love a day off.
I still have good urine output, it’s just my kidneys don’t filter like they should. I did it nightly for three years and suffered with excruciating leg cramps (associated from pulling off to much fluid). So we decided to try 6 nights a week and now I don’t have leg cramps. It’s unusual to be able to do this in PD but I’m grateful for a night off,
Hi 3 kidneys
Can you tell me what was your typical BF, LUNCH , DINNER
I am not yet on Dialysis.
Thanks for sharing
Breakfast is usually a cup of coffee, a bowl of oatmeal, occasionally a slice of toast. Lunch is usually tuna or chicken and some fruit, Dinner is usually chicken, fish, or pork; occasionally a piece of beef - and either a salad or some vegetables, and a fruit cup. My protein intake is high, because you loose protein during dialysis. Occasionally dinner it’s nothing more than a bag of popcorn. Since my husband passed I don’t eat quite as well as I should. Cooking for one is very hard.
I did PD 7 days a week for 10 hours a night. 3 kids and a job. My suggestion is to, order extra lines. I could reach my living room kitchen and bathroom with my machine in my bedroom. Also talk to your PD nurse about ordering supplies to come on and off your machine between cycles. (IE: extra end caps and line caps). My average dwelling was for an hour. So I could start my treatments early in the evening and do a few treatments before I would go to bed, helping me to get off the machine earlier in the mornings. Good luck
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