Finding an open chair on short notice

[Glassmaker20]

My husband has been on In-center hemodialysis for about 3 years now. About a year ago a family emergency required him to leave town. Finding an open treatment slot in another center turned out to be impossible. He went anyway which meant he missed a session. Since this was across the weekend, he went four days without dialysis. To say he was a wreck after that is an understatement. Does anyone know of a way for patients to swap treatment times? Like, if we knew we'd be out of town during a specific time, our chair would be available so possibly another hemo patient who was coming into town on short notice would already know that chair was open and could secure it?

[WYOAnne NKF Ambassador]

You need to talk to your social worker at your dialysis center regarding any issue with time schedule. You need to work out things with them directly.

[Darlenia]

My husband started with in-center hemodialysis but he has since converted to peritoneal dialysis. We have a big interest in travel and have yet to do so, but have had discussions about this with our DaVita dialysis center. We were told that all out-of-the-area arrangements and appointments are handled by our nurse coordinator. And the process requires advance notice of at least a few weeks. I understand that part of the concern is that dialysis patients are in stable enough condition to travel, have the means to make their way to another dialysis center, that appropriate orders and requirements are transmitted, etc. It would be nice if everything could be taken care of online, but it's not the situation right now. We were told that we could safely, in my husband's case only, miss a session due to long flights, etc. It's an involved process, to be sure, and frustrating to those that need to travel on a moment's notice. Perhaps your dialysis center has a different set of requirements.

[cs65 NKF Ambassador]

Also, does his dialysis center give him info on an emergency diet used for when he may have difficulty getting to a dialysis center? My center provides us with such a diet as well as a medication to take in case of an emergency. I think it helps to block phosphorus. It does help to give as much notice as you can in order to find a chair in another center (ours asks 2 weeks notice).

[Ally_35]

Hi there,

I once went 4 days straight without treatment and my doctor prescribed me a medication to lower potassium and told me to control my diet and especially fluid intake. At the end it worked out but it was scary and after the first dialysis on the 5th day I was pretty tired.

I was told that centers don't like to work with short notice patients and I can understand why. It's not only about having a chair, nurses need to know all sorts of information about the person beforehand so that the treatment goes well. The more notice, the better.

To me this is very frustrating. Sure, travelling as a dialysis patient is definitely possible....but all the planning and "your nurse needs to sign this" and "your doctor needs to okay that" just makes me give up altogether.

I hope your husband is doing okay.

Take care!