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10 ARCHBOLD
MEDICAL CENTER
HOME D I ALYS I S
Treating kidney
disease at home
If your kidney diagnosis is new, you may
feel overwhelmed by the treatment
options available. Learn all you can, and
be active in decisions about your care.
Hemodialysis, a treatment that
replaces the work of your own kidneys
to clear wastes and extra fluid from
your blood, is done using a special filter
called a dialyzer or artificial kidney. Your
blood travels through plastic tubing to
the dialyzer, where it is cleaned and then
returned to you. At the beginning of
each treatment, two needles are placed
into your access. These needles are con-
nected to the plastic tubing that carries
your blood to the dialyzer. Only a small
amount of blood is out of your body
at any one time. The dialysis machine
pumps your blood through the dialysis
system and controls the treatment time,
temperature, fluid removal and pressure.
The basic process is the same for
peritoneal dialysis, except you and a care
partner are trained to do your treatment
at home. Peritoneal dialysis (home dial-
ysis) is a way to remove waste products
from your blood when your kidneys
can no longer do the job adequately.
It’s simple, gentle and effective, and a
convenient alternative to in-center he-
modialysis, which is usually done three
times a week for three to four hours or
longer each session. By choosing home
dialysis, you may be better able to fit
your treatments into your schedule. The
more you know about your treatment
and the more you do on your own, the
better you are likely to do on dialysis.
AS WE GET OLDER,
our kidneys
start to work a little less efficiently. That
happens to all of us.
About 1 in 10 adults in this country,
however, loses kidney function because
of a serious disease that grows worse
over time. Doctors call it chronic kidney
disease (CKD). It slowly damages the
kidneys, keeping them from working
normally and filtering extra fluid and
harmful wastes out of the body.
“Left untreated, CKD can cause kidney
failure, requiring either dialysis or a
kidney transplant,” says W. Merrill Hicks
Jr., MD, Archbold nephrologist. “But early
treatment can help keep the kidneys
healthy and delay kidney failure—or
even prevent it altogether.”
Should you be tested?
Many people
with CKD don’t know they have it until
their kidneys are on the verge of shut-
ting down. That’s because CKD rarely
causes symptoms until it’s advanced.
Dr. Hicks says it’s possible to know
sooner if you get your kidneys checked
with these tests:
•
A blood test that checks your GFR—
short for
glomerular ltration rate
. GFR
is an estimate of your kidney’s filtering
ability.
•
A urine test for albumin—a protein
that can pass into the urine if your kid-
neys are damaged.
“Getting tested is a must if you have a
heightened risk of CKD—for example, if
you have either high blood pressure or
diabetes, the two leading causes of CKD,”
says Dr. Hicks. “You should also be tested if
you have heart disease or a family history
of kidney disease, which also raise risk.”
If testing reveals that you do have CKD,
your doctor will help you take steps to
spare your kidneys any more damage.
The most crucial one is to keep your
blood pressure at the level your doctor
advises.
Two types of blood pressure
medicines—ACE inhibitors and
angiotensin receptor blockers—may
slow CKD. These drugs can help people
with CKD even if they don’t have high
blood pressure.
Be sure to take any medicine your doc-
tor advises exactly as prescribed. Follow
through, too, with any lifestyle changes
your doctor suggests to control your
blood pressure, such as cutting down on
salt or losing weight.
Likewise, if you have diabetes, keeping
your blood sugar in your target range
will help protect your kidneys. And if you
smoke, you’ll help your kidneys if you quit.
W. Merrill Hicks Jr., MD
Nephrology
Archbold Nephrology Group
For more information on home dialysis
programs, call Archbold’s Southwest
Georgia Dialysis Facility at
229.227.5000
.
Finding problems
early can help keep
kidneys from failing.
KIDNEY DISEASE
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