Kidney Patient Guide

Hello everyone, I have a bit of a question I want to ask you all so I'll start at the beginning. I'm 27 yo, UK citizen living abroad for work and in 2013 I was diagnosed with KD. I was put on APD May 2014 and have been waiting a year on France's transplant list. Eventually I would like to move back ...

When I was diagnosed in Sept 2013 with stage 4, I was told to eat less proteins which would prolong my kidney function. It gave me another 7 months before I went on dialysis. Be careful about removing salt completely. With my disease, I lose a lot of salt and I'm constantly dehydrated/cramps. No one...

I did manual dialysis for a month and then switched over to the APD. I was told doing the manual is easier on your stomach because you can control the drainage and injection better (the machine will keep searching for fluid even if there's none there which can be painful). It gives your stomach time...

Don't worry Jimmy. Your family and friends won't have distanced themselves I'm sure. It'll be more of an uncertainty of what to say to you, not sure what to do etc. But everything is going to be fine. The only thing that will really change is having to do dialysis, but your life will still go on and...

I have this problem at lot haha!! I constantly have to pee during the night!!! On APD, you pause the programme using the big red button on the front of your machine, disconnect, go to the toilet and then reconnect and restart the programme. It's best to pause it during the rest period (APD is in cyc...

Hello, 27 year old APD patient here. I thought I'd add my views. I totally agree with Sue. I had the operation in May 2014 (diagnosed Sept 2013, stubbornly struggled until April 2014 when I had my first symptoms lol youth eh?) and sure, in the beginning I was a bit freaked out and self conscious. I ...

Yeah that's very true Dotty!
My tube has finally healed properly and so I can start having showers without plasters! I'm very excited to have one

Just an update. Things are a lot better with the area now. I'm back to wearing dressings because I pulled the tube out a bit so had to get that fixed and its not quite healed yet. But the mepore dressings are definitely the best. I also go with the tube in my pants look. Always a bit awkward if it f...

APD patient in Marseille here. When I travel my dialysis centre organises the delivery of materials to wherever I go I just take my machine with me Are you a hemo patient??. It could be down to blood. For example I can't donate blood here because I lived in UK during the mad cow disease episode. For...

You got some really good advice from everyone but I just wanted to add that I've been doing APD since May this year and it hasn't stopped me. I'm still pole dancing and doing yoga and skiing etc etc. You just have to listen to how you feel, if you feel capable to do something etc. Do what's best for...

My doctor gave me new dressings. He said I could be allergic to the mepore dressings. I said I would give them ago because they are waterproof dressings so I could shower with them directly but I'm still itchy. Might have to see about a antihistamine if it is an allergic reaction. I envy you guys be...

Hi everyone, My pain is definitely getting better I think. At my last consultation, I asked about it and they didn't seem too worried at all. I was told only use my laxatives if I haven't gone to the bathroom in 2-3 days. Going once a day should be fine. Anyway, we had to change my programme a littl...

Just to add, I'm doing all this in France so practises may be different between the 2 countries anyway. Oh no I'm not allowed to get it wet at all. Just after the operation I spent 24 days sink-washing myself before they would even give me hydrofilms to shower!! That shower was probably the highligh...

I'm using medipore dressings like you. It's just under the sticky parts really that are itchy. It's prob just sweat rashes. It's hard for that part of the skin to breathe as it's either under these dressings or its got hydrofilms on them when I'm showering. I try to give it a good clean during my dr...

Hi everyone, Just a quick question for the PD patients: How do you guys secure your tube? Do you all leave them hanging or tucked into your pocket? At the moment I'm still using plasters to cover the exit site and I use another large plaster as a makeshift pouch to hold the end of the tube by cuttin...