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How Does Home Comfort Dialysis Work?
Roughly 37 million Americans suffer from chronic kidney disease (CKD), and nearly 600,000 use dialysis to manage their condition and prevent complications. The dialysis process typically takes a few hours several times a week at a special dialysis center, and even though treatment is absolutely critical for your health, it’s also important to make the experience as comfortable and relaxing as possible.
Chadi Saad, MD, and the team at Nephrocare MD LLC, offer home comfort dialysis designed to make treatment as comfortable, relaxing, and convenient as possible. If you have dialysis treatment, here’s how home comfort — at home or at our site — can help make your experience more relaxing.
Understanding dialysis
Your kidneys’ primary function is to filter your blood, removing impurities, wastes, and excess fluids while balancing the amounts of minerals, salts, and water. After being filtered out, wastes and extra fluids are eliminated via urine.
If you have CKD, your kidneys’ filtering ability is compromised, and extra fluids and wastes build up. Over time, the buildup in your blood and tissues can affect your health in other ways, even becoming life-threatening.
Dialysis uses special techniques to essentially take the place of your kidneys, filtering your blood to remove wastes and excess fluids, then returning the filtered blood to your circulatory system. Dialysis uses an access port created in a vein. The port facilitates the filtering of blood using a special machine (traditional hemodialysis) or using your abdominal lining and catheters, a technique called peritoneal dialysis.
Many people choose to have dialysis performed in special dialysis centers. Depending on your health needs and other factors, you may choose to have dialysis performed at home, as well.
How home comfort dialysis works
Living with any type of chronic disease can be both emotionally and physically stressful, and having CKD is no different. Home comfort dialysis works by providing a home-like experience during on-site dialysis and providing support to those who choose dialysis at home, helping patients feel more relaxed and at ease during their therapy.
Instead of focusing simply on the technology and techniques used in dialysis, home comfort dialysis considers the entire dialysis process and experience. During the first several weeks of therapy, our team educates patients about CKD, the role of dialysis, and their therapy options to ensure every patient makes informed, confident decisions about their care.
Based on your needs and preferences, our team provides an array of support services, including:
- Nutritional counseling
- Access to lab tests
- Care for your dialysis access port
- Insurance and financial guidance
- Information about support groups and resources
And of course, our team members are always on hand to provide emotional support focused on helping you manage long-term care challenges and improve your overall quality of life.
Optimizing dialysis for your comfort
Dialysis plays a central role in managing advanced forms of CKD. To learn more about home comfort dialysis and how we can support you throughout your care and treatment, call 313-960-6605 or book an appointment online with Dr. Saad and the team at Nephrocare MD LLC in Dearborn, Michigan, today.