Time for each dialysis treatment

Time is the part of HD that you have the most control over. Your doctor will prescribe a treatment time—and you can make sure that you get every minute of treatment that is coming to you. Why does every minute count? Because there are 168 hours in a week and you may only have about 12 hours of dialysis—about 7% as much as healthy kidneys. If you miss just 2 minutes of each treatment, it adds up to more than 5 hours of dialysis missed per year.

How can you be sure to get all of your HD time? Here are some ways:

• Be on time for my treatments
• Avoid large water gains that can lead to painful cramping that makes me stop a treatment early
• Stay until the end of every treatment
• Ask for help if I get restless toward the end of treatment
• Be sure I get to make up minutes lost to machine alarms, broken machines, or bathroom trips
• Ask for longer treatments so my water removal can be more gentle, and more wastes will be removed
• Change to daily or nocturnal home HD to get much more dialysis
• Don't let my time be cut short if my treatment starts late, the staff wants to leave, or it's a holiday

We'll include this list for your Personal Plan at the end of the module.