After a week of training, I’m now doing peritoneal dialysis (PD). It’s worthy to note PD is nothing like Hemo Dialysis, which is the one where you have needles and sticking. PD, however does require you to have a tube placed inside you, and this is a surgical procedure.

How it works: It’s basically pretty simple to understand. Basically, I put this liquid in me called the Dialysate, let it “dwell” inside me for a few hours and then drain it out. Yes, it looks just like urine. To quote a friend, it’s like I’m peeing out two holes in my body.

The process of filling and draining takes some time. Actually the filling/draining is not what takes the most time. The entire process of doing an exchange is what takes time. I have to take my vital signs (blood pressure, weight, temp, pulse, etc) before I even start, just to make sure I’m ok. My vitals determine what solution bag I use. There are typically 3 types of solutions, from low sugar content to highest sugar content. This is also geared towards each person as well. Not everyone is the same.

After my vitals, I now have to heat up the bag of dialysate. I don’t need to be putting something too cold inside me, that would cause cramps and well, I don’t need them. So believe it or not, microwaving the bag for about 5 minutes brings the bag up to about body temperature. As long as it’s a dry heat, it’s ok.

After I heat up the bag, it’s important to have all your stuff you need during the exchange. This is a clean procedure, so everything has to be clean, or I will get contaminated. When I get contaminated, it could lead to peritonitis, which is a bad, bad thing.

This entire process takes about 30 minutes for me. I have to do this 4 times a day. I’d like to say it’s very inconvenient, but as you know, the alternative to dialysis is “or death” and well, the or death option is not what I want.

Perhaps for reference purposes, I will bullet this process for those people looking for references. But for now, this is enough.