Dialysis

The time has come for Jake to start dialysis. It sucks, but we are grateful that the treatment is available.

A short time ago, we found out that Jake's kidney function had dropped from 17 percent in October to 10 percent the first week of January. A 7 percent drop in three months is not good. And since 15 percent is when they start the dialysis, the doctors wanted to get things moving quickly.

Yesterday, we met with a nurse practitioner who showed Jake his dialysis options. Jake, the nurse and doctors have decided that peritoneal dialysis (PD) is the best choice.

In PD, a catheter is inserted through the wall of the abdomen into the peritoneal cavity. Solution flows in and out of the cavity through the catheter, which must be inserted by a surgeon during an outpatient procedure.

PD cleans the blood and removes extra fluids using the body's own membranes as a filter. The peritoneum, or abdominal cavity, contains the stomach, spleen, liver and intestines.

PD solution is places in the peritoneum. The membrane filters waste and fluids from the blood into the solution. After several hours, the solution is drained from the cavity and is replaced with fresh solution.

It sounds a bit complicated, but it's pretty simple and can be done at home. Jake will be able to keep working, either changing the solution every couple hours or with the use of a machine at night while sleeping. That decision will be made when he actually begins treatment.

We met with the surgeon today, and Jake will have the catheter inserted on Monday. About three weeks after that, they will start dialysis treatments. During those three weeks, nurses will flush his catheter to make sure no bacteria forms, and we will get training on how to administer PD.

Also, Jake is still not on the transplant list. Apparently his paperwork got sent to the wrong department, but it's now been tracked down and he should hear something in the next few days.