Health

How to Get Ready for Your Home Dialysis

Published

2 years ago

November 17, 2021

If you are diagnosed with end-stage kidney failure, dialysis becomes a suitable treatment option to manage the condition. It is an ongoing treatment that involves the use of a machine that performs the kidney’s functions. In addition, the therapy offers an opportunity where you can complete your treatment at home for your convenience. If the option is for you, Cypress home dialysis specialists at Houston Kidney Specialists Center can help you understand how the treatment works and what you can expect. Additionally, you will need to make preparations as the treatment will interfere with your daily life, as outlined herein.

Note That You Will Receive Training

Home dialysis means that you are going to do most of the work yourself. But keep in mind that you will wait for about two weeks for the catheter site to heal before you begin your dialysis. Your provider will train you during this period or after the area has cured on how to connect and disconnect, prepare the dialysis bags and machinery, dispose of the fluid, and when to seek medical attention.

Pay Attention to the Amount of Fluids You Take

Your doctor may restrict your fluid intake before you begin your dialysis. Therefore, ensure that you keep track of the amount of fluids you consume to maintain a fluid restriction diet. If you have individual needs concerning particular drinks, it would be best to discuss them with your doctor during your dialysis consultation.

Eat Healthily

Before you start your dialysis, you will need to adopt a healthy diet routine. You can reduce your salt and carbohydrate intake to minimize the number of wastes necessary to be eliminated through the treatment. Ensure that you eat a balanced diet, including fruits, vegetables, and meat. Additionally, talk to your doctor about the specific diet you might be required to follow based on your condition.

Manage Your Blood Pressure

Dialysis relies on your blood circulation. Therefore, blood pressure can have adverse effects on your immunity affecting the treatment and can cause more severe complications. Therefore, ensure that your blood pressure is checked and you take the necessary precautions. You can manage your blood pressure through diet, exercises, or medications before you begin your dialysis. Although your kidney has failed, high blood pressure affects the amount of oxygen delivered into them and other organs, which can trigger heart disease and impact your sight.

Stop Smoking

Smoking is generally harmful to your health and can affect your kidney failure treatment. Your body becomes stressed in fighting the damage and inflammation caused by the chemicals in cigarettes. Nicotine causes constriction of your blood vessels affecting the oxygen and nutrients levels available to the cells. Additionally, tar and other chemicals affect your immune system making it less effective in fighting infections.

Get Plenty of Sleep Every Night

Note that dialysis works best with sleep as your body effectively removes waste products when you are well-rested. Therefore, it would help to develop a healthy sleeping habit before you start your dialysis. You should sleep for eight hours each night to support waste removal from your body and brain. This should continue even when you start dialysis, and you should let your doctor know if you experience trouble sleeping.

Reach out to Houston Kidney Specialists Center to understand more about home dialysis and know what you can expect. Your provider will help you get ready for the treatment.

Health

What Interferes with Successful Breastfeeding?

Published

2 weeks ago

September 5, 2023

Michelle Langton

While breastfeeding is ideal, it comes with many difficulties new parents might face.

After experiencing the intensity of labor and delivery, many new parents are left exhausted. Despite this fatigue and surviving pospartum, new parents soon learn the importance of managing the needs of an infant. Putting aside their own desires, parents learn to quickly adapt.

Exhaustion and recovery are not the only things that discourage parents from breastfeeding. There are a variety of other woes that can make it difficult for a lactating parent to continue to choose this option.

While 83 percent of women breastfeed at the beginning of postpartum, there is a drastic reduction by 6 months, resulting in only 56% of babies still being breastfed.

Engorged Breasts

When a lactating woman’s milk comes in, she may experience intense pain and discomfort. The breasts typically become overly filled with milk because they have not yet regulated their supply. This engorgement can continue throughout the breastfeeding journey for a variety of reasons.

If the baby’s schedule changes, a woman’s breasts can become overly full. If the parent misses a feeding, breasts can experience discomfor which can lead to breastfeeding infection. If a woman becomes preoccupied at work and does not make time to pump, she can experience discomfort.

If breast engorgement is not treated properly, milk ducts can become blocked, and if a woman does not work to move the milk through her breasts (via feeding her baby, pumping, or expressing the milk), this engorgement can lead to further problems and may cause clogged milk ducts.

Infection

One of the biggest concerns beyond the pain a woman experiences with engorgement is infection. This is known as mastitis, and leads to a woman experiencing not only breast pain and warm breast tissue, but also flu-like symptoms that come with fever, chills, headache, and further exhaustion.

In order to help prevent infection, regular feedings are essential. Often, the best mastitis treatment, at least for early symptoms, is to massage the breast in a warm shower and express the extra milk.

Furthermore, by working with an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC), parents can have a great resource on how to best deal with, treat, and alleviate these problems.

Not only is an IBCLC a great resource in helping prevent breast infection, but a great source for your breastfeeding journey to encourage and educate you in best practices.

The best way to achieve breastfeeding success is to utilize the many tools that an IBCLC offers.

Burnout

To exclusively breastfeed your baby can be quite overwhelming and exhausting. Between nightly feedings, cluster feedings, and pumping sessions for working mothers, breastfeeding is difficult to maintain. Unless a woman is properly supported by her family, friends, and workplace, the chances that a woman will continue to breastfeed are significantly impacted.

Culture also impacts the likelihood of a baby being breastfed beyond 6 months. The CDC discovered that parents in the Southeast United States are less likely to breastfeed their children past six months. This was in contrast to the Northwest, where business policies and the culture is more breastfeeding-friendly and supportive.

Conclusion

Despite the nutritional benefits afforded to a breastfed baby, there are many obstacles that can be discouraging for parents on their breastfeeding journey. From exhaustion to pain to lack of supoort, parents have many reasons to give up.

To increase your chances of success, surround yourself with supportive individuals, reach out to an IBCLC, also known as lactation consultants, and gain the necessary tools required to provide your child with the healthiest option available – you!