Chronological Dialysis Activities and eGFR

I sense that one of the many bothersome attributes of being associated with dialysis is the timing and sequencing of events leading up to the actual event. It is much like an avalanche; once set in motion it adapts a will of its own. In this blog, I relate the events that preceded and included my journey from chronic kidney failure to being a card-carrying peritoneal dialysis member.

I am going to start off by relating my eGFR readings by date preceding my decision to request dialysis. In the table below, I present the date and corresponding eGFR calculation. As you can see from the table, roughly two years prior to requesting dialysis my eGFR was in the 14-15 range. Just prior to requesting dialysis, it was 7. So for me, I went two years between an eGFR of 15 to dialysis.

Let’s now turn to the events leading up to my actual dialysis. From the table below, note I started Hemo on Saturday, August 20, 2022, followed by Peritoneal Dialysis at home on 9/30/2022.

A comment on timing based on the above table. Given that my eGFR was slowly decreasing, I took the time to research what PD was all about and watched numerous YouTube videos on the mechanics of using the Liberty Cycler for dialysis. Going into training I was already up to speed on most of the mechanics, techniques, and sanitary requirements. My wife and I purchased the home we currently live in with the foresight that I would be requiring dialysis, and knew from research that vast amounts of dialysis fungibles would be required. We had our master bedroom outfitted and ready for dialysis prior. The home we purchased provides the required storage. Lastly, I successfully completed the training in just four days. This is because of our research prior to dialysis and also because I am a Purdue University-trained engineer used to dealing with “systems.” Dialysis is a system. Fresenius allocates two weeks for training and it is not without precedent to take longer.

I consider myself fortunate to be in the care of nephrologist Dr. T. Turner and the Fresenius Dialysis Team. It is obvious that you really really have to have your ducks in a line to accomplish an aggressive timeline such as I just presented. But I am living proof if you have the opportunity to plan ahead and anticipate it can be done.