Hey there! I’m Dan and I was diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Failure (CKF) when I was 5 years old – being born with the condition.
I had a Kidney Transplant on 26th May 1994; unfortunately that is now failing so I am on Dialysis since December 2016. Firstly on peritoneal dialysis (both CAPD and then APD and since October 2017, I have been on Haemodialysis (or Hemodialysis for our friends across the pond).
Throughout my illness I have picked up a lot of information and tips on how to cope and ease some of the symptoms.
When I was told that my transplanted kidney was failing, I struggled to find all the information I was looking for in one place and some information was never found.
During Home PD training, the other patients I was with said that they had come to CKF later in life. They said that one day they were OK and the next day they were being told that they had CKF and needed dialysis and a new organ – they all had a “deer in headlights look about them”. To help them, I shared my tips and the Dialysis Nurse joked that I should write a book – I’m not much of a book writer so I thought I’d do a blog – Dialysis Hacks was born!
You might read this a few times but; I am NOT and NEVER have been a medical professional, all my hints and tips should be run passed your Doctor/Nurse/Consultant before using them – especially if it’s about Dialysis treatment. Also, you will not find anything about diets or drugs on this blog, as these are too individual to a person; so should only been dealt with by a medical team.
If you have any tips/hints then I’d love to hear from you or just for general feedback – feedback@dialysishacks.co.uk
Dan D
Important Information
It is important to point out that I am on Home Haemodialysis. Between Dec 2016 and Oct 2018 I was on CAPD/APD and had a Baxter Tube and Baxter Homechoice Pro machine. My prescription was two clear-flex yellow bags plus one extraneal purple.
I now have a B Braun Dialysis machine at home for which I use a HIPS20 dialyiser and SW808 Dialysis fluid. I’m on the machine 6 days a week for 2 hours at a time.
I am in Wales in the UK and my local Dialysis Unit is UHW.
All the products et al I use in my tips; I have used and brought with my own money. I have not received anything free.
I provide true recommendations based on my own experiences.
It goes without saying that you should speak to your Consultant/Doctor/Nurse before you following any of these tips – especially if they are about the actual dialysis treatment.
By continuing to use this site; you are agreeing with the above.
Funding
As I am giving reviews, recommendations, and tips about services and products. I thought it was best that I was fully transparent about how this site is funded.
My main aim with this site to give pass on my tips and recommendations that I have build up over the last 25 years and also to continue to learn new things.
The site costs me about £5.00 per month so in order to get some money in you’ll see that there is an ad on the right hand side of screen or at the bottom if you are using AMP and your mobile/tablet.
Each click on those ads gives me a little bit of money from Google. Once I have reach £5.00 for that month then the ads will be removed.
Also, when you search the site using the Google search bar on the top right (this is not available on the AMP site), some ads will come up in the search results (like normal Google does) and clicking those will generate a little bit of money for me.
Lastly, there is a donation button. If you have enjoyed the site and found it useful then free feel to donate some money. But please also feel free to not donate any money and continue to use this site – I didn’t start this site to make any money!
You can donate here!