Dialyzing alone

There's quite a lot of concern in the home dialysis community about the problems Anna Bennett had to face recently.

She was hemodialyzing by herself at home till now linked to a center in New York. There were some issues with the center and she was asked to move to another center. This new center did not allow people to dialyze alone. They needed to have someone at home to help. Because of this Anna was asked to come in center thrice a week.

Moving to in center thrice a week from daily home hemo is terrible. It takes away not only your freedom but also seriously undermines your well-being.

Many recent studies have decisively proved that daily dialysis is better for the body than thrice a week dialysis. The flexibility of doing it by yourself at home gives you a near normal life apart from the fact that you need to spend those few hours hooked to a machine.

Coming to the question of dialyzing alone. I have been dialyzing alone for the past week. With no help absolutely. Though there are people at home to help in case I need, I strongly believe that the decision whether to dialyze alone or not should be completely the individual's.

The risks involved are far less than those when a person is dialyzing in center. Because the dialysis is slow and more gentle. Are there no risks? Not true. There are risks. But it should be up to the individual to decide whether the risks are worth taking.

The dialysis unit, the state and the company providing the dialysis should not be the ones to decide.

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