Diet Change and In-Home Kidney Dialysis - Sharon's Story

Sharon: Doing kidney dialysis at home also affects your diet. When you are in-center, your diet is very restricted. You can only have 48 fluid ounces of any kind of fluid; that would include pudding or Jell-O, anything that can be made liquid. You only can have 48 ounces during a day because your kidneys are not functioning anymore. You are holding onto toxins and your body is holding onto water. So, there are things that you have to be very careful of.

However, you must still be careful at home, but you have much more liberty. You can have a little more because you are dialyzing more often. One thing that we have is we eat a lot of is ice and that helps with not taking in too much water, but still it remains that you are able to have a little more than you would if you are on in-center dialysis.

Is Exercise An Important Element Of Your Kidney Disease Treatment?

Sharon: Well, it’s important. One of the things that help is that you release some of that water that’s in your body by perspiring. The exercise in itself makes you energized afterwards and so, you can’t go wrong when you exercise and it’s important to exercise when you are on a treatment like this.