The Importance of an In-Home Dialysis Partner - Sharon's Story

Sharon: Having the dialysis partner is very important. It’s something that you cannot do on your own. My dialysis partner is my husband and he plays a big role in it because he is one who hooks me up to the machine after I cannulate my arm. Cannulate means to stick your arm. So, I cannulate myself and then he hands me the tubes. He runs the blood pump. So, he has to make sure that he does the right increments of numbers.

Interestingly enough, my husband is illiterate and he doesn’t know numbers but he knows how to count. And so, he does them in five increments at a time and he does very well. Your partner must stay with you because there could be an emergency. We don’t know, so they must be close and stay with you. Every half hour, he presses a button on the face of the machine. That gives us some data that we need to write down on a flow sheet. And so, they’re very important. They’re very important to be there with you. They’re very important to help you set up and to take down.