Mom's Journey

     My Mom has been on hemodialysis since the first week of August. While she was in the hospital a few weeks ago the doctor inserted a catheter in her abdomen with the intention of transitioning to peritoneal dialysis.  Today one of my sister's and I went with her to learn how that it done.  She had 3 sessions today to practice and will go for more training the rest of the week.  She is still uncertain whether she wants to switch.  If she decides to stay with the hemodialysis she will have a permanent fistula inserted in her arm and once it heals the one in her neck, for which there is much more concern because it is so close to her heart, will be removed.  The hemodialysis is done in Terre Haute 3 times per week for 3 1/2 hours per session. We have been told that peritoneal is easier on the system and she would be able to do it at home.  It has to be done 3-5 times per day every day for about 1/2 hour each session.  After a month of the manual dialysis she may then transition to the machine peritoneal dialysis which is done during the night at home while she sleeps.
     As the time to switch became immanent she began to have second thoughts.  The idea of it is overwhelming, I think, for someone who has no medical training, but the lady doing the training today was very encouraging.  She also said she worked in hemodialysis for a long time before doing the peritoneal training and that she would choose 'hands down' to do peritoneal when I asked her which she preferred.
      So if any of you reading this has had any experience with either, pro or con, we would love to hear from you while we are still in the process of making this decision.