First Day at Dialysis Center
You may want to have someone come with you to your first treatment in the dialysis center. This person can help you with listening to information you are given. It may also be good to have someone who can drive you home after treatment, if needed. When you arrive at the dialysis center, you’ll check in at the front desk. You may have some papers to fill out, just as you would with any new medical center you visit.
What to Wear and Bring
You’ll be sitting in a dialysis chair (or bed if you do treatments at night) for a number of hours, so avoid clothes that bind, chafe or pinch. It is also possible that you might get some blood on your clothing. So, don’t wear anything that you wouldn’t want to have stained.
Because your blood goes outside your body, you may feel cold during a treatment. Wear warm socks and dress in layers. Bring a blanket and pillow with you to use if needed. Some people wear a sweatshirt with a hood or bring along a knit hat for extra warmth. You might even want to have mittens with you. Please note that your access must be uncovered at all times so the staff can keep an eye on it.
Steps Before Treatment
Before each treatment, a member of your care team will check your weight, temperature, blood pressure, and pulse, listen to your lungs, and write them down in a treatment log. A technician or nurse will show you how to wash off your access with soap and water and then with a solution to kill germs. The technician will set up your machine and test all of the alarms.
Treatment
Here is what a typical in-center hemodialysis treatment session is like:
- A dialysis technician checks your weight, temperature, blood pressure, and pulse, and writes them down in a treatment log. The nurse may listen to your lungs and do further assessments if indicated based on the technicians or your feedback.
- The technician sets up your dialysis machine, tests alarms, and sets a fluid removal goal for the treatment (this tells the dialysis machine how much water to take out of your blood).
- The technician or nurse will clean off your arm, and put the needles in your access and tape them down.
- The blood pump is turned on. You’ll see the pump turn and slowly pull your blood to the machine. The dialyzer will turn pink.
- The dialysis machine may beep or buzz. It has alarms to protect your safety and alert the care team. The machine will beep if:
- A needle comes loose.
- Your blood pressure changes a lot.
- You bend or kink the blood tubing.
- If an alarm goes off, a nurse or technician comes to check the machine.
- When the timer chimes, your treatment is done.
- The staff uses saline to rinse back your blood, shuts off the machine, and takes out the needles.
- Your blood pressure is taken one more time, and the staff makes sure you can get up without feeling faint or dizzy. Once you’re ready, you can leave.
