Do Yourself a Big Favor and Control Your Phosphorus. Phosphorus is not removed by dialysis well. The phosphorus control in your body comes from the food you eat and drink. We measure the phosphorus in your blood and the level should be less than 5.5. If your phosphorus is higher than this, you should be […]

A lot of dialysis patients have diabetes. If you do not have diabetes then you can skip this letter. Diabetic kidney disease is often the reason that a person needs dialysis. Once you are on dialysis, diabetes can still damage other parts of your body. You need to keep your diabetes well controlled to protect […]

You may have noticed that there is a temperature dial on the dialysis machine. I want you to understand what this is for. Dialysis Temperature Reasons Many patients want us to increase the temperature if they feel cold. While this helps you feel warmer, this is not safe. Using a cooler temperature helps prevent heart […]

This week’s letter is about the importance of taking the medications your doctor orders for you. Why is this medication important? Patients who take all the pills that their doctor orders are healthier, hospitalized less and live longer. Not taking pills as ordered can make you feel iller, spend more time in the hospital and […]

One of my recent letters talked about options to in-center hemodialysis lasting about 4 hours. This message is for those of you continuing on this type of dialysis. I want to discuss the amount of time that you spend on dialysis. Proper Hemodialysis Time Length We know that a minimum of 4 hours of on […]

I am writing this Medical Director Letter to talk about the type of dialysis options that patients have to try to improve their health. First of all, what do I mean when I say “to improve your health”? This can mean to generally feel better. This can mean to be able to go back to […]

It is important to avoid excess weight gain between treatments. Gaining and retaining too much fluid increases your chances of dying, chances of being hospitalized and makes it more likely you will develop heart problems.  Also gaining too much may make you either feel sick before dialysis or feel more washed out after dialysis. I […]

We want to educate all of our dialysis patients about important items that help determine how healthy they will be.  I particularly want to stress things that patients can do that either can make the patient healthier or less healthy. This includes actions that:  1) increase or decrease the chance that you will die over […]