I see a couple of people have joined who have been diagnosed with cancer of the kidney. My hubby has lost both kidneys to cancer, the first in 2000 and the second in 2019. He never had kidney disease, just the cancer. If this helps reassure any of you, I’ll be happy!
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Hello @Purpledaze ,
As I’m heading that way I’d luv to know how your hubby is getting on with dialysis & the impact of this (I’m only 54 & in full time work until that happens). It’s all just assumption on what this looks like until it happens and the unknown is what makes it so scary .
I’ve been given no dietary advice with my current 1 cancer-ridden kidney - apparently there isn’t any ! I’m a veg lover - what type of diet does dialysis need?
Many thanks & best wishes to your husband.
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Hi KS
Dialysis was a complete mystery to us until hubby lost his second kidney so it was a steep learning curve for us! We were given dietary advice at the beginning of our journey. We have to be careful about foods containing high potassium, phosphate and sodium. We were advised that all veg should be peeled, especially potatoes. We no longer need to steep the potatoes for hours before cooking though (hallelujah!). Sweet potatoes are forbidden, as is star fruit. The hardest thing to manage at first was the one litre of fluid a day. Soups and sauces count towards the total and rice/pasta absorb water in cooking too. Hubby is allowed one small cup of coffee per day, so he really enjoys his first cuppa and drinks tea for the rest of the day. I’m sure I have the print-outs we were given so I’ll see if I can find them for you.
Dialysis itself is generally no problem once you get to know the regime. I’m assuming, perhaps wrongly, that you will be on haemodialysis (I have no knowledge of peritoneal dialysis). Hubby had a permcath (?) at first, which had to be kept dry - a lot of cling film was involved when he took a shower! He coped well with that, though. Now he has a fistula in his arm and is quite the expert at putting in his own needles for dialysis. He started off on 4x4 hour sessions per week, then moved on to 3x5 hours sessions. We’re back to 4x4 now, which is slightly more restrictive for taking short break holidays. The beauty of home dialysis is that he can tweak the sessions a bit to suit our plans, whereas hospital dialysis is at set times.
That’s a start on info for you. If you have any other questions I can answer from our experiences! I hope you will be given some guidance at some point, but the kidney UK website is useful too. I wish you well on your dialysis journey.
Maureen
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