u/DrunkDiaries

My dad (63/M/Type 2 Diabetes/Hypertension) had to be put on HD since February this year. They first diagnosed his condition as AKI on CKD because he had pneumonia. Eventually doctor suggested HD twice a week as his CKD was at Stage 5 (Creatinine 9 / eGFR 9)

He has been on dialysis since. We’ve been struggling a lot as he kept on having fevers. First, doctors said that fever was because of the catheter on his neck (jugular vein), but even after the catheter was removed, the fever came back. This time the doctor said it was viral. Basically, ever since February he gets very high fever every 15 days.

During his last dialysis session, he got severe chills and a very high fever (104F). They gave antihistamine and paracetamol immediately and stopped the dialysis. It was a terrible scare for us, especially because he had been fever-free for over 10 days before the session. Turns out, multiple patients had shown similar symptoms on the same day at the dialysis unit.

They investigated and it seems that the machine that cleans the used dialyzers had some technical issue. All the patients who displayed these symptoms were the ones who reused dialyzers like my father. We’ve now decided not to reuse dialyzers. We were not fully aware of the consequences of reusing dialyzer, and no one really counselled us to not reuse them.

I want to know other perspective and real life experience on this. Thank you.

TL:DR: My Dad on HD twice a week had a severe reaction during dialysis. The unit said it was because of dialyzer reuse. We are planning to discontinue reuse of dialyzer. Anyone had similar/differing experience on this? Please share.

My father fell sick in January this year. He had to be hospitalised for over a month and is now under life-sustaining medical treatment. My family and I are still in shock about it. Seeing him lose his spark (weight loss, disinterest in activities, extra sleeping) is heart breaking. The anticipatory grief and shock is nerve wracking.

Then comes my sister, who is going through serious marital problems. She is a bully who is insecure, rude, and incredibly jealous of everyone and everything. Even before her marriage she somehow found herself in constant conflicts with my parents who genuinely very unproblematic, especially in the Indian context. We knew that because of her attitude, she would have issues in her marriage but things have crossed all boundaries. She and her husband have both been physically abusive towards each other and she and her in-laws have utter contempt towards each other. We are now in a situation where they might have to separate/divorce just to be able to live peacefully.

And then, I’m having relationship problems. My boyfriend and I are constantly fighting. I feel like he is not there for me when I need him badly and he feels like he is doing his best. We are also not able to plan our future together as he wants to move to the US ASAP but I can’t really plan it because of my Dad’s health. Things have become very tense.

Given all of this stress, I feel like I’m falling apart. During times of extreme distress, I hurt myself. I know it’s wrong but I can’t seem to help it. I’m scared I will lose myself to the stress and tension before long. I’ve had depression before so I understand what it takes to deal with it, but given the circumstances around me, I feel helpless. The Universe is trying to get me and I’m afraid it will succeed. What do I do? I feel like I can’t really talk to people around me so posting here to learn anything I can to find strength.