Adjusting to Life on Dialysis

Take Your Medicines, Take Control

People on dialysis often take quite a few medications, and the timing of when they’re taken truly matters. For instance, you may be prescribed phosphate binders to take when you eat, and a renal vitamin to take at a different time. Follow this advice to make maintaining a daily medication routine easier:

Know Your Medicine Cabinet

Medications to avoid include over-the-counter pain pills such as ibuprofen, naproxen and some supplements that have been known to damage kidneys.

Dig into the Dialysis Diet

There are two things to know about the dialysis diet: first, it’s different from the food choices you may already be making, and second, you should try not to make a lot of changes at once. Some people on the dialysis diet start out focusing on what they “can’t” eat. While there are certainly foods and beverages to avoid, remember that following dialysis nutrition guidelines is a way to take control of your health and have a better quality of life. Think of the dialysis diet as an opportunity to try new things. Planning meals and sharing them with your family can be fun and enjoyable.

Prepare Yourself and Your Healthcare Team

One of the most important things you can do to ease your transition to dialysis is to keep everyone on your healthcare team informed. Your primary care doctor, diabetes doctor, cardiologist—they’ll all need to know when you start dialysis, as it may affect your labs, your health goals and the medications they prescribe.