SmarmyArmy

I work in the dialysis field. If you have any questions about how dialysis or the machinery works, please let me know. I hope you find a donor and are able to get transplanted soon! Good luck to you.

You are welcome. There is a long list of toxins that can be removed from the blood via dialysis, but the most common are excess water, urea, potassium, calcium, sodium, magnesium, serum blood sugar, and creatinine. There are a lot of other things too, but those are the biggies. It's all about trying to normalize the amount of these and other substances in your body.

Good question! It's all about diffusion. You need a certain amount of potassium in your blood to survive. Potassium is one of the compounds that can be removed through the diaylzer. So what they are trying to do during your treatment, is get your blood potassium level to a normal level. It is very common for dialysis patients to have high potassium levels, sometimes dangerously so. There needs to be some potassium in your dialysate, because if there was none, the treatment would remove too much of the potassium in your blood. That is a bad thing and would make you really sick. So it's all about balancing your blood potassium levels. Hope this makes sense! And yes, there are a ton of different potassium/calcium formulations. You said you are on a 2 potassium, which is very normal.

Best of luck to you! Hope you get a donor soon. I work in the field, taking care of the hemo machines and water treatment stuff. I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have about how everything works in the clinic. How many transplant lists are you on?