Kidney Essay

Aspects of the Kidney

People spend hours going to dialysis, doctor offices, and making sure all medications are took. “Coping with kidney failure is not just about managing the physical symptoms with treatment. It’s a major life change that can cause a great deal of stress and can give rise to a range of emotional reactions.” Different people react in various ways. Theres a pattern to the way that most people react. Some examples of emotional reactions are depression, stress, anxiety, and sexual problems. People may feel miserable because they are having difficulty coming to terms with some of the changes their conditions are striking against them. All human beings find change stressful. As a person with kidney failure they will have to handle more change than most people. It’s not just the change of their lifestyle, but the ongoing change dealing with adjustments of their diets, medications, and forms of treatment. There are plenty of ways kidney failures people can deal with stress such as, talking to someone who understands, doing fun activities, relaxing, or even taking short breaks. “Specific anxieties that renal patients may have are worries about how the illness will affect their relationship, their ability to work, their quality of life, and about understanding their conditions or managing their treatment.” Reasons for sexual problems include hormonal problems, medication, tiredness, emotional factors, and relationship difficulties.When on dialysis you will need to choose foods that give you the right amount of protein, calories, and minerals. When eating that it will help you stay healthy and fit and it also help your kidney disease from getting worse. There are five stages of kidney disease; their doctor determines thei...

... middle of paper ...

...patient without help. Most common problems with peritoneal dialysis is peritonitis, a serious abdominal infection. This happens if the opening where the catheter enters the body and becomes infected or if contamination occurs as the catheter is attached or not attached from the bags. A peritoneal dialysis diet is a little different from an in center hemodialysis diet. People need to still limit salt and liquids, but may be able to have more of each compared with hemodialysis, must eat additional protein, may need to eat high-potassium foods, and may need to cut back on the number of calories they eat because there are calories in the dialysis fluids that may cause them to gain weight. Hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis are treatments that help change the work the kidneys did. These treatments help them feel good and live longer, but they don't cure kidney failure.