Traveling the Unites States is still quite the possibility with dialysis, your facility will be able to help plan and route your travel so you can have your treatments while you travel. Here is an explanation of what your kidneys do, and what kidney dialysis does to show you that even with dialysis it is very possible for you to travel still. Functions of a kidney consist of filtering out the toxins, salt, and excess fluids from your blood. If the function of your kidneys are not in a healthy state you can start a build up of toxins in your body, your blood pressure can rise, and excess fluids will not be taken out of your body, which will lead to swelling, that is called edema.
Kidney Dialysis is a treatment that utilizes a machine to filter out salt, harmful waste, and excess fluid from your blood, just as a kidney would. This treatment restores blood to normal, replacing many of the kidneys important functions. There are a few different types of kidney dialysis such as: Hemodialysis, and Peritoneal dialysis. Explaning hemodialysis first for an idea of how it would work to put it into a perspective on how a nurse would take care of a patient in a non-emergency transport. During hemodialysis, you will be connected to a dialysis machine that takes over the kidneys’ function, filtering your blood. Before the first session, your doctor will create an entrance into one of your blood vessels that will be used so your body can be reconnected to the dialysis machine during each visit, this is called a vascular access. It is a place on your body where blood can be removed and then returned the clean filtered blood. The dialyzer also retains the proper balance of minerals such as sodium and potassium.
However Peritoneal Dialysis is quite a different process compared to hemodialysis. For starters peritoneal dialysis cleans the blood using the lining of your abdominal area as a filter. This method allows your blood to be cleaned while perform your everyday activities such as: working, sleeping, or moving around. Before your first peritoneal dialysis session, you will undergo a surgery so that your doctor can create easy access into your abdominal area. The surgeon will make a small surgical cut, generally on the side of your belly button. Then a catheter is inserted through this access point into the area surrounding the stomach and nearby organs. This is called the peritoneal cavity. There are three steps to the peritoneal dialysis, fill, dwell, and drain. The dwell stage is the most engaging in the treatment as waste products and extra fluid in your blood pass through the thin tissue lining called the peritoneal cavity they are pulled into the dialysis solution. The duration that the dialysis is in you is called the dwell time, which can last up to four to six hours. This pertains to non-emergency transportation because it shows that traveling with dialysis treatment is not nearly impossible and very doable as most non-emergency transporters are equip with the needed tools to provide for such patients. The most probable users of a medical transportation service however, are people who routinely have no one to drive them in more serious situations.