kate26444

After a year of kidney dialysis, my Dad has made up his mind of quit dialysis. He is 78 years old, diabetic, heart disease, etc. poor health, and when he started dialysis had 15% kidney function.

We' ve done research to see what will happen when he stops and it's really frightening. He could die within 2 days to 2 weeks. He doesn't care...he says he's ready to die. The dialysis is so horrible he can't go through it for very much longer. We have convinced him to keep up with dialysis until after surgery...he's having a toe removed.

Our question is... could he still have 15% kidney function once he stops or will he have nothing after relying on dialysis for this long? He won't let us say anything to his doctors yet so we have questions that we just can't find answers to. Hopefully someone out there has gone through the same thing or has an answer for us.

He thinks his kidneys will function just fine and he'll live for another year. He has all the symptoms of late stage renal failure. He's sleeping all day, he has no appetite and throws up 90% of the time during dialysis and after meals, he has started to hallucinate, he has dementia, he's depressed and feels sick most of the time.

We are so worried over what might happen. We also realize that it is his life and his decision to make about the rest of his life. It's up to him what he wants to do and we want to support him in whatever decision he makes.

Has anyone else gone through this with a loved one? Could his kidney function come back to 15% or more? or not at all? Anything you can suggest would be greatly appreciated. Thank you- Kate