Quote from deedee1313:

The numbers are a percentage.My husbands doctor told me that you go on dialysis when your kidneys are only working at 15%.My husbands were only working at 4% when they discovered that he was in kidney failure.I guess they had been failing for months.He had been really under the weather but we didn't know why.Once he started dialysis he started feeling better.I seen a lot of older people go the the treatment center.Some of them weren't in very good health to begin with.The bottom line is that if you need dialysis then you have to have it or you will die.The kidneys filter the poisons out of your system.They also tell your blood to reproduce.If they aren't doing their job than dialysis does it for them.If the doctors aren't talking dialysis yet then don't worry about it.They will know when the time is right.An access line can be done in a matter of hours,and you can live for days without dialysis.

Deedee has a lot of good comments, but I have to disagree with a couple of things. While the kidneys do produce a hormone that makes you produce red blood cells, dialysis does not solve the problem of you not producing enough red blood cells (anemia). If your grandmother has anemia, it will have to be treated by the doctors with injections (epo or aranesp or procrit) and she may be given iron as well. Sometimes this is not treated because the docs figure the patient isn't that active anyway and doesn't care about being tired.

If the docs aren't talking about dialysis, it might be a good idea to bring it up. In some cases, like in nursing homes, the docs make a decision that it's not worth it to the patient to go on dialysis. Sometimes this is just an assumption and they don't give the patient a choice. Talk to the docs who are in charge of her care. Find out what their plans are for her.

Silly me for not figuring out the percentage. Duh!

Take care.

Cora