Topic: Kidney Failure: Choosing a Treatment That's Right for You
Question: What are the treatments for Kidney Failure: Choosing a Treatment That's Right for You ?
Answer: Conservative management for kidney failure is the choice to say no to or stop dialysis treatments. For many people, dialysis not only extends life, it also improves the quality of life. For others who have serious conditions in addition to kidney failure, dialysis may seem like a burden that only prolongs suffering. If you have serious conditions in addition to kidney failure, dialysis may not prolong your life or improve the quality of your life.
                
You have the right to say no to or stop dialysis. You may want to speak with your doctor, spouse, family, counselor, or renal social worker, who helps people with kidney disease, to help you make this decision.
                
If you stop dialysis treatments or say you do not want to begin them, you may live for a few weeks or for several months, depending on your health and your remaining kidney function. You may choose to receive care from a hospicea facility or home program designed to meet the physical and emotional needs of the terminally illduring this time. Hospice care focuses on relief of pain and other symptoms. Whether or not you choose to use a hospice, your doctor can give you medicines to make you more comfortable. Your doctor can also give you medicines to treat the problems of kidney failure, such as anemia or weak bones. You may restart dialysis treatment if you change your mind.
                
Advance Directives
                
An advance directive is a statement or document in which you give instructions either to withhold certain treatments, such as dialysis, or to provide them, depending on your wishes and the specific circumstances. Even if you are happy with your quality of life on dialysis, you should think about circumstances that might make you want to stop dialysis treatments. At some point in a medical crisis, you might lose the ability to tell your health care team and loved ones what you want. Advance directives may include
                
- a living will  - a durable power of attorney for health care decisions  - a do not resuscitate (DNR) ordera legal form that tells your health care team you do not want cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) or other life-sustaining treatment if your heart were to stop or if you were to stop breathing.
                
A living will is a document that details the conditions under which you would want to refuse treatment. You may state that you want your health care team to use all available means to sustain your life, or you may direct that you be withdrawn from dialysis if you fall into a coma from which you most likely wont wake up. In addition to dialysis, you may choose or refuse the following life-sustaining treatments:
                
- CPR  - feedings through a tube in your stomach  - mechanical or artificial means to help you breathe  - medicines to treat infections  - surgery  - receiving blood
                
Refusing to have CPR is the same as a DNR order. If you choose to have a DNR order, your doctor will place the order in your medical chart.
                
A durable power of attorney for health care decisions or a health care proxy is a document you use to assign a person to make health care decisions for you in the event you cannot make them for yourself. Make sure the person you name understands your values and will follow your instructions.
                
Each state has its own laws on advance directives. You can obtain a form for an advance medical directive thats valid in your state from the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organizationsee For More Information.
(Source: NIDDK)