Dialysis

Dialysis

Dialysis
Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 4 to 6
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	8.6

Vocabulary

challenging words:

anemia, calcium, dietitian, donor, intermittent, potassium, removal, renal, simplify, function, clinic, emotional, dealing, medication, difficulty, transplant

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Dialysis
By Jennifer Kenny

¹     Do you know what function your kidneys have? They clean waste from your blood. They also regulate hormones. The human body has two kidneys, which are shaped like beans and are about the size of fists. They can be found below your ribs, toward your back. Acting as filters, your kidneys mix the waste with water, also known as urine. The urine is stored in your bladder until you empty it.

²     Sometimes kidneys don't work. Unfortunately, symptoms are often only noticed when eighty percent of kidney function has already been lost. Symptoms that a kidney is not working correctly include joint problems, body aches and pains, bone problems, being tired, nausea, vomiting, trouble concentrating, swelling in skin, itchy skin, sleep problems, fluid congestion in lungs, high blood pressure, or anemia.

³     When the kidneys have failed to a huge extent, decisions about care must be made. Some people are fortunate enough to be able to get a new kidney through a transplant. Hopefully, there is a living, related donor. If not, the transplant may come from another donor. After the surgery, if the new kidney is functioning, no dialysis would be necessary.

⁴     While waiting for a transplant, though, patients with failing kidneys need an artificial filtering system to remove waste from the blood. It is kind of a life support treatment. It can't cure kidney disease, but the filtering is necessary to keep the patient living. Dialysis treatment is a combination of waste removal and fluid removal. Dialysis is sometimes used for very ill patients whose kidneys have suddenly lost their ability to work; this is known as acute renal failure. On the other hand, dialysis is often used for stable patients whose kidneys permanently don't work; this is known as end stage renal failure.

⁵     Do you know how dialysis works? There are basically two methods - hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. In hemodialysis, a filtering machine removes the waste and extra fluid. In peritoneal dialysis, the lining of the person's belly does the actual filtering.

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