If you choose to do your hemodialysis treatments at home, you will still need to choose a dialysis center so you can learn how to perform the treatments and take care of the equipment. You will get your hemodialysis machine from the dialysis center. You will also go back to the center once a month for tests that will show how well your hemodialysis treatments are working.

Home hemodialysis lets you do longer or more frequent dialysis, which comes closer to replacing the work healthy kidneys do. Home hemodialysis lets you choose a schedule that fits the way you live. You can do daily home hemodialysis 5 to 7 days per week for 2 to 3 hours at a time, and you set the schedule. You can do nightly home hemodialysis three to six times per week while you sleep. Your doctor will determine how many treatments you need each week for daily home hemodialysis or for nightly home hemodialysis.

Daily home hemodialysis or nightly home hemodialysis will let you have a more normal diet and liquid allowance. You will also have fewer blood pressure medicines to take than you would with a standard schedule in a dialysis center.

For home hemodialysis, you must first learn how to perform treatments at the dialysis center, working with a dialysis nurse. You must learn how to

• insert your own needles
• monitor your vital signs
• set up and clean the hemodialysis machine

If these procedures are not done correctly, you could have serious problems.

Most dialysis centers require that you have a trained partner in your home during hemodialysis treatments, so you must ask a family member or friend to go through training with you. In addition to providing training and a hemodialysis machine that stays in your home, the dialysis center also provides 24-hour support if you have a question or problem. Some programs also monitor treatments over the Internet. Training often takes 3 to 8 weeks.