Dialysis ― Your Passport to Life

20 million Americans are affected by kidney failure and another 20 million are at risk of kidney failure. This book will explain what the kidneys do and what happens when they stop working. Without a kidney transplant, or while waiting for a kidney transplant, people with kidney failure need dialysis to do the work the kidneys can no longer do. But first, they must have a dialysis access allowing the dialysis team to access the veins to remove the blood and fluids, clean the blood, then return the blood to the body. This process is called dialysis. Simply put, dialysis access is the means by which the dialysis staff can access the veins to perform dialysis. It can be a temporary access using a catheter or a permanent access, either a fistula or a graft. Once this is in place, dialysis can be performed. Dialysis is not the end of your life, it is the beginning of a new journey. It is indeed your passport to life. This book was written to deal with those types of access and is meant as a guide to what you may expect and how to care for each type of access. Dialysis access is truly your Passport to Life. Without some type of access, people can not receive dialysis.