Dialysis and work

There are many benefits to staying in employment, even when you need dialysis treatment. Staying in touch with colleagues, using your skills and making a valued contribution at the workplace is all part of living a full life.

As a first step, you should discuss your work commitments with your health care team. You may then need to adjust your hours or role in line with their recommendations, but in most cases, you’ll find employers are willing to help. Your doctor will give you a letter of support to show them.

Managing your time and energy

Once you’re balancing work and dialysis, be sure to keep your manager informed of your condition as much as you can. You may find some days are tiresome; dialysis is time-consuming and can often leave you feeling flat.

To help, some things you can consider include:

• doing home haemodialysis in the comfort of your own surroundings
• changing your work hours or times to fit with your haemodialysis schedule
• doing peritoneal dialysis bag changes in a suitable location at work, or using a machine to do dialysis overnight
• easing slowly back into work after a transplant operation, so that you have plenty of time to recover and adjust to the anti-rejection medications.

To find out more about overcoming the daily challenges of kidney disease, download our living with kidney failure handbook.