Peritoneal dialysis care at home with the exchange done the sterile way, every time.

Either, and the PD unit decides which. Our GNM and B.Sc nurses perform CAPD exchanges under the unit’s written protocol for that patient, and for a household that has been trained we can instead supervise the family member doing it and correct technique. What we do not do is set the prescription: the bag strengths, the dwell times and the number of exchanges come from the nephrologist. Before the first visit the nurse reads the protocol and, where the unit allows it, sits in on a training session so she does the exchange the way this unit teaches it.

CAPD is the manual method: three or four exchanges a day, each taking around thirty to forty minutes, with about two litres of fluid dwelling in between. APD uses a cycler machine that runs the exchanges overnight for eight to ten hours while the patient sleeps. We cover both. For APD the nurse sets up the cycler, makes the sterile connection at bedtime, disconnects in the morning and records what the machine reports. The cycler itself comes through the PD unit and its supplier, not from us.

The drained fluid turns cloudy. You should be able to read newsprint through a healthy bag of drained fluid; if you cannot, treat it as peritonitis until the unit says otherwise. Abdominal pain, fever and nausea often come with it, but cloudy fluid alone is enough to act on. The nurse keeps that bag, calls the PD unit and takes the patient and the bag in the same day so the fluid can be tested and antibiotics started. Waiting a day to see if the next bag is clearer is the mistake we are there to prevent.

From the PD unit’s prescription, delivered by its supplier, usually a month at a time in cartons. EzyHelpers does not sell or supply dialysis fluid, bags, lines or the cycler. What we help with is the storage and the stock: cartons kept off the floor in a clean, dry room away from steam and damp, the oldest used first, a weekly count, and the next delivery arranged before the last box is opened. In a Bangalore flat this usually means giving up a cupboard or a corner of a bedroom, and it is worth deciding where before the first delivery arrives.

Possibly. In September 2025 the Karnataka government ordered a pilot of free peritoneal dialysis at home for 350 patients across the state, identified by district nephrologists at roughly ten per district. Eligibility is decided by the nephrologist and the district health authorities, not by us, so ask your nephrologist directly whether your father qualifies and what the pilot covers. Our nursing support is separate from the scheme and is booked and paid for by the family whichever way the supplies are funded.

The unit will usually want her technique re-examined and every exchange done by a trained hand for a period, which is what our shift nurse is for. The nurse does the exchanges, looks for what went wrong before (a fan, a shortcut with the mask, a bag warmed in water, a constipated week), fixes the set-up at home and re-trains whoever will take over. Antibiotics the unit has prescribed into the bags are given exactly as written. Once the unit is satisfied, cover tapers to visits.

It depends on whether you need visits at exchange times, a shift nurse for the first weeks, or a live-in attendant with nurse oversight, and on how many exchanges a day the unit has prescribed. We do not publish a band because a working adult on an overnight cycler and a bedridden patient on four manual exchanges are different jobs. The assessment is free and ends with a specific quote. For the way dialysis care is priced in general, our dialysis care cost guide explains what moves the number.