My father aged 83 , who was perfectly healthy until 2 month back, has suddenly stopped eating!?

Question

After a lot of diagnostic tests, it is kidney failure , said a nephrologist. We are not for dialysis, at his ripe age , though we tried it twice. Any medical advice?

Answer 1

If your father is in renal failure and doesn't get either dialysis or a kidney transplant he will die within a month. That's too blunt, but there's no other way to put it. God bless all of you.

Answer 2

My relative, age 81, is on dialysis 3 times per week. It has become a routine. She wants to see her granddaughter get married, and she wants to see her great grandchildren born. All winter she thought of the spring flowers. Even though she has been very ill, she was healthy enough to want to go to a nursery to purchase flowers to plant for this summer's blooms. She knows that once she decides to stop the dialysis, she will die sometime in the next 10 days. Simple as that.

People who's organs are not working do stop eating, as they cannot process what they take in. Your father has 2 choices.
1) to want to live longer -despite the pain factor, doing dialysis and using the diet
or, 2) saying goodbye and letting nature take its irreversible course.

It is time to have a serious talk with his Dr. the neuphrologist, the hospital social worker, and his minister & check with his lawyer to see that his will is up to date.

Having supplimental insurance to Medicare makes all the difference here, on the financial end of it for all the expensive services required to live on with this disease. I see many people fully functioning in their lives who are dialysis patients. Then, again, this is your father's choice.

Answer 3

He can't do the dialysis because it didn't work--not because "we are not" for it? Or he wouldn't have tried.
What does the nephrologist saying? Did too much potassium cause this? Do they have him on calcium? The 3 choices are hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis or kidney transplant. But as you said, his age is a hindrance.
Please sit down with him and the doctor(s) and talk about any other possible options. I hope he's comfortable.

Answer 4

Can I ask why you don't want to use dialysis? If he was perfectly healthy before and still has his mind I would definately go for whatever treatment the doc suggests for him. He has lots of years he could live yet.