Medicare's "You Can Live: Your Guide For Living With Kidney Failure"

Tips for Making Treatment BetterDialysis or transplant can affect your whole body and how youfeel. This section talks about the things you can do to help yourselffeel better and to keep your body healthy. To keep your lifeon track, you need to take charge of your health.Changes in Mental HealthLife can be stressful, whether or not you have kidney failure.Kidney failure brings a lot of changes in your life. Sometimesthese changes can be managed and become part of daily life, andsometimes you may need help dealing with these changes. Youcan talk with your social worker about ways to help you andyour family adjust. Your social worker can also tell you where toget counseling if you need it.“Dialysis ortransplant canaffect your wholebody and howyou feel.”Everyone adjusts to having kidney failure in different ways. If younotice that you often feel uneasy, fearful, tired, irritable, or nervous,it could be anxiety. Other signs of anxiety are a fast heartbeat,heavy sweating, or an upset stomach. If you aresick, you may have these same symptoms. It’simportant that you talk to your doctor as soonas you can if you are feeling this way, so youcan get the help you need.Mood changes are common in people with kidneyfailure for a few reasons. Stress can affect aperson’s mood. Some medicines can causemood swings. Also uremia (the build up ofwaste products in the blood) can irritate thebody’s nervous system and cause mood changes.21