please correct me if i’m wrong in my prior post.
I was involved with an alcoholic who had acute renal failure. That was how her situation was handled.
Personally, I never went on Medicare. I was on dialysis for 9 months and then got my transplant.
But as I understand it, Medicare “kicks in” 6 months after starting dialysis, and immediately upon transplant (if not already on it). However, once transplanted, it only covers the immunosuppresant meds for 3 years, and then, the person is on their own (again, I’m on private insurance). It’s much cheaper to maintain a person with a transplant than with dialysis. Dialysis is not something I want to do again (although I will if I have to)
As for acute renal failure, that reverses (IIRC), but can turn into CRF (chronic renal failure) and eventually ESRD (end stage renal disease).
ESRD is not fun. My sister is currently on dialysis for the same problem I have (Polycystic Kidney Disease), and missed a treatment on Monday due to her access being clotted off. When she went in Tuesday to get it unblocked, she almost had a cardiac arrest (heart rate of 30) because her potassium was in a lethal range (7.1). She’s fine now after getting emergency dialysis in the ER.
As for disability, dialysis is not necessarily a criteria for dialysis. I frequent an online forum for kidney transplants as well as polycystic kidney disease, and there are a lot of people with legit issues (according to their posts, fwiw) that can’t get disability. Did your ex get SSI due to alcoholism? That would be my guess.
Personally, I continued working through it all. I had a kidney function of 8-10% for a year before starting dialysis (normal function is >60%), and even cut back from 7 to 6 days a week while on dialysis. But I am lucky, as PKD is my only problem, so I don’t have any of the other problems associated with diseases which cause kidney failure AND other issues (diabetes is a frequent cause of failure, and has multiple other problems along with it).