Comfort for Dialysis: 8 Gifts From Someone Who's Been There

I spent years in a dialysis chair. These are the comfort items that actually helped me get through the long hours — the things I used, and the things that brought real comfort to the people sitting beside me.

By Nate Freeman · Pastor & author · Last updated July 17, 2026

I spent more hours than I can count in a dialysis chair, so this list is personal. These are the comfort items that actually help you get through long treatment days — the things I used, and the things I watched bring real comfort to the people in the chairs around me. If you’re buying a gift for someone on dialysis, or you’re facing it yourself, start here. Most of it is simple: something soft, something to help the hours pass, something to make a cold clinic feel a little more human. None of this is medical advice, just honest comfort from someone who has been there. For encouragement along the way, come find me at asknatefreeman.com.

1. Cozy Knit Throw Blanket

A soft blanket is the first thing I’d tell anyone to bring to dialysis. You’re sitting still for hours while the machine does its work, and the clinic is always cold. A blanket doesn’t fix it, but it makes it survivable. Wrap it around your shoulders, your lap, your access arm — it’s not just warmth, it’s permission to be gentle with yourself during treatment.

2. JBL Tune 770NC Wireless Headphones

I lived in my headphones during treatment. Hours of music and preaching is what got me through — and not having to worry about a cord, not having to fiddle with anything, just putting them on and disappearing into something bigger than the chair. Noise-canceling headphones make the clinical sounds fade into the background. Get a pair that won’t fall off if you doze.

3. Memory Foam Travel Neck Pillow

When the medicine makes you sleepy — and it will — a stiff treatment chair becomes torture. A neck pillow turns that into something you can actually doze in. Your head won’t loll, your neck won’t ache, and you might actually rest. Four hours in a chair without support feels like eight. With support, you can breathe.

4. New Morning Mercies — Paul David Tripp (Bookshop)

When I wanted to feed my soul and not just kill time, a short daily devotional was the answer. Paul Tripp’s New Morning Mercies is written for exactly this kind of space: five minutes that meet you where you are, honest about struggle, pointing you toward grace. Some days in that chair you don’t want comfort; you want truth. This gives it to you.

5. Grateful and Blessed — Guided Gratitude Journal (Bookshop)

Some of the most honest praying I ever did was in that chair. When the hours stretch and you’re stuck with your own thoughts, gratitude becomes your anchor. This guided journal gives you permission to write down what you’re grateful for on days when you feel anything but grateful. Writing it down makes it real. And months later, looking back at those pages, you see what God did when you were too tired to notice.

6. Beautyrest Electric Heated Plush Throw

Clinics run cold — that’s just the way they’re built. A regular blanket helps, but a heated throw keeps your access arm and your core warm through a full four-hour session without any bulk. It’s the kind of thing you bring once and never go back. The warmth takes the edge off the metal chair and the cold needles and the long hours of sitting still.

7. Maplefield Reusable Hand Warmers

Reusable gel warmers ease cold hands and the particular discomfort around your fistula or access site — no batteries, no outlet, just heat when you need it. You click it once and it stays warm for hours. Keep one in each glove when it’s cold. Keep one tucked under your blanket near your arm. When your blood is moving through that machine, your extremities feel like ice. These help.

8. Jesus Calling: 365-Day Devotional — Sarah Young (Bookshop)

This one’s different from Tripp: it’s meant to be read in a quiet moment when you need peace more than a sermon. Five minutes of Scripture and Sarah Young’s gentle reflection fits perfectly into clinic time. It doesn’t preach at you. It whispers. And when you’re already exhausted, a whisper reaches you better than anything louder.

Also on the full list

The complete Benable list carries 17 more items that earned their place through personal testing. For passing the hours: adult coloring books, large-print puzzle books, sudoku, fidget cubes, and an e-reader pillow mount so you can read or watch without holding your arm up. For your body: plush non-slip socks, lip balm, fragrance-free lotions for dialysis-dry skin, a weighted eye pillow to rest your eyes during treatment. For practical comfort: an insulated water bottle to help you ration fluids within your limit, a compact power bank so your phone stays alive for music and shows, a canvas tote to organize everything, and a lined journal for prayers and treatment notes. And one more devotional, The Joy of the In-Between, written specifically for waiting seasons — and dialysis is exactly that kind of season. Every book routes through Bookshop.org, which supports independent bookstores.

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