It is quite a rare occurrence that I slept during my dialysis despite of my caffeine pill use but I know what could be the reason

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Being in the hospital is the last thing that I want to happen but more often it is better to sleep while you are in it to pass the time and relax your mind.

I find it to be a rare event that I was able to sleep and even dream while I am hooked-up at dialysis like what happened yesterday. It is because I am using a Caffeine capsule aside from drinking some brewed coffee prior to my dialysis treatment session. The reason for that is because I wanted my heart to pump better during my session so that I will not suffer from hypotension which had plagued me for so many years and with many reasons like now for example, if I would try to get rid much of my fluid overload leading to reaching my dry weight, my blood pressure then would react and I understand that particularly if my goal is to reach the driest dry weight which I needed to do in order for me to clear my lungs of fluid retention which easily happens when I am fully loaded with fluids which is just less than 3 Kilos in weight. Thankfully my nurses are very fast in reacting to the situation and they already know my case which is why the problem gets resolved fast by stopping the treatment session or infusing a good amount of Saline solution into my bloodstream and it truly solves the hypotension fast although my blood pressure has to reach a certain number like 100 or 110 Systolic before my nurses would let me out to discharge me. For other patients, it is not the case, they have to reach the blood pressure higher like 130 or sometimes higher if that blood pressure is actually low for them because they have a high blood pressure problem. Anyway, the blood pressure issue is one major factor that dialysis patients die aside from the usual fluid overload regardless of any illnesses that a patient is dealing with as well. That is why when I was just a new dialysis patient I am trying to control it by striking out the main causes like fluid overload although drinking much fluids is really a thing which is hard to control particularly if dialysis sessions are too far in between. But even now I am having a hard time in drinking "much" because of the way that I am getting dialyzed where sodium is pumped to me system for the reason that it stabilizes my blood pressure but makes me thirsty after my treatment session. That is an issue for me because it would make me drink like a Camel afterwards and make me use my little allowance for loading fluids again considering that I do have a limited "space" in my body cased by the curvature of my spine.

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I wanted to make my heart endure the blood pressure lowering effects of dialysis considering that I am always targeting my "dry weight" and using Caffeine for me is doing just that in order for my blood pressure to get more vigorous and avoid getting more relaxed and cause to trigger hypotension problems in my case although maybe I can do even without using it.

Anyway, I do not know what happened but the Caffeine pill alone which has a 200 mg of anhydrous caffeine which is equivalent of two espresso shots that I had before my dialysis session seemed to get washed-away during dialysis which could be the reason on why I was able to slip down to slumber while I am hooked at the dialysis machine. Not only that, I also dreamed as well but with a very macabre type which involves some of my nurses and a co-patient which I cannot fully recall by typing it here which is why it is a "good dream" anyhow as my brain maybe got a relief that it needed. Maybe because I wasn't able to at least get some nap-quality of sleep last night which was the reason I was able to sleep during my session. It could be the factor here because I felt that my body really needs to already shutdown because I am already yawning and it is my indicator to rest already considering that I did slept all morning yesterday and took a nap in the early night the day before my session. But the fact that I was able to sleep even under the influence of caffeine in my system could be the reason because of a better blood cleaning factor caused by my returning to use of Heparin which is a blood thinner used at dialysis to actually better clean the blood compared to using the flushing technique where the patient doesn't use Heparin where a regular flush of saline solution is done to clear away the blood on top and within the dialyzer in thirty minutes intervals so that the blood continues to flow freely at those points in time within the four hours of dialysis times. Well, now I know what heparin really does to make the blood cleaner during the dialysis treatment by learning it out of experience but to my regret. But for my own belief before, opting-in with the flush technique makes my blood pressure stabilized because of those flushes until I realized that I am better off with using heparin because it makes sense that the blood has to be thinned-out in order for it to flow freely within the time tubes or membranes in order for it to get a better cleaning factor which now I am getting and it is quite a big lesson for me. The other important thing which I overlooked was it gives me more flexibility in offloading fluids to and from my body because I do not have to make adjustments to compensate the additional weight of the flushing solution plus the fluid used to return my blood after my dialysis which is equivalent to half a kilo of saline solution which adds to the weight that I want to be taken out from my body and thus making an impression that I am half a kilo heavier if I would opt-in for the flush method. So now what happens is that I would target my certain dry weight and adjusting back the fluid withdrawal so that I can target the weight that I want to go home with but it now gives an impression that I am targeting a lower weight but in fact I am already maxing-out the fluid removal set by my nurses which is three kilos. The fluids that was removed from me yesterday is only 2.4 kilos but with the flushing technique which I have to compensate with the additional half a kilo from the weight of the saline solution, I will ask the nurses to remove 2.9 kilos! That is for me the advantage of using heparin now which is awesome because I will never have more problems about backlogging fluids that should be removed but cannot be anymore as I exceeded my limit restriction already and for that I am happier.

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Now I learned due to this experience that the blood must be thinned-out in order for it to get cleaned better with dialysis treatments as evidenced by a better clearance which might have caused the caffine in my blood to get washed-out and caused me to slumber in sleep.

Dialysis patients does while hooked at dialysis

It is great that I am able to sleep at dialysis now because it is really my problem to get to relax while I am getting my treatment session because of this "additional" cleaning action caused by using Heparin again which I overlooked the benefits of its use. It is hard to pass time during the sessions and all that gives me entertainment was to listen to the conversations of my nurses. I am not seeing that they are not using the TV anymore neither the patients unless some patients asks to turn it on especially if there are events in the news which we or they have to monitor. Nowadays unlike before, patients and nurses use their smartphones more than turning the television because who uses television nowadays, for me personally it is really bring to watch television because of the advertisements compared to using smartphones where entertainment is quite endless without much ads to contend with. Also, my nurses tends to play music with their smartphones using a small Bluetooth speaker and the sound quality annoys me because it is not in high fidelity (Hi-Fi) quality. Well of course some patients talk to the nurses while they are hooked but most of the time they would either sleep or watch videos from their smartphones in order to pass the four hour dialysis time. Now for me since I can't sleep before, I tend to just keep quiet and closing my eyes hoping to have a short nap in order for me not to get bored in waiting for my treatment to end since I do not want to converse with my nurses and using a smartphone is too cumbersome for me as well and is just using it while I wait for my turn to see the google news updates, news that I find interesting to read, prices of cryptocurrencies, but not listening to music because the sound output of smartphones are not good nor I am aware that certain phones have a Hi-Fi sound quality. I do not use Facebook because I can do that at home nor watch YouTube videos because I do not want the battery of my phone to get drained fast. I just envy patients which can sleep and maybe I can do that now more often because of the aforementioned reasons but I still needed to use my Caffeine pills because it really uplifts my mood as one benefit aside from making my heart to beat quite vigorously so that it will not tend to get more relaxed and cause what I would fear the most, hypotension.

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Dialysis centers has the most comfortable chairs particularly in a hospital setting where the patients really can relax. Recliner chairs are comfortable to sit into and is better suited for patients undergoing dialysis treatments because they can be made to be set-up like a bed if the patient wanted to sleep while lying down almost flat on their backs.