Life Journal: I have some Trouble Reaching my Target Weight
"I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live,"-nrsv
Yesterday during my dialysis, I asked the assigned nurse again to target my desired weight. It means that they will have to take out about two and a half kilos of extra water from my body. Itt is just about that relatively minimal amount of water and still it causes me to have a difficulty in breathing. I realized that it really gets worse as time goes by for me.
Now during the treatment I am worried that my blood pressure would drop low enough for me to complain it. I do not normally complain because when I do, they will just return my blood and stop the treatment, wasting the precious time of blood cleaning process. They are lazy enough to do that because they do not want an extra work plus most of them are just new nurses.
Then I got restless, a sign of hypotension. I checked the remaining time, still I have 20 minutes more. During a hypotension, 20 minutes of waiting seems to be like an eternity. If the assistant nurse would discover my blood pressure had gotten low, they would do exactly as above and add fluid in me to raise the blood pressure again. But the assistant nurse didn't took my BP but I survived the dialysis. So it was a success, I reached my target goal but my BP just keeps on goin down.
Now I just have to haggle with nurse to take much water because if they don't I won't feel better between sessions. Like yesterday, I only have a little weight gain but I was really like dying to breathe. My capacity wasn't like before and I have to live with it now. I am still managing but it is real hard.
Can the nurses put you in a rest period? In other words, can they still continue to clean the blood, but not pull any fluids until your blood pressure comes back up? Do they always choose to give you fluid back if you become hypotensive?
What happens to me is the machine will alarm if my pressure drops below 100. At that time I will ask the nurse to check my pressure every 15 minutes instead of every 30. After 15 minutes, if it is below 95 I will then go on a rest, regardless of how I'm feeling, but the blood will still continue to be cleaned. After about 15 to 30 minutes of rest, my pressure rebounds and I go back to removing fluid.
What they do is they immediately reduce the blood pump, the fluid removal, and the cleaning process then adds fluids to my body to raise the blood pressure again. They also raise my feet.
Sometime ago with a different staff, they return my blood if it gets too low and let me rest and pause my session then they resume when the BP gets normal again after adding fluids.
So I am always hesitant to report my hypotension if I can still handle it, if not then I will tell them.
We have a different medical standards, you get the best, they reuse dialyzer here 8 times, even your machine detects a low blood pressure, its amazing.
They only give us fluids back if we're on the verge of passing out, feeling really sick, or are having severe cramping. Usually a rest does the trick, but they keep the pump speed the same, so the cleaning remains the same while you're on break.
I can't even fathom them re-using a dialyzer here even once. I'm appalled really. We are spoiled here.
Yeah it is different there than in my country. I had endured years of mediocre medical service. You can just see the results. That is why most patients die in the first 2 years. Tough patients like me transforms into a lion with no fangs. Maybe it is OK with me for my appearance but my major complaint now is the deformation inside my mouth, it makes my life harder than it is now.
Can you lift your feet when you feel a bit restless? Removing the fluids can really lower it. @Errymil are u a dialysis nurse??
I am the only patient there that likes to lay down flat from start to finish even when I'm eating @immarojas
Lifting my legs helps but not if the dialysis is on going. When the blood is returned, the restlessness subsides and I begin to feel normal again.
I thought you were reclining..lifting it about a ft should be ok.
It is just one way, but the immediate way for them to raise the blood pressure is to add fluids which really I do not like because I cannot tolerate much fluids anymore between dialysis.
Why give fluids when you're already having dialysis to remove excess water..can they not slow it down?
Where mo do dialysis mo, manila ka ba kuya? National Kidney institute?
Its what they do to raise the BP. They also put sodium in my system because it raises BP too.
Taga Bulacan po ako pero sa Paombong nagpapa-dialysis.
Now I get it..yeah a bit of saline to pull extravascular fluids to intracellular. But pwede daw trendelenburg position, itaas ang paa. Or i-slow down ang filtration at the end.
Yes they do that in combination saka infusion ng saline solution.
Sodium absorbs water.. eh di along me tubeg sa system.
Its like this.
When they see that I might get hypoed, they will set the machine to give me some sodium or salt. It will in effect raise my blood because in effect I will absorb more water, then the BP will rise.
In cases where my BP is too high, they will set the machine to take more sodium from my body/blood, the reverse will happen and it will lower my BP.
At the back of every machine there is a supply of salt that it takes when needed.
Sometimes I am annoyed because my BP is not high enough for them but I am feeling relaxed, then they will do those things to raise my BP and will make my heart jumpy in the process.
Oh my goodness hun. What a nightmare. I'm sending positive energy your way
Received the positivity @arbitrarykitten
Thank you from my heart Ma'am.
You are welcome :)