I Hate Dialysis Message Board
Dialysis Discussion => Dialysis: General Discussion => Topic started by: Charlie B53 on May 06, 2014, 06:32:46 AM
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I started PD may last year so I've almost a year now, and I still have trouble understanding my labs and how my diet can affect my numbers.
My phosphorus and potassium are barely above the minimums. I do not take any binders.
I eat what I feel like eating, which isn't much. Since I started PD the feeling of this fluid in my has greatly changed my appetite, I'm rarely 'hungary' but I often find myself searching the refrigerator for 'something'. But I don't know what that 'something' is.
I have started eating a banana every morning during my first exchange as my team told me I needed to raise my potassium, so I've been eating one daily for about 6 months now.
I eat tomato's in salad, on sandwhichs, when I have them.
We don't cook much, and that's our biggest problem, we eat out way too often. Mostly Denny's, the one Mexican place, or the Chinese buffet. None of which are very good for diabetics like us. I started using insulin just a couple of months ago, and last week I graduated to using fast-acting at every meal, or snack as I don't eat whole 'meals'.
I have an appt on the 28th to go to a diabetic 'class' and I hope to learn how to better estimate carbs and learn how or how much insulin to take for how many carbs so I can start keeping better control of my sugar.
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Search your hi potassium lists and try to find something else you like. Avocados, Orange Juice or Oranges. Dairy would help your potassium and Phos raise.
:waving;
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I used to gulp a lot of OJ in the mornings, but when I started PD the team told me to stop, so I did.
We occasionally eat an avocado, and when we make taco salad I use almost a whole pack of the store-bought guacmole' (spelling?), but that is only maybe once , twice a month.
I drink one and a 1/2 gallon of whole milk every week. The kind the cream separates and you gotta shake it before you pour. I'll drink store bought, but it just isn't the same. I don't know what they put in it, but it is an un-natural white color. Real milk has an off-white creamy color. Look at them side by side and it is obvious.
I've been looking at a couple bags of beans in the cupboard, and often think of lighting up the crock-pot. Mmmmmm, I like beans with chunks of fatty pork, and onions well cooked in. Then I just have to add a teaspoon of real butter when I get a bowl of them. Butter makes everything better.
No wonder how I got this big. They tell me to lose 80 lbs. Yea, Right, as IF that's ever gonna happen. Maybe if I get another supper blood clot and lose the whole leg. God forbid. When they told me in the hospital the last time I almost lost the right one, I told them they HAD to save it, "That's the one that kick starts my Harley" I sure wouldn't want to have to fix the electric start and have to rely on a Bronson Button. These kids now days wouldn't even know how to start a real Harley if they had to kick it!
You guys may call them 'Donor Cycles' but you don't get this old being stupid on a bike. You damn near have to grow eyes out both sides and the back of your head in order to look out for all the idiots driving cars, talking on the phone, texting, doing their make-up, whatever, because they sure are not paying any attention to driving.
Oh, my team also told me to quit eating blocks of cheese. I used to kill at least one a week, OK, more like two. Those solid ones about the size of your hand. Every other time through the kitchen just whack off a ggodly thumb sized chunk and nibble on it while I sit and read.
So maybe I should go ahead and have some cheese, beans, and OJ and see what next months labs look like?
Still learning this fast-acting insulin. Took 15 units twice this morning, cuz I snacked, so I took that second dose. Been outside with G'son weed-wacking a little and changed the oil in the tiller. Just checked and my sugar is 209. Qwap! It was only 151 when I got up. I'm going the wrong way! So maybe need to increase those shots to 20 units?
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I hope the diabetic class helps you. You should not be just eating what you want and raising your insulin to cope with it. To me it sounds like your habits are leading right toward losing that leg or both of them. Throw in the loss of eyesight and that Harley is a memory. This is serious.
You need to start eating at home. You need to learn to count what you eat and to eat healthy and balanced. Chinese food should be a rare treat. I gave it up totally on dialysis. No whole milk. No butter makes everything better. Lean protein, fresh fruit, lots of vegetables, lose weight. Yes, I realize this is easier said than done. But you won't get there if you don't start. You don't have to do it all in one day.
When I went to dialysis, there were too many diabetics missing one or both legs. You're already on dialysis. Learn to take care of yourself. Start by doing some serious googling. Learn what foods have potassium. You can get phosphorus from your protein sources. Look up helpful diabetic resources. We'll help cheer you on.
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I know you are most probably right, but it is hard to imagine meals without milk and butter.
Milk, eggs, cheese, and butter are almost requirements of the American diet.
Meat, potatos and vegetables won't seem the same without the flavor added by them.
Fruits are a tough one for me. I was raised in and around the orchards in Yakima, WA. The stuff on the shelves, produce section, isn't what I am used to as 'ripe' fruit, the taste just isn't there. Canned fruits have sugar added to replace the natural sugars that would have developed if the fruit were allowed to fully ripen on the tree. And we have started to buy more, it goes well with a bit of cottage cheese over a bed of lettuce. One problem is I can't bear to waste the juice, so I drink it. Yummmmmm! Calories.
Dr's at the VA are very active in watching my circulation in my legs since that first clot. They do those doppler ultra-sound blood flow test twice a year. Ended up placing stents in on both sides of the groin immediately after that main artery Y's. I have great flow again and can even walk with space between my feet. Before all lI could do was shuffle those little old man style, not really taking a step. It was a B1^(h, and since it can one gradually over a few years I didn't know what was wrong. Only that watching other people walk, or someone jogging, I would often think that they sure made it look easy.
It's also a problem finding the energy to get up and move. I know I need to, but the body is SOO weak from so long inactive. I often told one of my lady Dr's that she should just follow me around with a big stick. Smack me whenever I slow down, stop, or attempt to eat something. It might work to change my behavior. Sort of an aversion therapy.
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Team Nurse called today with results of labs, blood drawn at my monthly clinic visit.
She says my numbers are almost those of a 'normal' person with the exception of my potassium being barely above the listed minimum.
Eat more potassium containing foods.
I don't know what I am doing to get it right so I guess I'll keep eating much the same. Except I gotta stay away from that Chinese buffet, I can't taste the salt my I hold a lot of water the next week. Without kidneys it's hard to get rid of that salt.
Oh, and I gotta look up more potassium containing foods. See what I can add to my regular diet somewhere.
I like raw spinach leaves, they're high in something. I gotta look it up.
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I have an idea but it's pretty extreme. You could learn to can fruits. In the summer you can get fresh fruits from a farmer or a farmer's market. Learn to can them for the winter. My mom has done it my whole life. She cans peaches, pears, sweet cherries, homemade applesauce, and sometimes apricots. For whatever reason, she freezes strawberries and frozen cherries instead of canning. You do add a little sugar syrup during canning but it can be low sugar. They taste good all winter supplemented by apples and oranges. You could possibly get apples from a local orchard most of the fall.
I know it's radical. If you have someone who would help you while you learn the first time it would be good. Meantime, if you start frequenting the local farmer's markets, you get exercise, you get good food, and you make new contacts for if you want to can or freeze.
I grew up with Pennsylvania Dutch food so I know about meat and potatos and butter and salt. My mother though grew up on a farm in a different state. I was maybe 7 years old when my grandmother had her heart attack. My mom dropped the salt, started the switch to skim milk, and made our diet healthier. With her farm influence we were already eating better than most PA Dutch. But I remember when the vegetables had no salt, I remember when my dad wouldn't use skim milk on his cereal. After a year or two we didn't care any more. It takes time but it can be done.
Now I'm not saying never have a treat. You should have occasional treats. Just don't make every single day a treat. It's good that right now your dialysis is working. Over time though, your kidneys will most likely get worse. It's easier to make slow changes and you have that chance.
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I might be wrong, but I was under the impression that the PD solution contains glucose, which might throw off your sugars.
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I am getting better. I drove right past the Donut Shop and didn't pull in!
I really miss my chocolate.
Canned fruits may be good but one has to cut calories elsewhere because of that added sugar during canning. Same for salt used in canning veggies, and meats.
Some people can meats. Think about it, so many years ago before refrigeration canning meat was a normal event, otherwise it wouldn't keep very long. And you can't eat a whole cow, or pig, in just a couple days. Many of the bony fishes that most now think of as trash, used to be canned as the process softened the bones so much you didn't even notice them. It just added a bit more calcium to their diet.
I have two large pressure canners that I don't use. I once thought seriously about canning, but check out the price of jars. Outragious! Miricle Whip and Mayo are or have been switching to plastics, so it is pretty tough to accumulate the number of jars to start canning. Then the more you get into it, the more jars you need, cause you can can most everything. I've watched a number of vids on youtube, they even can butter, after clarifying it, cooling off all the milk solids leaving only the heavy oils. Otherwise it can go bad.
The PD solution is sugar driven. It works as the body attempts to balance the fluid to the same mixture as your blood sugar, adding water to the solution, and toxins, then you drain off.
Yes, your body does absorb some of that sugar which adds calories to you that you have to cut out of your diet elsewhere, otherwise you end up gaining weight.
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The beauty of canning is you don't add sugar or salt. You never have to add salt. Salt is for curing. Canning preserves vegetables without curing. Although freezing vegetables is terribly easy. You buy freezer boxes (kind of like waxed stiff paper), blanch the vegetables in boiling water, cool them in cold water, and pack the box. No salt. The fruit uses a little sugar syrup because it tastes good and because you don't want to can with a lot of empty space in the jar. It doesn't have to be very sweet. Certainly not like store brand canned fruit.
I agree canning is a huge use of time and work. But it is in no way an unhealthy way to get through the winter.
I cannot think of any reason to can butter if you have access to stores. I'm sure you can do it, but why?