Umm... what just happened?

[FindingNeverland]

I went in today for an extra UF treatment because of the way they scheduled it, I would have had four days of no dialysis until Monday and I can't afford to gain too much more fluid. Anyway, I went in and weighed myself at 36kg, I did my two hour run and weighed myself after, I was now 36.3kg which didn't make sense. I went over to the nurse and told her my weight and she agreed that it didn't make sense. She checked over the machine and apparently it said I only took off 33... not 3300, just 33. We had the goal set for 2000. The nurse has no idea what happened, everything was set up right and the machine ran fine. The only thing we noticed was that it leaked all over the floor.   

[KICKSTART]

Mistakes do happen ..after all they are only 'machines' . Yesterday we had problems with half the machines on the unit, none of them would go through the disinfect or if they did the clocks wouldnt count down. I was waiting for an hour for a machine to come ready yesterday.

[greg10]

I went in today for an extra UF treatment because of the way they scheduled it, I would have had four days of no dialysis until Monday and I can't afford to gain too much more fluid. Anyway, I went in and weighed myself at 36kg, I did my two hour run and weighed myself after, I was now 36.3kg which didn't make sense. I went over to the nurse and told her my weight and she agreed that it didn't make sense. She checked over the machine and apparently it said I only took off 33... not 3300, just 33. We had the goal set for 2000. The nurse has no idea what happened, everything was set up right and the machine ran fine. The only thing we noticed was that it leaked all over the floor.   

Please be very careful about your ultrafiltration.  You only weigh 36 kg, that means you should not go over 360 ml per hour based on the rule of 10 ml per kg per hour (36x10= 360).  That means if you want to take off 2000 ml in two hours, you could have been running at 1000 ml per hour, which is a dangerous UF rate for some one your size.  What is worst, in some machines, the UF profile can make the machine pull 1500 ml per hour the first hour then 500 ml the second hour.  Perhaps it was just as well the machine "malfunctioned" and did not try to remove 2000 ml.  You will likely benefit from in-center nocturnal dialysis (perhaps 3x 8 hours a week) or home dialysis where you won't run into this UF limitation.

[FindingNeverland]

I forgot to mention that my dry weight is supposed to be 32... but I will keep that mind, thanks Greg. The problem is, I don't think there are nocturnal clinics in the area and I'm not too keen on doing home dialysis, especially since I'm in the process of getting a second transplant. I know its not guaranteed but I have high hopes.

[greg10]

I forgot to mention that my dry weight is supposed to be 32... but I will keep that mind, thanks Greg. The problem is, I don't think there are nocturnal clinics in the area and I'm not too keen on doing home dialysis, especially since I'm in the process of getting a second transplant. I know its not guaranteed but I have high hopes.

Unfortunately dry weight means nothing when you crash.  The blood is only a small portion of your total body fluid.  A two hour hemodialysis is insufficient for the toxins to migrate from the other portions of your body to the blood and then dialyzed out into the dialysate.  If you attempt to remove too much fluid from the blood too fast, there will be a gradient build up between the blood and your tissue fluid, causing harm to your blood vessels.  That is why many dialysis patients are harmed by vascular events rather than just toxin built up.  Speak to your nephrologist and go slow with the ultrafiltration.  Don't let the center dialyze you on their schedule or their need to turn over the dialysis chair.