Who can eat at your clinic while dialyzing?

[knittingdan]

My center is pretty much okay with eating on dialysis, at least on the night shift.  I usually bring a snack and a bottle of water, but whether or not I eat or drink just depends on how the night goes.  I like to have some water handy in case I start to feel dehydrated, and the occasional snack keeps me from tearing out my needles and cannibalizing the techs.  Sometimes I just don't have time to eat dinner before dialysis so I'll grab a Subway and eat it in the first hour or so.

The bad side of eating on dialysis: I used to sit next to a patient who would bring in a full bag from some off-brand Mexican fast food joint.  He would scarf that garbage down in his first hour or two, then an hour or so later start cramping, and cutting these horrendous farts that smelled like something died.  Roughly halfway through the shift he would have to be taken off to use the restroom.  Sometimes he didn't make it.

Thankfully, they moved him to the other side of the unit with a few other "trouble" patients.

[jalexander451]

My center allows me to eat when i dialyze.  My wife prepares a full kit for me--sandwich, chips, juice and cookies or fruit.  I can spend maybe 2 hours eating while dialyzing.

[Kay]

Here in Brighton, UK, the hospital send round a trolley of free food (sandwiches, cakes, biscuits, etc) three or four times a day. Everyone eats and I was allowed to take food in for my husband, as he did not fancy the trolley food.
Don't really understand the ban - my hubby is insulin dependent diabetic and so had to eat.
It really does help to pass those long, long four hours!!

[Keith98058]

My center does not like us to eat during treatment, but they do not stop us either.  I have no choice in the matter with an Insulin Pump.. either let me eat, or I simply don't wake up at end of treatment.  So my treatment food is a can of Pineapple every run.  Plus.. I'm never hungry due to gastroparesis but when I get hooked up then I feel super hungry.. so it's always the best time for me to eat.

[Krisna]

My center doesn't like us to eat but they don't do anything to stop it, either!  Now that I dialyze in the evenings I only suck on hard candy.  They don't like that very much but I'm careful abt it.  If I didn't suck on the candy I'd eat way too much ice.  I've seen people order pizza's and other take out food.  I can't eat anything big on dialysis now days because my blood pressure has been running low.  It's weird.  It drops when I lie down and goes up when I stand!

[NDXUFan]

you would know why eating SHOULD be banned during dialysis. The worst case I ever had was a man who coded while eating a peanut butter sandwich. MY GOD.. what a mess. It took forever to clear his airway. For those whose clinics ban eating, be grateful that they care enough about you to do that. Its the ones that allow eating that are wrong.

SEIG HEIL, DEUTSCHLAND UBER ALLES!!!!

[Hemodoc]

My dialysis unit, the Laird Dialysis unit allows full meals and in fact, recent evidence is that dialysis patients have better outcomes with protein during dialysis. That being said, the way American dialysis units perpetrate violent dialysis sessions against their patients for pure business oriented greed, there is indeed a danger if you are prone to hypotensive episodes caused by excessive ultrafiltration rates.

In a world of optimal dialysis, there is absolutely nothing wrong in eating while on dialysis for the average patient without underlying difficulties swallowing food. In the world of conventional, American style dialysis, there could be potential risks.

[obsidianom]

My dialysis unit, the Laird Dialysis unit allows full meals and in fact, recent evidence is that dialysis patients have better outcomes with protein during dialysis. That being said, the way American dialysis units perpetrate violent dialysis sessions against their patients for pure business oriented greed, there is indeed a danger if you are prone to hypotensive episodes caused by excessive ultrafiltration rates.

In a world of optimal dialysis, there is absolutely nothing wrong in eating while on dialysis for the average patient without underlying difficulties swallowing food. In the world of conventional, American style dialysis, there could be potential risks.

I do a lot of office surgery and use local anesthetics. I find that if a patient has an empty stomach in the morning when I work on them they often end up with a vaso vagal type reaction and end up dizzy with their blood pressure dropping. Then I have to tip the table way back to get thier feet up higher than their heads to get them normalized. When people eat before and come in with food in their stomachs it almost never happens. I think food in the gut aloows the body to deal with stress better (including dialysis) and would tend to reduce hypotension issues.

[MooseMom]

My mom's dialysis clinic allowed her to eat.  Whenever I was in town, I'd bring her lunch.  She liked Whataburger, so that's what I brought her.  She'd regale me with stories of which patients liked which kinds of food.

But whenever my mom travelled and so had to dialyze in other clinics, the rules seemed so random.  Some forbade eating during dialysis while others allowed it but only small, bite sized bits of food.  I can't say for sure, but it seems to me that some clinics just don't want to have to deal with any mess that comes with patients eating during treatment.  Seems to be a matter of convenience rather than medical contraindications.  If a clinic doesn't want to be inconvenienced in any way, they'll make up some medical gobbledygook.

Sure, there may be a risk of choking for some patients, but I'd imagine those same patients may run the same risk at home or in any place they may consume food.

[frankswife]

No one eats at Frank's center. There are vending machines in the lounge. There is a junk food machine and there was a drink machine with soda and juices, but they took that out because they didnt want the patients drinking and the machine was apparently too much temptation. The problem is, at least 80% of the patients are insulin dependent and the nurses dont stock juice at thier station. I am going to have to bring in a glucogon kit and show the nurses how to use it for Frank in case he goes hypo. They only check blood sugars on request and then don't like to do it because it has to be sent to the lab and costs a fortune and blah blah blah. Makes no sense to me. He has his own meter there but they wont use it.