Shakes in dialysis patients

[nee]

Hello Everyone,

My Dad's been on hemodialysis for 6 yrs now and he recently experiences uncontrollable shakes. They come in about every 4 minutes or so, and when they come they shake him from his chin down to his shoulder and hand, one shake for each occurrence.

His kidney doctor suspects that his calcium is too low. The symptom is scary because he already has weak legs and very poor vision. I should take him to his family doctor tomorrow and in the meantime I appreciate greatly if you have any info on this kinda shakes and if  you have seen this in dialysis patients.

Fyi, I got very good info from the brumley.com/renal/  website about everything dialysis but recently they dont allow logon anymore -- dont know what happened to that wonderful site.

Nee

[kitkatz]

We have someone in our center who is having that happen to him.  He shakes all over and then parts of him tremor at times.  It is really weird.  Have not found out what is causing it yet either.

[nee]

Yes, thats weird.

After some research by myself yesterday, I found that those were not shakes as seen in some dialysis patients at the center. Rather, they are more like Myoclonic jerks or Myoclonus. They are involuntary twitching of a muscle or a group of muscles.

Called "action myoclonus", this type is characterized by muscular jerking triggered or intensified by voluntary movement or even the intention to move. It may be made worse by attempts at precise, coordinated movements. And this was exactly what happened to my Dad for 2 days. As scheduled, I took him to the Dr. at 3pm yesterday, and guess what, those jerks did not repeat even once in front of our Dr. You can guess how intriguing things turned, and the doc had his eyes wide open with full of ?. At home, they jerked him up to 2:30 pm, once every 2-3 minute !!!

Anyhow, I thank God that those myoclonic jerks were just temporarily. Dont know if that had to do with too much caffeine -- he drinks strong coffee and twice or 3 times per day. On the day he went to the doc, he quit coffee even the evening before. Maybe that helped a lot. Another thing we suspected was one of the cardiac meds that he takes has lab change -- this could be a more probable culprit that brought about the myoclonus side-effect.

Thats all I have. And I'm so glad he is now back to normal though still a bit weak like most dialysis patient.

Oh Kitkatz btw, I've never seen such a cute and lovely cat. Where u get this character?

Nee

[nee]

Oh I mean to share with the board about the shakes I have in some dialysis patients at the center.
I dont think its uncommon. When a patient shakes, techs or nurses need to check the temp on
the machine and how much fluid outake he/she can tolerate. Although he is heavy, a high run rate
can break him down and cause the clamps and shakes. In this case, either turn the U/F off for 7 minutes
or cut the goal down by 300 - 400 grams. When his condition and bp has got better, turn the U/F back
on. But remember, if you turn the U/F back on after 7 mins off, you have to adjust the goal down as well
because of the lack of 7  minutes. If you want to take the same amount of fluid then add back 7 mins to
the machine clock.
Another thing to avoid shakes is looking at the patient condition that day. Some day you are fine, some day you
 are weaker.

Thats is why I stay with my Dad all the time at the dialysis center and "I' adjust the machine, UF rate, sodium,
not the tech. I dont trust them, but I dont blame them. They simply have more than 1 patient and they dont
know my Dad like I do. I wish I could pull his needles too, because some of the techs cause my Dad bleeding more
than necessary. They are just not gentle or skillful enough.

Hope this helps.
Nee

[kitkatz]

(Off topic, sorry)   
Nee,  The cat is from off the street. She is 13 years old now.  Her name is Ming.