Diabetics on hemo - what does a session do to your blood sugar?

[jbeany]

Mine can be pretty brittle - I've got more ups and downs than a roller coaster some days.  I've been looking for old posts about this, but all I've found is this . ..

I have diabetes 1 and the hemo-dialysis machine does lower your sugar when you are connected. Some people don´t take insulin before dialysis. Talk to your doctor. I know my diabetes is lower now than before - on and off the machine. Also, as we have diet changes with kidney failure and we sometimes suffer from nausea, that would also account for a possible lower sugar level. At least it´s that way with me.

. . .but there's a big difference between lowering my sugar and bottoming out.  How often do you check it during dialysis?  Does it just drop a little or do you have to have glucose tabs or something sweet while you are hooked up?  I start Monday, and I'm just wondering how prepared I need to be for the sugar rush.

On the other hand, stress makes my sugar go up - so this may not be a problem at all the first few times. . . 

[angieskidney]

Just make sure you tell the nurse or tech that you may need your bloodsugar tested during your run. They usually have that tester thingy. Also should bring something if allowed.

[Sara]

I don't know if they test Joe's BG during hemo, but I can say that overall, his levels have never been this good!  It's weird.  He usually takes insulin twice a day, but sometimes he doesn't have to take any, and sometimes a very reduced amount. 

The one good thing that's happened because of dialysis.     (Well, besides letting him live a little longer!)

[stauffenberg]

The kidneys help metabolize insulin, so when your renal function is inadequate, as it is on dialysis, which only provides 10% of normal renal function, the insulin is used up in the body less quickly than it wold with two healthy kidneys.  The result is that circulating levels of insulin remain higher for a longer time, which tends to improve blood sugar control.

[BigSky]

I am not diabetic.

However once I did contact Baxter about the glucose in the dialysate solution.  I was told that during hemo some is removed from the body but with what is in the solution is should all equal out.

Maybe someone knows more on this???

[stauffenberg]

What happens to your blood sugar during a dialysis session is a function of how much background insulin you are taking, how much rapidly-acting insulin you have taken and how soon before dialysis you took it, how soon before dialysis you last ate, how active you have been, and how much you have eaten, whether you have an infection or not, etc.  All the normal factors that continue to influence blood sugar fluctuations throughout the day will continue to be operative during dialysis.  Also, not all dialysate manufacturers seem to have the same opinon of what represents a physiological blood sugar level, so some add more, some less to the mixture.  Generally, my experience has been that blood sugar drifts upward during a four-to-five hour treatment by about 50% of what it was to start.

[Run8]

I'm on an insulin pump and i have noticed my sugars to slightly go up, So the doctor has me set my pump to deliver 120% while i do my treatments. That seems to work pretty good.

[jbeany]

Oooh, flashback post.  I put this up before I started - I've been on over a year now.  After worrying about it, I've found that my sugars don't do much of anything when I'm on dialysis.

[Chris]

I always ate at my dialysis session, so I knew my blood sugar wuld go up. I kept a diary of my reading before starting and after. The problems I had where on the days I didn't have dialysis., which usually meant an ER visit 1 to 3 times a week most times for a severe hypo episode or while with someone. Diabetes became harder to control while on dialysis, but the insulin pump helped. Hard part was not feeling a low come on, or I wake up with one (before pump). That was very hard and  disorientating to get around when that happened. I couldn't walk, barely move, couldn't see right, didn't know exactly where I was or what day or time, but knew the number for my mom's work, but not 911

[Wallyz]

NX stage has  a100 mg/dl of glucose, so if I have any insulin in me, it goes low and I have  a glycogen release.  If it happens early enough, I go back down before I wake up.