Head Messed Up? (Stolen from News Articles)

[aharris2]

"More surprisingly, the antihistamine diphenhydramine (Benadryl) also has significant anticholinergic action. Because this drug causes drowsiness, it is frequently found in over-the-counter sleep medications such as Nytol, Simply Sleep, Sominex and Unisom SleepGels. It is also a key ingredient in popular nighttime pain relievers such as Advil PM, Alka-Seltzer PM, Excedrin PM and Tylenol PM."

This was stolen from Okarol's posting "A Surprising Number of Medications Dull Mental Edge" Thanks for the article, OK.

Two very popular meds at the dialysis clinic are Benadryl and Phenergan. Both are significantly anticholinergic (I discovered the phenergan while surfing "anticholinergic"). This is something to think about before one takes them. Weigh the pros and cons. Just by observation in the past, we've concluded that, for Rolando, taking phenergan in-clinic a. relieves nausea and makes him sleep, but, b. makes him feel really bad - totally wiped out and like the life has been sucked out of him, weak, and anxious. No matter how nauseous he is, we never use it in-clinic.

Now, with Rolando's permission, we'll have to look at the Benadryl. He loves it for sleeping through dialysis. But it would be interesting to know how much it contributes to the general fatigue and other symptoms he experiences.

Has anyone else explored this?
Those of you who feel good after dialysis - do you use these in-center meds?
Those of you who feel bad after dialysis - do you use these in-center meds and do you feel different on the occasions when you haven't used them?

Alene

[BigSky]

Never use meds like that in center and feel good most of the time.  Very few exceptions when I do not feel good.

[okarol]

Jenna never used in-center meds. I personally believe that the majority of her fatigue (besides ESRD) was the erratic sleep patterns. She napped at dialysis 3 days a week, then would be up late those nights, sleeping way half of the following day. Her sleep drifted from day to night, no regular pattern. I think this messes with your body clock.

I am interested in the Benadryl because I take it a few times a week to help me sleep when I need to get up early the next morning.

My mental edge is dull most of time!

[jbeany]

I never used used any in-center meds besides heparin.  I still got that washed out feeling after in-cneter dialysis.  I could still go shopping afterwards, but it wasn't a pleasant experience - I was dragging myself around the store only because I had to do it, not because I felt good enough to do it.

[BigSteve]

I almost never sleep during my in center hemo since I'm such a light sleeper
and the lights and alarms keep me awake. Doesn't sleeping during dialysis
interfere with your regular sleep patterns?

[monrein]

I try NOT to sleep even though I want to because right now I'm trying to absorb as much as possible about the machine, my line etc and I have lots of questions for the nurses.  The other thing is I'm dialyzing at 6-10pm so that would mess up my nights big time.  When I go to self care it should be a big improvement over the hospital because there are personal tvs and wireless internet. 

I'm also trying to relearn the feeling of dropping BP,  starting of cramping and so on and I think that if I'm spaced out at all it would be more difficult.