Bob's Blog Saturday 5-2-09

Bob Here

My wife and I like to take our vacations at beach locations, and it’s easy to envision a scene like this.

We’re sitting in our beach chairs, down close to the water on a sunny, steamy-hot day.

We like to read and listen to our IPods during these very relaxing vaca-days.

Suddenly, this incredible woman walks by.

Wearing the tiniest of bikinis, carrying an iced-tea in a clear plastic cup, with lots of ice and a thick slice of lemon.

She’s really buffed, perfectly proportioned and capturing the imagination of every male in the general vicinity.

I start to breath a little heavier while watching her walk by, which gets my wife’s attention, although in a distant way.

The I let a little growl out, and the Mrs. starts to pay a little more attention.

She suddenly sees the direction I’m looking, sees the girl.

But, not being the jealous type, she lets it go.

Then I growl a little again and squirm a little in my chair, which annoys her a little bit.

She checks back on me a few seconds later and I’m still staring, but she still doesn’t say anything.

Then my passion takes over and without even knowing it, I verbalize my heated desire.

In a throaty voice, I say,

“Boy does that drink look good.”

The wife just looks at me, shakes her head, and goes back to reading her book.

Let’s face it, fluid restrictions make dialysis patients do crazy things, and sometimes non-patients just can’t understand it.

When we go grocery shopping, I make sure we walk down the drink aisle.

I know I can’t partake, I just like to see all the different drinks.

If anybody questions me about it, I’d say, hey, do I give you a hard time about your fantasies?

We all know that fluid restrictions are a part of our lives on dialysis.

Unfortunately, a necessary part, like it or not.

Our bodies don’t clear fluids the way a “normal” person’s does, so we constantly have to watch our intake.

At minimum, having too much fluid on can make our treatments a lot less pleasant, and, let’s face it, they’re not real pleasant to begin with.

Depending on where you are with your dry weight, too much fluid can have an impact on your blood pressure and respiratory system as well.

Point being that it’s a big deal. Not telling anybody in this forum anything they don’t already know.

When I first started on dialysis, I wasn’t totally clear on how strongly sodium content was related to the fluid intake issue.

Bit of denial?

Maybe, I probably had higher than average sodium content in my diet, and didn’t want to cut out some of my favorite foods.

So, there I was, trying to keep things as normal as possible, but in doing so, not cutting down on my sodium as I should.

I found out real soon that that lifestyle doesn’t lend itself to keeping your fluid intake at bay.

This is where the crazy behavior comes in.

You find yourself going up to kids in the mall, saying, “PSST, hey kid, five dollars for your Slurpee.”

When you’re at a dinner and someone asks to have their water glass refilled, you get a sudden urge to stab them through the heart with your salad fork.

You’re in a famous place, say a museum, and everyone around you is looking wondrously at the exhibits. You’re looking at the water fountains in the hallway.

You try to imagine a way that you can position yourself backward and upside down, so you can get your head under the coffee urn at work and pour the drink right down your throat.

Thing is, when you do have an allowable drink, say with dinner, you don’t want anybody messing with it.

Again, early on in my dialysis life, the wife and I were having dinner.

Suddenly, she says, “Can I have a sip of your water?” and reaches over for it.

I shout, “NO!!”

And snatch it away before she can get it.

She’s just looking at me.

I was a little embarrassed by my rash reaction, but the best I can come up with is,

“Well…hey, it’s not like you were choking or anything.”

She just shakes her head. Kind of like she did in my beach scenario.

Imagine that.

But there are some things you can do to keep from wanting to drink up the bathtub.

Watching your sodium intake may be the most important one.

Pay particular attention to any kind of prepared foods (anything in a can or a box, for example).

These kinds of foods typically have very high sodium content. This will make you thirsty and will make keeping your fluid intake down a challenge.

If you get thirsty during the day, try chewing gum. It works for me.

The other thing is exercise, and I know it’s a big surprise to everyone that I’m bringing up exercise again.

But staying active can help you use up some fluids, and if you can avoid overcompensating afterward it can help keep you closer to your dry weight.

What are some of the things you all do to help with your fluid intake?

Anyway, thanks for reading.

I hope everyone has a good week of treatments.

Stay active and take care.