Glowing in Dixie

[MooseMom]

OMG...if I still lived in the South, I'd be dead by now.  We drove all the way from Chicago to the Mississippi Gulf Coast for T-giving with my family.  My aunt was kind enough to make the dinner; it took her THREE DAYS to do it all.  Now, she had two sisters on dialysis (my mom and one of my aunts), so she knows about the renal diet, but she doesn't UNDERSTAND it.  I've explained it to her a couple of times, but she still doesn't get it, which is fine.  As for the T-giving dinner, there was no way I was going to ask for anything special.  My plan was to just have a little bit of the taboo foods and more of the safe stuff.  However, there was no safe stuff (well, there were green beans).  EVERYTHING was on the "foods to avoid" list!!!  Mashed potatoes!  Sweet potato casserole!  Both potassium bombs!  Black-eyed peas!  Butter beans!  Cornbread dressing!  All with lethal amounts of phosphorus!!  I had a piece of turkey the size of my thumb because I wanted to use my phos allowance for the beans.  You can get turkey in Chicago, but not fresh black-eyed peas and butter beans!  I did have just a little bit of everything, but the sum total of all of the "little bits" was a great big bit!  I know I'm so full of phosphorus that I must be glowing.  In fact, I rescheduled my neph appt (and labwork) because my broken kidneys need a LOT of time to filter the stuff out. 

Oh, and oysters.  I had to have my yearly portion of oysters fried (of course) in CORNMEAL!

It makes me really cross that the foods of my heritage are so bad for me.  Thank goodness I live up north now; however, up here everything is laden with cheese.

Anyone else just totally go off their renal diet over T-giving?  I just really didn't have any good food choices to make!

[okarol]

Ha! Funny subject line. I just HAD to know what it meant.
We have a Thanksgiving section on here. You could send auntie some recipes. But really, one day, seems like you can eat and be ok, everything in moderation.

[ChickenLittle56]

MM, I would have all those delicious home made foods if I were you. It is once a year and as Karol mentioned eat it in moderation. Once you got back home you would go back to your renal diet. For dessert I enjoyed a little home made pecan pie and sweet potato empanadas.

P.S. There are Soul Food restaurants in and around Chicago. They serve black eye peas, collard green, okra, ham hocks, corn bread, grits and other delicious southern foods. If I was back at the old dialysis clinic my friends would have told me the best places to go.

[thegrammalady]

the first year i was on dialysis the dietitian came buy with a list of what we "couldn't" eat on thanksgiving. i was a good girl i didn't tear it up and throw it away while she was looking. later that same session the doctor came by. when i told him what had happened, he laughed and told me for thanksgiving i could eat any dam thing i pleased. the all or nothing philosophy is not doing any of us any favors. now i'm very lucky, being on nocturnal means my numbers are so low i can pretty much eat anything i want. i'm still careful, but if i want potatoes i eat them. i just don't eat them every day. there are 3 days a year i've given myself permission to throw the renal diet out, thanksgiving, christmas and my birthday.

[MooseMom]

I'm not so much of a control freak that I didn't eat anything.  It's just that I'm really not used to indulging quite so much, and I indulged because otherwise I wouldn't have been able to eat anything at all.  It was just kinda funny...every dish offered was like the WORST culprit, you know?  So I had a bit of this and a bit of that, and I really enjoyed it!  But I won't be doing that again any time soon.

[Pam]

My Neph says the same thing.....It's Thanksgiving enjoy it! So we go to my sisters for dinner. She's a RN. with a big smile she says....I tried to fix a lot of things I knew you could have! She had several renal friendly side dishes and even soaked the potatoes......her words......but then she says....I know you can't have much salt so I used salt substitute some says we can't win for losing!

[MooseMom]

My Neph says the same thing.....It's Thanksgiving enjoy it! So we go to my sisters for dinner. She's a RN. with a big smile she says....I tried to fix a lot of things I knew you could have! She had several renal friendly side dishes and even soaked the potatoes......her words......but then she says....I know you can't have much salt so I used salt substitute some says we can't win for losing!

LOL@ salt substitute...yeah, you substitute potassium for salt.  How helpful is THAT?   Your sister must have missed the lesson on renal diets when she was in nursing school.

[RightSide]

My neph told me that serum phosphorus levels in the blood don't fluctuate that radically from one day to the next.   If you have more phosphorus than you should for one day only, it may not even change your next blood test number significantly.

The electrolyte that does fluctuate quickly based on what you just ate is: Sodium.  Have some salty pretzels , and your blood sodium level starts to rise rapidly (causing you to get thirsty quickly).

So for next year, just ask your aunt to hold the salt when she cooks--and enjoy yourself.

[greg10]

My neph told me that serum phosphorus levels in the blood don't fluctuate that radically from one day to the next..

I am not so sure your nephrologist is right about this one.  In fact I am thinking of using phosphate clearance as a measure of kt/v because there very sensitive colorimetry that can be done on phosphate levels with relatively cheap cost.