Strangest thing happened! I DON'T want to Push My Luck, though.

[jmintuck]

I used to be p!cking sensitive to potassium. Now I passed through two pretty big "potassium challenges" of significance. If you read my earlier posts before, on the weekend was a HUGE chunk of potassium. Now, this Thu. I had 3 slices of pizza.

My dietician didn't like the idea of pizza, but I thought "Frell you" until I received "proofs" from all tests "challenges", then I would be able to judge everything better. I was so annoyed that she was kind of a pushy ^%$#@!( until I tried for

myself what was what. Thankfully, the pizza wasn't flooded with the tomato sauce, which would have needed tons of scraping. There seemed to be in full, mostly a tablespoonful for all three pieces, in total. I just limited it by scraping any gobs off


and pouring on, virtually the Mozzarella cheese thickly to make up for what might be lost in the other flavor department. It made up NICELY for what I scraped off,Actually, it tasted BETTER! A win for once.

[Blake nighsonger]

 I had my heart stop 9 times in about a two hour period from possible overload of K. Labs test showed my level to be 8.5 after 5 or 6 stops before doctors ( I think 5 of them converged after cold blue at hospital) countered it . ..... So when my lips start to get numb next time i have eaten to many potato chips,... well-------. Funny thing is, because our cells produce potassium when they start to break down they could not say with 100% sureness that it was indeed the K. before event the caused it o stop.  I've learnt not to come close to seeing the bottom of a bag of chips. Also; CPR works!!!!! .... a nurse told me to be sure and play the lottery when i got home.                     

[jmintuck]

I had my heart stop 9 times in about a two hour period from possible overload of K. Labs test showed my level to be 8.5 after 5 or 6 stops before doctors ( I think 5 of them converged after cold blue at hospital) countered it . ..... So when my lips start to get numb next time i have eaten to many potato chips,... well-------. Funny thing is, because our cells produce potassium when they start to break down they could not say with 100% sureness that it was indeed the K. before event the caused it o stop.  I've learnt not to come close to seeing the bottom of a bag of chips. Also; CPR works!!!!! .... a nurse told me to be sure and play the lottery when i got home.                   

I would be kind of scared to play the Lottery after my heart stops. Why?

Might stop again the day I got the BIG ONE check, and then what? I also don't allow a Helluva lot of K at any challenge, if can be helped, most times, unless there IS a genuine accident.

BTW, how big was the bag of chips? Family size, regular or a "single serving"? This will help me guage what to do next time I encounter chips and make sure the size before decisions can ever be made again.

[Charlie B53]

And you all are on Hemo?    I am on PD at the very opposite end of the spectrum.  Taking K supplement and told to eat even MORE!

This is crazy.  If I had to switch I wouldn't know what to eat any longer.

I am just amazed at the total difference.

[kickingandscreaming]

And you all are on Hemo?    I am on PD at the very opposite end of the spectrum.  Taking K supplement and told to eat even MORE!

It's not just a matter of what form of dialysis they're on. It's a matter of individual differences.  PD isn't an absolute ticket to eating high potassium foods without consequence--unless your body happens to process it that way. But in general, PD does a better job of clearing potassium.

[KatieV]

I'm currently on NxStage and keeping a good potassium level.

When I was on dialysis the first time and still had my natural kidneys, I was on a 3K bath, taking potassium tablets (they're huge!), and encouraged to drink orange juice on a regular basis!  I was also drinking close to 2 gallons of water a day!  My genetic kidney disease was a "water waster" - the kidneys were processing the fluid (and dumping potassium), but wasn't filtering out the toxins.  They were removed 2 days before my first transplant, as there was concern they would dehydrate the transplant. 

[LorinnPKD]

I'm like Charlie -- amazed by the differences!

And like Katie, my kidneys handle water just fine and I even used to have to have potassium added to my bath for hemodialysis.  But my calcium is really high and that's what we're monitoring.

I was reading that description of piles of mozzarella and thinking, oh man, I would trade you gobs of tomato sauce for a pile of mozzarella!

[Blake nighsonger]

Recalling, it was a big bag, best of bunch towards the bottom, all crunched up. Pretty potent....low sodium even .... that was the kicker i  bet, consentrated!?      At any rate, made me listen better to what body is saying , have been on HD for 9 months in center ,,fluid as you might surmise is a big challenge right now for me definitely in this regard. thank for bringing subject up.

[jmintuck]

Recalling, it was a big bag, best of bunch towards the bottom, all crunched up. Pretty potent....low sodium even .... that was the kicker i  bet, consentrated!?      At any rate, made me listen better to what body is saying , have been on HD for 9 months in center ,,fluid as you might surmise is a big challenge right now for me definitely in this regard. thank for bringing subject up.

During ANY challenge at any time, I would NEVER allow myself to get into a huge bag like that type. Party size? Oh HELL NAW! Just the tiniest bag one can get, such as found as Halloween giveaway size, or vending machine size.

[Fabkiwi06]

The nice thing about potassium is that it is fairly easy to get out of your system. It's easily removed with dialysis and if your lab results end up high, there is a medication that can essentially move it through your system in a night (not a fun experience the one time I had to do that... would not recommend).

Phosphorus is harder to remove. Once that level gets high, it's a battle bringing it down for me.