Switched my days...

[AaishaDar]

Hi everyone!
Just wanted to share. Soo since school is starting I changed my dialysis days from Mon-Wed-Fri  at 11 to 2:30  to now Tue-thurs-sat 6:30am to 10am. YUP 6am. Its super early!!! I am not an early bird lol. And on another note since I switched  my schedule I have to wait 3 days until my next treatment. Im trying extremely hard not to drink much in one day and its soooooo hard. I even tried lemon water with everything!!







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[Simon Dog]

One nice thing about the early AM shift is that you tend to get hooked up on time.

[Michelle2016]

To AaishaDar:

1. Try ice chips and frozen grapes.
2. Surf on this website and you will learn lots of smart ideas.
3. You are very young. You will have a bright future. I learned from this and other website that some peoples became teachers, nurses, nurse practitioners, even doctor when they had dialysis and transplantations.

Take care and good luck.

[Charlie B53]

I buy the BIG bag of the two flavors of Lifesavers Mints.  Stick about 4 each in my shirt pocket every morning.  When my mouth dries out too badly I suck on one of those mints.  Keeps me away from the drinks for a while.

When I do break down and stop by the kitchen sink I use a very small glass and then only fill it less than half full.  Just enough to fill my mouth.  If I'm careful I can swallow almost FOUR times before my mouth goes empty.  Then set that glass down and walk away.

Sometimes I'll drop a few ice cubes into that glass before adding that little bit of water, swirl the cubes for a few minutes waiting for it to get much colder.  That mouthful of cold water is a nice relief.  But learn to force yourself to then walk away.

If you really need it, come back again in an hour.

I am rarely even 2 K's over, but then again I have fell totally off the wagon and came in at 3.5 over.  Ooops, I'll do better tomorrow.

[Michael Murphy]

I have a house in the Adirondacks,  when I  go up I Switch from M W F to T T S.  to avoid the three day gap I change my last Friday appointment to s  Saturday treatment so I go M W S and then T T S.  I get the normal weekend gap after W treatment and after the S treatment.  Switching back after returning I drive down on a Monday to avoid traffic and then go T W F to again avoid a 3 day gap.  This type of scheduling allows me to travel without worrying about large gaps.  By the way I have been going to a 5:30 start for the last 4 and a half years and while I occasionally switch to other slots if patients need a early slot.  At this slot I don't get impacted by patients being late.  I also have never been late since 3 more people are scheduled for that position during the day.  If I am late it pushes all three out of their normal schedule.  The other advantage is I generally sleep about half the time and it makes the sessions seem shorter.

[AaishaDar]

One nice thing about the early AM shift is that you tend to get hooked up on time.

Okay that sounds great. I just wanna leave early enough to go back to bed haha

[AaishaDar]

So today was my treatment early in the morning. Ive been feeling sick this past weekend. Im guessing its due to the three days od no treatment. Bad sore throat a runny nose and absolute fatigue. This is how I used to feel back in the day when I was 13 so today brought back a lot of emotions. I read that many patients only last 3-5 years on hemo and that treatment 3 times a week is the bare minimum. The days in between really dont do well for your heart... anyways, at dialysis I started to feel very dizzy even though I was laying down and my bp dropped 90/60 I was fluid over loaded so that was not my norm. I got nauseous and threw up some. I never get dizzy its rare so it scared me a bit. They did not reach my dry weight so im watchung each ans everything I drink.
I guess after today Im really ready for a transplant but im afraid it will take some time because my weight is 83 pounds.  Its hard for me to gain weight. I had a feeding tube 2 years back never fully adjusted then finally removed it i dont want that again. Today was just a day full of emotions sad ones mostly.

[SKS]

I had a relative on Dialysis 23 years - she used over time PD with and without a cycler, had a transplant etc -- her daughter will tell anyone that overall they enjoyed 23 years of life even with her problems.  For the dialysis they preferred the PD with cycler.  I know this because since my husband started PD at home (after hemo incenter) we've had lengthy discussions. 

[iolaire]

I was thinking along the lines of @SKS, @AaishaDar is PD an option?  That might be easier on the a smaller body frame, and being frequent treatments means that you might no gain as much fluid.

[AaishaDar]

I started dialysis st the age of 15 and since I was in highschool I chose pd. It lasted me about 6 and a half years no problems. This Feb I got a really bad infection and had to switch to hemo. They both have their pros and cons. My only choice is transplant for the future.

[GA_DAWG]

There are many at our clinic with 15 years and up on dialysis. So don't put a limit on what you can do. The last I talked to the transplant unit, they said the wait time was up to around 8 years now, so don't believe the 5 years thing. Many who wind up on dialysis are much older, especially much older than you, and have other health related problems. Also, many are unable to make the changes to their lifestyle necessary. My wife was at the cemetery with her sister, whose husband died of cancer. There was a lady at the next grave who said her husband had been on dialysis, but decided if he could not drink V8 juice, it was not worth the sacrifice, so he quit.

[AaishaDar]

Thanks for cheering me up. overall my labs have been within range so Ill just keep on doing what I usually do. Working on gaining weight.

[AaishaDar]

Does anyone know why my blood pressure is starting to drop now? Like its rare for me being the fact Im always fluid overloaded. Also starting to get dizzy durinf treatment which is alsp rare.

[Michael Murphy]

Watch your BP.  As you near your dry weight it will go down as you go past your real dry weight it will drop even faster. Unfortunately BP is the best indication of effective dry weight.  Make sure the center is monitoring your BP cause it fall below a certain amount the Ulta Filltration ( water removal) during dialysis needs to be lowered.  As in all things talk to your nephrologist.