I am so hungry after dialysis

[PattyTricia]

Does anyone feel really hungry after dialysis? Some days I feel like I can never get the full feeling. I try to eat a little before dialysis to see if that will help and still I am so hungry. Right now I don't get home until about 6:30 pm or so. I try to eat some dinner and 1 hour later I am hungry again. The next day the hunger is gone. They frown on me bringing food because my blood pressure runs low.
Thanks for any suggestions.

[Simon Dog]

I am often starved after D; feel like I can barely make it downstairs to feed.  Have taken to bringing a box of granola bars and bottle of water upstairs (home) to D.

[lulu836]

They frown on me bringing food because my blood pressure runs low.

Eating and drinking *raises* BP.  I don't understand the correlation.  I take 8 oz of sweet iced tea, a sandwich bag of Cheddar Blasted Goldfish, a big handful of Jelly Belly Jelly Beans and sometimes an apple with me for every dialysis session.  PS I don't bring any of that back with me.  My unit does not allow full meals, obviously, because of "leftovers" but snacks are a must.  Besides all that, it is you not them who is undergoing treatment.

[Simon Dog]

Eating and drinking *raises* BP.  I don't understand the correlation.

Drinking does.   Eating can cause blood to shift to service the digestive system and reduce BP.

[Paul]

Dialysis removes all sorts of stuff from the blood, including some things you would rather keep. One of these is sugar. If, like me, you are diabetic, this is a good thing (one person at my clinic managed to give up insulin after going on dialysis) however if you have a fully working pancreas this can be a bad thing. The quantity of sugar in your blood regulates how hungry you feel, so I am guessing this is your problem. Try to convince the nurses/techs to allow you to take a couple of glucose tablets during dialysis (or eat candy) to keep your blood sugar level up. Failing that, take the glucose immediately after.

Eating and drinking *raises* BP.  I don't understand the correlation.

I think you are the exception that proves the rule, like those people who find coffee helps them sleep. For most of us, eating lowers blood pressure as blood slows to digest.

They frown on me bringing food

You are unlucky there. My clinic provides tea and cookies. They used to also supply sandwiches, but funding was cut a few months back so they had to stop the sandwiches. Instead they now have a deal with a local sandwich company who sell them to patients at a special rate (or if you are a cheapskate like me, you can bring in your own).

[kristina]

Hello,
I quite agree with Paul and I am very sorry that he no longer has sandwiches/cookies provided at his dialysis-unit.
A nephrologist explained to me, that during dialysis our whole body “works very hard” to accommodate the rather harsh dialysis-treatment and that makes us naturally hungry. He recommended that I should try out first, whether or not my body was able to accept food during dialysis, (apparently some people feel sick and as a result they cannot enjoy any food during dialysis) and if my body was able to accept food, it is quite recommendable to enjoy food during dialysis-treatments, as this food strengthens us, whilst our body is "hard at work" during dialysis-treatment.
Good-luck-wishes from Kristina.

[Paul]

I quite agree with Paul and I am very sorry that he no longer has sandwiches/cookies provided at his dialysis-unit.

It is only the sandwiches they stopped. We still get the cookies (and a 200 ml cup of tea). I've even trained several of the nurses as to what type of cookies I prefer (ginger nut) and one will even save me a few if they are running short of that type.

[Simon Dog]

What country are you in that provided cookies?    We don't get any of that stuff here in the US.

[GA_DAWG]

I had a doctor tell me that dialysis is the equivalent of running a marathon to your body. Not necessarily to your mind because all you sense is sitting still. He said it was imporatant to replace the protein in particular, but also other things lost during dialysis. Like everything else, it will vary somewhat person to person. I am always hungry and after getting something to eat, usually take a quality nap.

[kristina]

I had a doctor tell me that dialysis is the equivalent of running a marathon to your body. Not necessarily to your mind because all you sense is sitting still. He said it was imporatant to replace the protein in particular, but also other things lost during dialysis. Like everything else, it will vary somewhat person to person. I am always hungry and after getting something to eat, usually take a quality nap.

Many thanks for informing us about your doctor's comments! It is very much appreciated and certainly re-assuring, because I often feel after a dialysis-session as if I had just completed a marathon! That just goes to show that the body needs something to eat in order to replenish energies because of the strain of the marathon!
Thanks again from Kristina.

[Paul]

What country are you in that provided cookies?

UK, however it is not as simple as that, as each country in the UK (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland) has it's own health authority with it's own rules. So it is possible the cookie rule is an English health authority rule, and runs in all English NHS dialysis centres (and not the rest of the UK).

However England splits it's health cover into lots of smaller separate health areas each with it's own rules. In most cases each area is the catchment area of one hospital with that hospital being in overall charge (funded and overseen by the government) although sometimes several neighbouring hospitals will group into one medical trust and act for the entire area those hospitals cover. To make it even more confusing, in the case of conditions that need very expensive and very specialist care but don't have many sufferers per hospital, one central hospital will cover that condition in several neighbouring hospitals. That is how it works in my area. My hospital area has no facilities to treat any kidney condition, but they give space in their hospital for dialysis and consulting rooms, both of which are run by an entire different hospital, run on that trust's rules. So basically I am in the Croydon health area but the cookie rule comes from the neighbouring health area which is St Hellier. And if that is not confusing enough, there is an island which is a British dependency called St Hellier, but that ain't the health authority that covers our cookie rule, it is the "St Hellier and Epsom Hospital Trust" in Surrey (just south east of London). So it is possible the cookie rule is a "St Hellier and Epsom Hospital Trust" rule, and runs in all "St Hellier and Epsom Hospital Trust" NHS dialysis centres.

Oh, and if that does not make it as clear as mud, let me darken the waters a bit more for you: My clinic is run by Fresenius under contract from St Hellier who pay the bills and make the rules. St Hellier is a big hospital, they employ an outside company to do all the catering. My clinic just buy a big thing of tea bags, several pints of milk, and boxes of cookies then get the nurses to make and distribute the tea once everyone is on the machines. It is possible that St Hellier's rules are that they just have to provide tea (no cookies). However St Hellier may have judged the amount of money this costs by their own more expensive method of hiring an outside contractor to make and distribute tea (that is not all they do, they feed and refresh an entire hospital of patients, but you get the point). So Fresenius may possibly be in the position that they have more money for the tea than the cost of the tea bags and milk. No big company likes to give back money to the client, because they may see it as an excuse to reduce what they pay for the entire service. But if they just pocket the money and it comes out that they are keeping money meant for patient refreshment, they are liable to loose all their British NHS contracts, which is a hell of a lot of clinics and a hell of a lot of money (my clinic alone costs the NHS several million dollars a year, and Fresenius have loads of such British clinics), so Fresenius are not going to do that. It is possible that they get rid of the extra money by buying us cookies. So it is possible the cookie rule is a "Fresenius clinics within the St Hellier and Epsom Hospital Trust area" rule, and runs in all "Fresenius clinics within the St Hellier and Epsom Hospital Trust area".

Or it is even possible that the cookie rule was dreamed up by a manager in my clinic, and only applies to the Purley Fresenius clinic.

I don't know which of these options is the correct one, so I don't know at which level the cookies rule comes in. But at least you now know more about the organisation of the NHS in Britain than you ever wanted to know!

[kitkatz]

I bring my own snacks to dialysis. I dialyze six hours.  I usually bring a sliced up apple, 2 mozzarella cheese sticks, 2 rye crackers, baby carrots, sometimes cookies, sometimes chocolate in the bottom of the bag as a treat one hour before it all ends, a sandwich bag of tortilla chips.  I also bring a large cup of ice in with me. I do not usually drink all of it just eat ice occasionally if I feel I need it.  I make a picnic out of it for an hour or so sometimes. Other times I will eat after my nap and then wait and eat toward 6:30 or 7pm to give my body so,me protein towards the end of treatment.

[PattyTricia]

Thank you all for the information. I am going to try taking some crackers and see if thats okay.

[Charlie B53]

I take a Zip Lok bag of Honey Nut Cheerios and an apple.  I snack on two to four pieces of cereal at a time so it takes almost three hours to eat the whole bag, then much my apple.

I get a cup of ice from the machine in the lobby but I seldom ever touch it.  Taking but one small sip to take the pills Nurse brings me, than another small one as I am cleaning up my space afterwards.

[JW77]

Also in the UK..

I'm home heamo, usually eat something on dialysis and feel hungry when I come off.

But the unit has a policy of plain biscuits only (potassium isn't removed sufficiently on dialysis, apparently) 
They do provide sandwiches and meals for the twighlight shift patients.

One unit I was in didn't allow ANY food on dialysis, for the above mentioned BP drop as blood goes to the stomach..  I think mostly elderly patients with bad circulation had that problem.But the consultant decided to make it standard for the unit and all patients!

[Riki]

In my unit, we get tea or coffee, and cookies, about half way through treatment. Some will have crackers with peanut butter, but that's usually just diabetics that have that.  On Fridays, they have blueberry muffins, but I find I eat them too quickly, and we can't have both the muffins and the cookies. We used to have a toaster on the unit, but it was decided that people were eating too much, so it was removed.  After a couple of people fell asleep with hot tea in their hands, they tried to take away hot drinks, but ended up with a small riot on their hands

[Whamo]

   I've found that eating a protein bar just before going into dialysis helps satisfy your hunger and keep energy levels up after the treatment.

[Geiser100]

Im always hungry after, so on the way home I get a big cheeseburger. Don't worry, I take my binders and my labs are always good.

[Riki]

Im always hungry after, so on the way home I get a big cheeseburger. Don't worry, I take my binders and my labs are always good.

I do that sometimes too. *G*  On Mondays, I order garlic fingers from Domino's cuz if you order online on Mondays they are half price.  That is usually my treat for the week