Do you feel irritable after dialysis..PLEASE RESPOND

[Neo]

I do nocturnal dialysis on Monday night, Wednesday night, and Friday night at a center from 9pm- 3am... On Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, I am like a different person, I isolate myself and I am very irritable. My girlfriend also has noticed this. It is a very noticeable difference. I don't like being around anyone on those days. Im pretty sure it is due to the electrolytes that are shifted around dialysis i think. Does anyone else feel like this. Because on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I feel great and am pleasent. So what I would like to know is there anything I can do to combat this. I'm going to a psychiatrist to see if there is a medicine to stabilize my mood on those days.... All your suggestions are appreciated..





EDITED: Fixed Spelling in Subject Line - okarol/moderator

[Roxy]

I was like that on my dialysis days mostly because of how exhausted I was, I didn't want to deal with anybody or anything. I hope it gets better for you though. 


EDITED: Fixed Spelling in Subject Line - okarol/moderator

[goofynina]

Heck yes, verrry irritable, i would come home and be so uptight, i didnt even want to be around myself.  I am so glad my family stuck by me even though i was a bitch most of the time, they have seen a great improvement in me and arent afraid to let me know it either.   Lord, i feel sorry for them if and when i have to go back to hemo 

[Jill D.]

I would be very cranky, hungry and almost always have a headache when I would come home from dialysis. I would go from 4-8pm and be really pissed if I got home and ANYONE expected me to cook. I learned to call on the way home to see if anyone had cooked and left something for me otherwise I would pick something up on the way home. Then I would lay down in my bedroom with the lights out and want things to be quiet.

The few times I went in the morning I felt much better, but that didn't work with my work schedule.

[brenda]

I don't think I get real grumpy, I know I get quiet. I just always feel like I need to just get my bearings back right after dailysis. The next day I am maybe a little more tired. But you getting off at 3am, do you go home after that? Those crazy hours would make me cranky. There is no way I could function the next day. So far with nocturnal, and I'm still training, I feel better after more so than with conventional runs but I guess getting up in the morning and going right off to work will have to wait to be seen. But I have also been dialyzing 6 days a week so I don't feel as much of the highs and lows now.

[jbeany]

I don't after home hemo, but I certainly got irratable after in-center. Mostly, I wanted to go home and sleep.  I was always fine the next morning, though.  Maybe the wacky schedule they have you on is messing you up even more than regular dialysis does.

[MattyBoy100]

I like to be on my own after dialysis cos I don't want to talk to anyone.  I go home after dialysis and maybe watch tv for an hour or so.  I usually go to bed pretty soon afterwards.  After a good night's sleep I feel like my old self again the next day.

On New Year's Eve last year I had dialysis and all my family wanted to go to the neighbour's house for drinks.  I didn't want to go as I would have been quite happy resting at home.  I went along and wasn't very good company.  We went home after a couple of hours.  It was a learning curve for my family to not force me to do things when I have just had dialysis.


I find it really helps after dialysis to have some "quiet time" where I may just go to bed with some relaxing music playing on my Ipod and the next day, I get up when I wake up - not with some alarm blaring at me!

[George Jung]

So what I would like to know is there anything I can do to combat this.

The only thing I know to do is to make sure I am hydrated and eat something.  Also, not overdoing intake of fluids and not so healthy food between sessions makes it easier for me.  I think you want the treatment to be as gentle as possible in order to have a quick recovery.  I'm not sure of you physical activity level but an increase in mine has also seemed to benefit.  Drugs are great if all else fails but when they are used to cover up a problem it may not be so good.  You have been on this treatment for 5 yrs right?  Has your treatment changed recently?

[BigSky]

I have never felt like that. 

Sometimes I feel washed out after dialysis, but not much anymore.  It was worse when I first started dialysis but now rarely occurs.

[kitkatz]

Scenario:  Husband picks me up from dialysis treatment. Silence all the way home in the car.  Silence while eating dinner. A brief thank you for dinner is given. Tv is turned on. Light is turned off. Tv is watched. Snuggle down. Sleep.

Scenario:  Do not touch me. Leave me alone. Climb into bed. Sleep.

Scenarion: Hungry as a bear. Walk into house. No dinner is ready. Burst into tears. Eat something sweet. Go to bed.

Think I am grumpy and irritable after dialysis? You betcha!  I am an entirely different person.

[Meinuk]

For the months when I was having access problems and clotting problems and infiltrations etc.  I was miserable.  But not cranky.  During the day, I pretended that nothing was wrong, but I felt dead inside.  I didn't want to be with people let alone be in a relationship.  Now that things are "normal"  good pump speeds, my fistula is working with very little clotting - I am happier.  I like being with people.  I'll even call my friends after dialysis just to chat.

[livecam]

I wasn't irritable afer dialysis but I did feel completely without energy or ambition, slightly wobbly, and just plain beat up.  When my run was over it would be within one to two hours of bedtime depending on how fast I could get to the unit after work.

I would go straight home, occasionally stopping at Baskin Robbins to pick up a goodie for my daughter but just usually going home, getting into bed with her, and reading one story from her favorite book at the time, "Dinosaurs of the Land, Sea, and Air". 

After that it was bedtime with an attempt to sleep and by morning time to do it all over again.

[mrhecht]

I have found that being able to come home and rest then go to bed is the best. I've been on a morning shift, mid-day shift and late afternoon/evening shift which for me is by far the best as I'm home about 9 pm, then bed soon after or TV if I can't sleep. Either way, I'm resting as I have to work the next day.

Also.....resist the urge to make yourself "dry as a bone". Raising your dry weight by as little as 200 ml can make a HUGE difference in how you feel. George is right when he says to try and make your treatments as gentle as possible by not gaining too much fluid and eating good food, limiting your sodium etc. Really paying attention to a low sodium diet for me has been very effective in helping me control my fluid and makes pulling it off a breeze.

Are you on the 3x weekly nocturnal for work reasons? Have you always been on this shift or is it new? Are you able to REALLY sleep......maybe you're sleep deprived. I know that I fall asleep during treatment, but its really just napping, not the deep REM sleep our bodies require.

I hope that everyone's suggestions give you some places to examine and maybe modify something before relying on medicine. I agree that it could just cover up something that might be improve another way.

[lcamanini]

For the first few months I was on dialysis I was extremely irritable after dialysis. I wouldn't talk and if my boyfriend talked to me I would usually snap at him. I even mentioned it to my dialysis nurses and they had never heard of that happening so I thought it was just me. I haven't been as grumpy over the past few months though, except when I'm really wore out, and a nap usually takes care of that for me.

[kitkatz]

I have evening dialysis so I ususally am going to bed right afterwards.  God help the people when I have early dialysis sessions. I am downright irritable.

[jblamb]

Yes , yes, yes.....grumpy and irritable...that's me!! This site has made me so very very happy!!! Why ? because I now know I am not alone with all these yucky feelings I have had and still have after dialysis.
I am very irritable when I come off dialysis. I usually have a splitting headache and don't want to 'cook' 'clean' or do much of anything at all when I get home.  I want food 'presented' to me!! lol  Sometimes my husband hands it to me and sometimes I have to cook (grumbling throughout).

Hang in there...you are not alone!

[Jannie]

Boy, am I a bitch after dialysis. I go Tues Thurs Sat 5:30 am. When I leave, I can hardly walk. I get a huge bottle of lemonade and drink it dom. Then I go home and lie down. Between the nausea and the pain in my arm , I'm no good to anyone. The day in between I feel a little better. I'll cook and clean. Then the next day it's back to dialysis. .. .

[GuyIncognito]

the only thing that seems helps me is drinking a glass of ginger ale with lots of ice as soon as I walk in the door. The Ging. has some mystical healing properties I swear...  must be why they're always serving it up in hospitals.
I also like to have something to look forward to post dialysis, currently it's making sure I have 2 episodes of "rescue Me" to watch that night... that show rocks the casbah.

[goofynina]

Thanks Guy,    now i got that '80's song "Rock the Casbah" stuck in my head 

I have heard so many people say they drink GingerAle for alot of ailments as well, hmmmm, i think i better buy me some of that for Vegas (in case anyone gets a hangover)     

If and when i have to ever go back to hemo (i am praying never)  but, i will make sure to try that, thanks for the tip Guy 

[Ang]

usually  dx  is  pretty  good,no  side  effects,but  if  i  drink  to much 4  litres  this  past  weekend,according  to  the  scales(don't  believe  it  myself,but  they  took  off  3.5 litres,felt  tired,massive  headache,really  washed  up,but  when  the  8  year  old  daughter wants  your  time,  you  just  gotta  pull  yourself  up  off  the  couch  and  go  play  for  an  hour  or  2.

[fluffy]

for some reason when i leave dialysis im usually agressive pissed off and very cynical, and then im bored and lonely cause i get home late at night (11 pm)

[Neo]

Yea its tough on my girlfriend sometimes even though I told her its from dialysis and she is VERY understanding she does want to spend time with me and I kind of don't feel like it on the days i come off the machine. But I do want to see her I just wish I felt a little less irritable if you all know what I mean.

[fluffy]

my girlfriend for some reason has a calming effect on me no matter how angry i am, i never get to see her after treatment tho

[goofynina]

I am sure your girlfriends understand, it sounds like the both of you found great girls  And i am sure they will be there for you through good times and bad, so hang in there 

[GuyIncognito]

Having a 13 month old daughter means taking a deep breath and doing it for the team... The last thing I want to do when I get home at 4:30 is get dinner ready but it has to be done and in all honesty once I switch on CBC radio and dive into it I start to feel allot better.