Durka-Durka-Muhammed-Jihad!!
Oh the joys of being sick.
One of the 'catches' of being on dialysis is that I have to be weary of how much liquid I drink in a given day. If I drink too much, I'll have to have it 'pulled off' at dialysis and taking too much off in a given session can have nasty effects, i.e. severe muscle cramps.
Now for the last seven months that I've been on dialysis, my fluid retention has been minimal and there have only been one or two occasions where I've ballooned up from my diet....mostly from jamming Mint Chocolate ice cream in my face.
Why is this important? I'll explain....
Yesterday I woke up with dry and burning eyes and feeling a bit....woozie (that's the techinical term for crappy, feeliing really). I had dialysis the day before and nothing remarkable happened there except that I was woken up by loud people in the chair next to me; grrrrr.
I went about my day as usual: shower, shave, dress, take meds, repress a random minority....the usual.
I go to work and that's when I started feeling really shakey; I normally (after a dialysis session) would be 'dizzy', especially when I stood up too fast. I'd have to grab something and steady myself for a few seconds.
Well, yesterday it was much worse. I'd steady myself but would have to do it for about a minute and if I started walking, I'd weave. Weave? I dont' even knit....
And this was happening off and on yesterday. (NOTE TO SELF: do not work on techinical documentation when you're feeling crappy cause 'F*CK IT' is not a suitable answer for documentation status)
And all this time my eye are getting dried and burning - I'd be dousing them with eyedrops every 10 minutes.
So I get home and I'm still feeling crappy. It's when I realize that now is the time to inform my wife that this might be a good time to go to Urgent Care at Scripps Hospital.
So she takes me and in the Triage Room they discover - TA-DA!! - my blood pressure is something like 86/41. We're talking close to being in shock low.
So I end up spending five hours there getting about 1.5 liters of saline pumped into me. Once the first liter was pumped in, my BP jumped up to around 108/56 - better but not 'normal'.
The last (and only) time this happened was when the doctor's had basically over-medicated me and meds drove my BP close to what it was yesterday. This time around....they dunno. They asked me like eight times did I take too much medication that day; I'm almost anal in sorting out my meds and if anything I'm late in taking them. The best they can figure is that somehow I got dehydrated between my dialysis session and my BP meds (which strive to remove excess water and fluids from my blood).
So now I have to strive to not only restrict my fluid intake daily, but I have to ensure that I'm properly hydrated.
Take my advice: don't get sick. It sucks, it doesn't pay really anything, and you can't get dick done. Probably the one 'up side' is that I get a handicapped parking permit, but in the big picture....it isn't worth the hassle of being sick.
I know what you've been through! I've had it happen a few times being on peritoneal dialysis. It'
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ruthie said:
K...I'll try to post this again. sorry you had such a rough day. Do you have a blood pressure k
Read more in Close Call Yesterday
ruthie said:
Ah
Read more in Close Call Yesterday
Comments on Close Call Yesterday
Ah
|| Posted by ruthie, July 1, 2005 04:53 PM ||K...I'll try to post this again. sorry you had such a rough day. Do you have a blood pressure kit at home? Might be a good idea. Hope you are on the mend. i use a pill box with the days of the week on it, so I don't forget, or take two doses because I did forget. Might be useful. Have a good weekend.
|| Posted by ruthie, July 1, 2005 04:55 PM ||I know what you've been through! I've had it happen a few times being on peritoneal dialysis. It's even harder trying to stay hydrated on PD. Gatorade always helped me though....
|| Posted by Tetzman, July 6, 2005 03:11 PM ||Hang it there!