Jeff's Journal

The Chair Won Today

I have had a couple of good weeks of treatment. I had even decided it was time to start driving myself to and from the clinic. That was until today. The chair won today.

When you do dialysis, the machine pulls toxins out of the blood, but it also pulls fluids. One guy had to have 10 kilos pulled. That is roughly 22 pounds. That is a lot of pulling. The techs say when he stood up, his pants fell down.

The way it works is that you are designated a “dry weight” by the clinic. You weigh yourself as you enter the clinic to determine how much to pull off. At the end of the experience, you weigh yourself to see what was actually done. Most folks come into the clinic for their treatments above their dry weight and then dialyze down to the dry weight and depart. When they come back in to the clinic for treatment, they are back above their dry weight and repeat the process. In former days, the machines were not as sophisticated and it was a guess. One nurse told a story of how someone had dialyzed six hours and only pulled a couple of pounds and then had to go back on the machine for a couple more hours to pull to the target weight. I can’t imagine being ready to leave and then told you have to do it for a couple more hours. At the end of four hours, I’m more than ready and happy to get out of there.

When they pull too much weight, you know it. You know it because you start to cramp. Fortunately, they can push some saline into the blood and that helps to ease the pain. Today they pulled too much off of me (not 10 kilos) and I could hardly move at the end of the treatment experience. Their problem was I came in under my dry weight and under my previous exit weight and instead of “holding” they continued to pull fluid. So much for driving myself home. Tie that experience to the usual all-body tingle of electrolyte exchange and the fact that I was put on 1 hour late and it equals to a long day.

I’m calling it a night and I’m looking forward to tomorrow. It has to be a better day.

posted by Jeff Waldo @ 5:59 PM