Difficult dialysis session (6/22/22)

This was my most difficult dialysis session yet.

Right at the last 12 minutes of my 4 hour session, my legs started cramping up. They warned me this was a possibility given the amount of fluid they were trying to pull out of my body today (5 liters).

Truly a bizarre experience. It felt like I had just run a 5k and didn’t drink enough water, but all I actually did was lounge in a recliner for 4 hours. I had 3 employees helping me fight the cramps by stretching out my legs, holding me upright and injecting me with saline solution. Ultimately the cramping passed and it was avoided.

Essentially when they pull 10+ pounds of fluid, it will unfortunately also pull water from the muscles (in addition to the vascular system and organs). This is similar to when you sweat a lot without drinking enough enough fluids.

Given that I was carrying 10+ pounds of extra fluid, they have prescribed me a diuretic (a water pill that will make me pee more) during my days off. This should help between sessions.

They also recommended I minimize my fluid intake. This is going to be a huge challenge for me because I love drinking coffee, water, flavored seltzers, etc. Keep in mind most foods contain water so that counts towards my limit.

Normally I would run at the gym and break a sweat to drop additional fluid but I can’t risk getting my catheter wet or infected (which is very risky because it goes directly into my heart) so they told me to minimize sweating. I’m limited to walking for “cardio” which is quite lame.

This entire situation is a full life adjustment. I moved to LA, Thailand, Mexico, many different jobs, relationships, etc but nothing comes close to the adjustment this is.