Wednesday, April 9, 2014

A little bit of good.

Tuesdays are my hardest day of the week.  Normally I have dialysis every other day, but I skip two days Sunday/Monday leading up to Tuesday.  That means I always gain extra weight (I don't have kidneys so I don't urinate) and am often swollen.  Also, for some reason the dialysis is almost painful.  If I can come home and crash for and hour or so I can usually sleep of the misery I feel after.  If I can't well…
So today was no exception.  Actually quite a bit worse than normal. We took off too much fluid and they makes anyone miserable.  I did't get to sleep it off either.  I really hate to complain, so I'll be done with that now.
I did get some good news at dialysis.  My monthly labs came in.  There are  a lot of labs watched in dialysis.  Many of these are things that can be somewhat controlled by diet. These are the ones I have been most concerned about:

Lab                                  Normal for dialysis patient               mine
______________________________________________________
Potassium                                        3.5-6                                        4
Phosphorus                                      2.5-5.5                                    1.4
Albumin (protein)                             over 4                                   3.5
Hematocrit (blood level)                   30-33                                    30

So I totally rocked my labs!  The best news is that because my phosphorus is low I don't have to take tums every time I eat!!  I am so sick of have the residual tums taste in my mouth.  This is huge!!!  Also I can have a little more phosphorus in my diet (dairy products, chocolate, who care about the rest).
I can have more potassium in my diet (avocados, oranges, potatoes, tomatoes, long list).
My protein is getting so much better I am not taking the nastiest liquid protein in the world anymore (they didn't tell me to stop taking it….I just decided I have enough torture in my life right now!)
Things are certainly improving!  For the most part I have been feeling good!
                                 Only 3 weeks from today!!!


No comments:

Post a Comment