107) Thursday Dizzies

March 1, 2007
Thursday

El Milagro: I am on time today, and being sat on the window side of the center. Usually I’ve had a chair in the back half of the center, but the last few times they’ve sat me in the front half. Today I ask Gladys what’s the deal and she responds that they are trying to only use the front half of the place now that a number of patients have left. She continues that most of them have gone back to the other center that was being re-built, but I get the idea that some have left for other mysterious reasons she’s not willing to talk about. This may just be my hallucination… I listen to NPR’s All Things Considered and am getting settled into my session when Suzanne the Administrator stops by to ask when I am available for starting the Client Advisory Committee meetings. I report to her that I sent in the forms she gave me for the DaVita committee and never heard back from them. Suzanne is surprised at that, since the national folks are always nagging the centers about getting patients involved. She says she’ll check on that. I tell her that MWF right after work generally works for me, and forget to add, “as long as I am in town”. Phyllis the Nurse also comes by at some point and invites me to come in for the second shift (11 am) on Saturday and I say “yes”, even though I might miss either Shayna’s soccer or basketball game.

At the end of my session tonight, right before they are ready to unhook me, I start having some cramps in both my calves that I am able to remedy by forcing my feet to do lateral pointe work as in ballet. Usually a few rolls of my feet into pointe will do the trick and it does this time too. So, the tech unhooks me, takes by BP and I stand for a standing BP. I find I can’t keep standing all the way through the taking, and fall back into my chair. I am dizzy and feeling faint and just want to close my eyes and rest. So, Ron the Nurse comes over and pumps some saline into me to reverse the effects of too much liquid being pulled out of my blood*. Of course the more saline they put back in, the less effective the dialysis, so we all want to just put in enough saline to bring up my BP to a minimally acceptable number. During this event, my BP is running about 80 something over 50 or so. And, because of these adjustments I don’t get outa there until about 9 pm. Finally my BP is up to 110/75 and I am able to walk around without feeling like a zombie and so I’m outa there and on my way home happily.

Notes: In at 75.4 and out at 73.5 Kgs.
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* Low blood pressure and kidney dialysis, retrieved online March, 2007 from the Kidney Patient News website at http://www.kidneypatientnews.org/kpt7.html#Low%20Blood%20Pressure%20(Hemodialysis)