Bump in the Road

A sort of large bump.
Last night was freaky.
It was business as usual at the dialysis place.
Or so I thought.
I come home feeling as usual, which is kind of tired but still functional. Dialysis sometimes can be a fatiguing thing but usually it's not too bad.
I usually recuperate by reclining on the couch and watching Law & Order.
Anyways last night, I get up off the couch, slowly, for if I get up too fast, sometimes these rarely used muscles in my thighs involuntarily contract sending waves of excruciating pain to my brain.
Well, I must have not gotten up slow enough for a rarely used muscle in my thigh involuntarily contracted and sent waves of excruciating pain to my brain. This is usually followed by distorted vision and beautiful colors bursting like fireworks behind my eyelids.
Sometimes these cramps last a minute, sometimes they last more than a couple of minutes.
Well, I'm standing there over the couch unable to move with my dog looking at me like I'm some sort of crazed demon and the cramps fade and my vision comes back to normal.
Okay.
This sort of thing happens every once in a while as during dialysis, one of the goals is to lower the amount of fluid in your body. With renal failure, your kidneys don't process all the fluid you take in so dialysis removes the stuff your kidneys were supposed to. That, and of course it removes all the toxic stuff I ingest during the course of two days.
Last night, I took off about 3.5 litres of fluid, which means I left dialysis about seven pounds lighter.
This may sound like a lot, but trust me, it's sort of par for the course. I've been doing this for like three years already and usually have no problem removing that amount of fluid.
Well, there was the couple of times I cramped up on the stairs going to the parking lot and the time I my thigh froze up in front of the convenience store.
Last night though, the cramps passed and I figure okay, that was interesting, so I start to walk the ten steps or so it takes me to get to the kitchen and darn it, wouldn't you know it, it hits me again.
Except this time it's bad.
DILBPS bad.
So I'm standing there, trying to undo the cramping muscle in my leg while at the same time, it looks like the Fourth of July going off behind my closed eyes, and I'm trying not to hit the floor because I'm starting to lose my sense of balance but the floor is actually sounding pretty good for if I go supine, at least the blood flows back to my head.
Finally, the cramp goes away and I can at least sit down on the chair. This is good for usually sitting down helps except last night it didn't really make a difference.
So now I'm thinking about how stupid I'll look if I have to call Kailua 911 and have the ambulance show up just so that I can go the emergency room and get a litre of saline into my blood stream.
See, even if I drink something, it takes a while for it to actually be of any help. The quickest remedy is intravenous.
So I'm sitting there, trying to figure out what to do.
I figure that maybe if I lie down, my blood pressure will stabilize and I'll be okay.
No chance.
I make it back to the couch but I'm not feeling too good so I start to curse myself out for taking off so much fluid.
Now I'm laying there, listening to Law & Order or something, trying to pay attention so that I'll know if I pass out or not.
Boy, that was interesting.
I mean I was laying there, half knocked out, trying to stay awake so that I'd know whether or not I lost consciousness.
Well, I must have lost consciousness for when I opened my eyes it was like after midnight, but I was just happy that I opened my eyes so I turned off the light and went to sleep.
Now this may sound all dangerous and such, but believe me, it's not as bad as it seems.
At least I don't think it is.
But how Mr. Flat Tire, can those little needles take so much out of you?
Well the needles they use for dialysis aren't your everyday needles.
I, for one, use the one of the largest gauges they have:



That's what my needle looks like next to a large type sewing needle. Just for fun, here it is next to a roller ball pen and next to my finger:




Now I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure I could find that needle in a haystack.
I don't usually talk about my dialysis, but I thought last night was pretty funky so I just thought I'd share. I was pretty much toast all day and it's only this evening that I started to feel normal again.
Dialysis is usually fairly routine, but last night, it was a bump in the road.