Haemodialysis
After developing insomnia, I found it difficult to get to sleep at night and would end up sleeping through the next morning and would often be late for work or miss my shift entirely. Also resulting dialysis treatments being late. After speaking with my renal team, they agreed to start haemodialysis.
I had to have a small operation to have a vein connected to artery to form a fistula, this helps the vessels to be wider and stronger to handle the needles and blood flow from the machine.
Two needles are inserted, one to bring the blood out off the body to the machine where it gets filtered and then pumped back through the second needle. The treatment lasted 4 hours 3 days a week, though it varied throughout the year, often 5 hours would have to be done if my blood results were bad or if I had any extra fluid to take off.
To begin with, It was a simple process, fast forward a couple off months and I would soon start having problems with being needled. As soon as the needle touched my skin unbearable shooting pains would be sent across my arm, ultrasound of the arm showed nerve cells had formed around the entry point, I had to have a stent put into my veins further up my arm to make a new access point for the needle.
This treatment is more strict when it comes to diet. I was restricted to 500ml fluids per day, anything that had fluids in it would count; yogurts are classed as fluids, gravy with my meals, ice cream, even cereal with milk. I had to be really strict on how much fluids I was having as my kidneys were no longer able to produce urine. It wasn’t just fluids!
Anything healthy seemed to be a danger for me; fruit, vegetables even dairy products! Anything that contained potassium had to be restricted. for example I was only allowed a single potato (jacket potato size) a day; crisps,chips, waffles would all count towards that portion. I was only allowed a single piece of fruit or a handful of grapes or anything else small. Bananas were a huge no! nuts and even meat contained potassium. Potassium helps your muscles work, including the muscles that control your heartbeat and breathing. Too much potassium can affect the way the heart muscles work causing irregular heart beats, which in the worst cases, can cause heart attacks! I had to take food binders to help break down the potassium. This also helped break down calcium, too much calcium can cause bone disease; milk, cheese, yogurts, even ice cream! milkshakes and everything else that I love about dairy taken away from me! Although, many times I remember having too much calcium each blood results (oops).
With the strict diet there was many side effects to this dialysis treatment;
Feeling completely weak after each session, feeling so dehydrated, often dizzy because my blood pressure would often drop. Feeling so hungry after dialysis due to missing dinner that I would sit on the kitchen floor waiting for toast to pop or re heat dinner if left any, eat and straight to bed but often enough I would be so tired and drained I would force myself up the stairs to bed!
I remember how hard work became because I would be feeling drained still the next day, I would often be a zombie at work, just getting through the shift so I can return to bed. I had to change my work hours to fit Dialysis days but that meant often missing dinner.
I still remember the pain and agony I was in when there was problems with needling, often having to go to hospital just because there were problems. I remember I had gotten to breaking point and just skipped treatments which I would regret the next day. If Dialysis was missed, I would feel how bloated I would be, my feet would swell up from extra fluid, I would start feeling sick and start to feel weak. What was the point in going to treatment that’s meant to help when it makes me feel so shit afterwards?
I remember the times where my vein would collapse or if the needle had moved slightly; a small bubble like shape would form underneath the skin, growing and growing sending the most outrageous pains ever! Dialysis would have to be stopped and ice immediately put over the site. The bruising that would happen over the next week or so would look as though I had been beaten! Covering that up for work was not fun! My arm would be so sore even two days later I would have to be dialised differently.