Badam milk, Apple milk shake et al

Well, these are some of the things folks on dialysis have craved!

To give you a little background, people on dialysis are on a fluid restricted diet. So, anything which is fluid at room temperature is a strict no-no. All told, most people on dialysis are allowed about a liter of fluid in a day. Which is tough.

Now, we are allowed to indulge just a little immediately before dialysis or during the first hour or so of a four hour dialysis session. Like have a cup of cola or an ice cream. I, of course, took this a little too seriously. I made sure I had something really nice EVERY dialysis session.

Nothing wrong with doing it every dialysis session medically. It's just that people aren't used to fussing so much about food and drink. Well, I didn't care! I wanted my fluid!

So I would have a lot of watermelon on the first hour of dialysis or have a bottle of Fanta, sometimes grape juice, sometimes a lime soda. Mostly watermelon though. At that point of time, I was really crazy about watermelon. I would dream that I was sitting on a huge pile of watermelons and having them slice by slice on a hot summer afternoon.

A few days before my transplant, during a dialysis session at Kamineni Hospital, I suddenly craved Apple milk shake. I don't know what got over me. I simply had to have Apple milk shake. Now, apples don't usually make their way into milk shakes. But that did not deter me. I simply had to have Apple milk shake! I called home and said I had to have Apple milk shake. My house was a good forty five minute drive from my dialysis center. A perfectly reasonable answer to give me would have been, "Are you out of your mind?"

But those were the pre transplant days. Heaven knows that a pre transplant patient gets more fussed over than a bridegroom! My ever indulgent parents actually called an uncle to come home, pick up the Apple milk shake which was prepared and then drive down all the way to the hospital to get me my Apple milk shake in time!

Cravings are cravings. There is no rationale there. Cravings on dialysis for different kinds of fluids are similar to the cravings women have when they are pregnant. Remember the craving for Ben and Jerry's something chocolate ice cream that Priety Zinta has in Salaam Namaste?

Comments

madhava said…
Well Kamal you would not like such a comment written in your blog as you are an out & out optimistic person.
I too am an optimistic person but in a different way.
when you wrote about the dream , i remembered my young days when i used to say that i will eat a full watermelon when i grow up ( as i will be earning). But......
Now i have a wish deep inside the heart... this wish flares up in the Summer.
that is before my dying moments i want to drink a glass each of water, butter milk , coffee , milk and a fruit juice. This is one ofmy standing orders to my folks.
But we do not know what would be the status (situation) of the body , mind & intelligence at that hour.
but the thing is that dying moment has not yet arrived and i am saying this in a positive perspective with full blown optimism of death , freedom from mortal worries & bliss