A few months back I switched to seven days a week dialysis as opposed to taking Sundays off. The reason was simple. Weekends, I generally have little to do. I don't go to work. I usually eat out or go for a movie with my family. As a result, I tend to have a little more fluid than usual. So, if I don't dialyse on Sunday nights, sometimes on Mondays, I feel just a little different.
Different. Not uncomfortable. Not uneasy. Just different.
So, I thought why not dialyse on Sundays too? I have been doing that for the past few months now. I take a weekday off once in a way. This happens rarely though.
All this has led my brother Karan to say that I am really hooked to dialysis. When he was here on a break from his MBA in the US, he often teased me about this. Around 8 in the evening, he would say, "Its already 8! How come you've not yet started?"
This has set me thinking. Am I really hooked to dialysis? Am I dialysing to live or living to dialyse??
The truth is that I don't want to restrict what I eat and drink. And this is possible only if I dialyse regularly. I have not yet been able to get rid of my mental obsession with fluids. Inspite of four years on daily nocturnal, I have not yet been able to think of fluids like a normal person does. I still pull off 2.5 to 4 liters of fluid a day. Please do not tell me how wrong or abnormal this is. I know.
This is the main reason I like to dialyse daily. No, however much this may seem the case, I do not enjoy the process of dialysis, I do not enjoy the needles in my arm and I do not enjoy being tied to a machine every night of the week just to be able to eat and drink what I want.
Different. Not uncomfortable. Not uneasy. Just different.
So, I thought why not dialyse on Sundays too? I have been doing that for the past few months now. I take a weekday off once in a way. This happens rarely though.
All this has led my brother Karan to say that I am really hooked to dialysis. When he was here on a break from his MBA in the US, he often teased me about this. Around 8 in the evening, he would say, "Its already 8! How come you've not yet started?"
This has set me thinking. Am I really hooked to dialysis? Am I dialysing to live or living to dialyse??
The truth is that I don't want to restrict what I eat and drink. And this is possible only if I dialyse regularly. I have not yet been able to get rid of my mental obsession with fluids. Inspite of four years on daily nocturnal, I have not yet been able to think of fluids like a normal person does. I still pull off 2.5 to 4 liters of fluid a day. Please do not tell me how wrong or abnormal this is. I know.
This is the main reason I like to dialyse daily. No, however much this may seem the case, I do not enjoy the process of dialysis, I do not enjoy the needles in my arm and I do not enjoy being tied to a machine every night of the week just to be able to eat and drink what I want.
Comments
This is not about you, every person who is on hd will be accustomed to the routine he undergoes. if a person who is on a weekly once hd & is adjusted to that and after a while due to various reasons switches to a weekly twice hd .He will find it very difficult to switch back to a weekly once hd. This is the typical crf body clock on work and also mind playing its own games. Controlling the urge to eat normal salt is one remedy that will automatically lessen the thirst for water.(it is very difficult in summer).but i still feel that daily hd will take out the unwanted toxins , but the dialyser cannot differentiate between wanted & unwanted elements in the blood, so it will (might?) also remove wanted elements from the blood unlike the human kidneys.
Thanks
Kamal