I intend to write this blog to try and help new dialyzers. When I first started in August, I had no help or advise whatsover, so I hope by writing this then I can make somebody else's life a little easier, or certainly a little bit more informed about what is happening to them.
There are several things you need to be aware of as a dialysis patient, one is your weight, you will be given a dry weight which is weight you will aim to be when you have finished dialysis. Your wet weight is your weight just before dialysis. They weigh you before to calculate how much fluid you need to loose whilst on the machine. 0.4 of a litre will be added to compensate for the saline they have to give you at the end to push your blood back through the machine back into your body. If you experience cramp whilst on dialysis, this could be because your dry weight is too low, if this is the case the cramp will also be linked to a drop in blood pressure, which is very unpleasnt, you will go very hot and dizzy and sometimes be sick. If you feel this start to happen try and get help straight away as the longer you leave the worse it will get. If this happens try incresing your dry weight a little, it usually gets increased by half a kilo at a time. Some people like myself just suffer from cramp regardless of your dry weight, if you are one of these people then you can ask for quinine tablets, which they will prescribe for you. The quinine should be taken just before each dialysis sessions, and should stop the cramp.
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