Yesterday I informed readers that I was to undergo a peritoneal dialysis adequacy test. Indeed, I accomplished all the requirements, until I didn’t. I must get up earlier to fulfill the home requirements and drive to the clinic. So I set two alarms to make sure I got up – and I did. Normally I sit on the side of the bed to give my head gyros time to cage; this morning I did not shut off the alarms—my first mistake. I made it to the cycler to do a Stat Drain. I started to get lightheaded, made it toward a chair in our master bedroom, and began to crash and went down over the dialysis cabinet we have by the chair. In so doing I also turned my left ankle. My wife immediately jumped out of bed to attend to me. 45 minutes later my head was still woozy.
The lesson here: Don’t jump out of bed if you have been sitting on the side to enable your head to adapt to new positioning.
During the morning workup to get ready to go to the clinic I took my morning biometrics which included blood glucose. My first reading was 212, second 220, and third 212. In the over two years that I have been on dialysis my glucose never has been 150 let alone over 200 so something was whacked here also.
My wife convinced me that it would be best If she called the clinic and canceled my appointment which I agreed to. My dialysis nurse, Cindy suggested she had a break in her schedule and she would come to our home and gather the required adequacy test bios which she did. While she was here we questioned her regarding the high glucose and she suggested it could be from my using a 25% solution for the adequacy test as compared to the 1.5% I have steadily been on in the past. Further, the 2.5% could have whacked my blood pressure and caused my fainting spell.
The lesson here: Sometimes just following instructions can have unintended consequences. I had done about seven adequacy test previously without any problems, and now this.
When you are on Peritoneal Dialysis, you never know when something is going to jump up and bite you on your ass!
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