Kidney Failure - Post Dialysis Story

Pheww, how time flies. It has been very busy months since my last update. Even right now, I am trying to update this blog from KPJ. This would probably the only free time frame that I have for myself. So when I send him for dialysis, I will be sitting in the cafe of KPJ Hospital, going online. That is if I have nothing else planned for the afternoon.

Post dialysis.

1. My husband lost 20kg of weight. This is all within 1 month time frame. This is not fat loss, because no muscles being built up from the lost. The loss was fluid loss. During dialysis water will be extracted from the blood and filtered out. Before he started dialysis, hubby weighed 86 kg. Now he is stabilizing between 68 to 70 kg. You should see his pants, hehehe, it would drop off (like you see the contestants of the Biggest Losers would do) if they are not tied up properly with the belt. Now his clothes seem like oversized for him. I have been asking him to go to the tailor but he still has not said yes.

2. The fluid retention in his body before dialysis had caused his legs to be swollen. So now the legs are now so skinny, you can see his bones. The fluid retention had also caused his lungs to be filled with water. He was wheezing and coughing prior dialysis. He was also easily tired when he walked a few steps to get to his office or from the porch to enter our house. I had to push him on a wheel chair whenever we visited the doctor for a check-up.

Now the wheezing and coughing have stopped. He does not need a wheelchair anymore. He walked much faster now without me following behind carrying his bag to the office.

3. His blood pressure and blood glucose level are also under control. Although he still has to take medication for them but, sometimes he can skipped it when they seem to be on the lower side. BP 130 -140 is good, glucose level 5 - 7 are normal. Now he takes some sweet kuih like the kuih kusui, kuih lapis etc, he also asked for a slightly sweetened nescafe O or tea.

4. Many food that we have to be careful off. If you listened to the doctor and nurses, you may not be able to eat anything. Seriously, no joke. There is Pottasium, Phospates, water/fluid, cholestrol, that you need to be careful or control the in take. But the doctor told me to be extra careful in consuming food with high Pottasium level. Because Pottasium can cause heart attack. So, bananas, starfruits, spinach, potatoes, tubers and dried fruits (e.g kurma) are absolute no or can be taken in a very small amount.

High Phospates can cause your bones to be brittle. So you need to reduce the intake so that you can prevent your bones to be broken if you fall. Unfortunately, diary products like milk, cheese etc are high in phospates. Kidney failure patient need to take a special milk for their need. They also need to take calcium carbonate with their food to bind the phosphate and prevent it from getting absorbed into their blood.

Other food that he has to "pantang" - Santan, pulut, salty/ or high sodium foodstuffs, high fluid fruits like watermelon.

I know I sound like a doctor, but that is the facts of life for the person undergoing dialysis. As for me I need to always read the labels to make sure they are safe. But, in Malaysia, most of these ingredients are not listed in our food label. Because they are not required to be listed. It is easy to buy packed overseas food because you can see Pottasium as a listed ingredient.

Next time I will write about other people's experiences and the caregiver story.

Meanwhile, Ramadhan is near, to all my readers

I wish you all, the BLESSING OF RAMADHAN

MAY THIS RAMADHAN BE THE BEST EVER IN OUR LIVES SO FAR

MAY IT BRING US NEAR TO ALLAH

MAY IT BRING THE BARAKHAH OF THE MONTH AND THE LAILATULQADAR

Amiinn...

Kidney Failure - My Husband's Story 3

Sorry lambat sikit update. Been very busy driving around hospitals. My life recently is revolved around 3 hospitals. Will continue soon.

This is what I posted at facebook.

My husband hospital episod

by Normah Hassan on Friday, April 8, 2011 at 10:12am

It started with a simple case of inserting an IJC for haemodialysis when he was first warded. Then a few days after he was discharged, he had to be re-admitted due to infection. Spent 2 nights in ICU because he was coughing blood. Then when the IJC was re-inserted he was bleeding the whole night non stop. So the IJC need to be pulled out again. The neck was swollen rather bad, so the catheters had to be inserted at his groin now for a week.

Due to the bleeding, the dialysis was only done for 40 mins, vs the normal 4 hours last monday. The doctor decided to do the insertion to the groin only last friday. So it was almost 4 days since he was dialysed. Because of that his urea increased and we was vormitting very badly and feeling dizzy. He was dialysed on the bed.

He is still under observation, and so far but stable now. We have been recommended to go to KPJ on Monday for another procedure. I can't remember what is the medical term for it. But according to the nephrologist here it has a lower risk of infection than the common IJC. Next he need to do the permanent fiscular on his arm for dialysis.

Dialysis is for life, 3 times a week at 4 hour every session. Once a person get use to it then, they are almost as healthy as another person.

Moral of the story is TAKE CARE OF YOUR GOD GIVEN ORGANS. Go for a regular checkup and lead a healthy life. Poor health is expansive.

Kidney Failure - My Husband's Story 2

Although we knew in our hearts that eventually my hubby would need to do dialysis, we tried to avoid it. He was in denial, he thought that my taking medication his kidneys would eventually get back to normal. Of course it would not be true, when an organ in your body is damaged, it would only be Allah's power that can turn it back to normal. Divine intervention so to speak. Medication sometimes can help to reduce or prolong the damage.

In case of kidney failure, there is no symptom for you to know that your kidneys have failed. Tak ada kaitan nya kalau kita sakit pinggang dengan kerosakan buah pinggang. I have also learnt along the way that although we have 2 kidneys, only one is active, while the other is on a standby. In case of the active kidney failed in it's function, the other would be working as normal. For damaged kidney patients, it would mean that both kidneys are not functional anymore.

In hubby's case, physical symptoms were, his swollen legs and feet. They got bigger and heavier each day. His weight keep on increasing even though we have been controlling his diet. Blood pressure were always on the high end, his blood sugar level is already normal i.e between 5 - 7 mmol/L. The blood sugar level was normal because, the medication is accumulated in the kidney, since the kidney is no longer able to process them to discharge them through urine. His urine is getting lesser and lesser too.

Since the kidneys are no longer functioning, with the presence of fluids in the body not discharged out, the pressure on the other organs are also increasing, this is causing the blood pressure to increase. As the fluid in the body keep on increasing, my hubby was coughing and wheezing almost non stop, his chest was full of phlegm. For the past one year, I think, we became the largest consumer of tissue papers.

During the monthly visit to the hospital, his blood was taken for testing. Progressively, blood urea level and creatinine level in his blood had also increased. Starting with around Creatinine 200+ mmol/L in April 2010 to 700+ in March 2011. Urea level in March 2011 was 24. (I will put down the spec for normal people later). No way he could survive without dialysis, if we prolong it, he would have complications, may even be in a coma or worse.

The Neprologist - Dr Goh, advised him to be warded for dialysis. So on 15 March hubby was warded into Hospital Seberang Jaya for the second time in his life. On the 16 March, the first IJC (Inter Jugular Cathether - I think hehehe) was placed on his neck by Dr Goh. After that they performed blood dialysis on him for the first time.

A kidney patient will need to go through dialysis for the rest of his/her lives 3 times a week and at 4 hours per session. Cost wise, each session cost between RM150 to RM200. If you can get yourself listed to the government hospital (a long waiting list), then nit is free. Otherwise be prepared to spend around RM3000 per month (inclusive of medication). If you don't do dialysis, either after you have started it, death can prevail since your toxin level (urea and creatinine) will increase and eventually overwhelmed your whole body functions.

After the first session, hubby's condition improved a lot. The swollen on the feet seemed to have shrunk a bit, he was not coughing so badly anymore, the amount of phlegm was reduced too.

To be continued...

Spec for normal kidney function - blood test result (the only way to know)

Creatinine 51 - 124 mmol/L (millimol per liter of blood)

Urea 2.0 - 6.8 mmol/L