Too Much Fluid

I spoke with my nephrologist today during dialysis since she was the doctor doing rounds. She lowered my dry weight some more to 84.5 kg since my blood pressure was still on the high side, and there seems to be some fluid in my lungs/chest cavity. For some reason, she could see the results of my CT scan from last week in the computer system, even though I have not received a call from the thoracic surgeon’s office. My nephrologist read the results to me. Other than the fluid, there wasn’t anything else abnormal. Probably the fluid is causing the shortness of breath, and maybe the extra pressure in the chest cavity. She also commented that my ankles look more bloated than before. She agrees with my gut feeling that I am losing tissue mass but retaining more fluid so my overall weight remains pretty constant. We will keep lowering the dry weight until I can’t take it anymore, i.e., cramping. Today, I weighted out at 83.9 kg, another low record.

I am feeling much better than a few weeks ago when I first called the thoracic surgeon’s office. Probably we removed some of the excess fluid from me so I can breath easier. Maybe I will get to 80.0 kg before transplant day.

==========

My blood pressure is still a mystery though. This morning, I measured my BP twice and both times it was 120/70. I then ate some oatmeal for breakfast, and took my two morning BP pills. When I got to the dialysis center, my first standing BP reading was 110/70. After sitting down for awhile, it was about 132/70. However, each half-hour measurement after that showed an increasing BP, even though the machine was removing fluids from my bloodstream. At the end of the session, I had a BP of 182/something. It doesn’t make any sense unless the low blood pressure was due to the NIFEdipine I took last night. It is the extended release version but that’s a long time to be still active. Is dialysis flushing out the remaining NIFEdipine plus the two medications I took in the morning? I asked my nephrologist and she didn’t really give me an answer. I think they’re hoping once we remove a few more kilograms of fluid, everything will stabilize themselves. In the past, I use to have borderline hypotension after dialysis, and had to sit for up to 30 minutes drinking water to raise my BP. Now they’re happy if my BP is under 160. Crazy.