Tuna sub of consequences

After the last story, I wrote Good times in Dialysis Part 2. I wanted to write about another experience that I had in dialysis. Not only will I share this story, but also the lesson that goes with it.

Life has so many lessons for us to learn, and sometimes they come from some of the oddest sources. Hence, the title the Tuna Sub of consequences. As a dialysis patient, there are some rules that you need to follow if you expect to live a healthy and happy life, and many of these rules apply to one portion of being a dialysis patient. The Renal Diet. 

The Renal Diet can be a challenge to learn, much more to follow, for there are things you can eat and things you can and can’t eat. In fact, if you want a little better insight of this check Our CDO blog Trail Food for once you read some of these blogs you will understand a little more about what lies in store for a dialysis patient.

It was a normal day for me. I went to work, did my job, ate my lunch and got ready to go to dialysis. Once in dialysis I grabbed my weight which my weight gain in between treatment was pretty normal and so treatment started. 

Once on the machine, I busied myself with my normal routine. Grabbed my drawing pad, put my earbuds in and was drawing and jamming out to my music. Treatment went well up until about the last 30 minutes of treatment. I started to feel a cramp start in my foot. This was not unusual, for sometimes this happened, and I was usually able to work it out by tying my shoes tighter. But this one was different. I was able to get it calmed down for a few minutes, and then all of a sudden it hit the cramp going from my toe straight through my body up to my nose. Now, if you have ever had a Charlie horse, imagine one 10 times worse. That is exactly what happened. My whole body cramped up and I could not work it out. I called spunky (Nurse) over, and she started to push against my feet to try to help with the cramps along with giving me a little fluid. It got so bad that asked to be taken off.

. Once off, I was able to get up and walk around, but I was so sore that it was hard to walk. After the cramps settled down, Spunky asked what I had eaten that day. My first response was nothing bad, but then it hit out of the blue. I had not taken my lunch and I went out to eat at a sandwich shop, which was not unusual, but I usually got a veggie sub without tomatoes and cheese. This time I got the tuna sub and I did not think about it, but the tuna had so much salt that it affected my treatment. Looking back, who do I blame for the cramps? The care team, the sandwich shop, the machine?  No, I had one person to blame, and that was me. I knew that anything with a high salt content could give me cramps, but I ignored it and did my own thing. To which I paid dearly for. Though it was a hard price to pay, there are two lessons that I learned from this experience. 

1. You harvest more than you plant. Whatever you do, good or bad, you may reap 10-fold. So be careful what you plant.
2. Listen to the teachers. My care team knew that If I ate something with a lot of salt in it, I would pay dearly. By listing and adjusting my order to the usual veggie sub, this more than likely would not have happened. Listen and listen well. 

I have learned these lessons and applied them to my everyday living and have benefited from them. In fact, I have learned the lesson so well that to this day I have not touched a tuna sub since.

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