written on August 22, 2014
Started with a new dialysis center on Friday (Aug 19). Wow! What a difference!
The new place is very friendly and welcoming. Most of the nurses and techs came over and introduced themselves to me. My charge nurse brought me a gift bag from the center, containing a blanket and a pillow. Awesome! And they went through the emergency evacuation procedures and how I can disconnect myself from the machine in case of a fire or earthquake (hopefully neither one of those thing ever happen!).
When I left the center, there was a mild migraine going on. Not as bad as it’s been at my previous center. I asked the new place to not take any fluid off this time and they managed to only take off 4/10 of a liter. My blood pressure was also very high during dialysis (it peaked at 207/123 at one point) so now I’m convinced that the migraine is caused by the hypertension. By the time I got home and left to pick up the kids from daycare, the migraine was getting exponentially worse.
My blood pressure when I left the center was 176/104, by the time I got the kids back home the throbbing in my head was crazy severe and my blood pressure when I laid down in bed was 194/123. Over the weekend, my BP was pretty stable at 190/110, although there were times when it got much higher. I felt okay all day Saturday, but Sunday I had a lingering migraine all day – and my BP was staying around 200/123. I’m noticing that the higher the diastolic (the bottom number), the worse the migraines are. So now it begs the question – how can I reduce the diastolic pressure?
I’m on three different medications right now, but none of them seem to be working (I’m taking 25 mg of Carvedilol twice a day, 320 mg of valsartan once a day and 180 mg of diltiazem once a day). My sister, who’s a pharmacist in North Carolina, thinks the choice of drugs is weird for me. She said in the hospital where she works, they only prescribe diltiazem and carvedilol for heart failure patients on dialysis, not usually for renal failure patients. Does this mean my previous doctor thought I would be suffering heart failure soon since my blood pressure is so out of control (I also switched doctors when I switched centers)?
Are there drugs that would be more helpful in reigning in the blood pressure? Would changing my diet help? Would trying to go for a walk every day help? The fact that I’m feeling mild migraines on non-dialysis days is making me think the dialysis is not the main culprit any longer. Which totally sucks. Does this mean the migraines are going to stick around after the transplant? I really don’t want that to happen.
On the plus side, the nurses and techs at the new center have told me they want to help with the migraines any way they can. My initial reaction was shock – how is that even possible that this new dialysis center wants to try and work with me to prevent the migraines from occurring? That is not the reaction from my other center. I’m glad I switched.
Plus, this new place is like 1.6 miles from our house. It is so nice to only have a 5-minute drive to the center, instead of 30-minutes (during rush hour). I miss some of the people from the other center, but I can say with all honesty that I don’t miss the other center at all. And today is only the second day I’ve been at the new one.
I’ve only got 5 weeks until the transplant surgery, and I’ve been told that if my blood pressure is not under control, the surgery won’t happen. So in the next five weeks, I really have to get a handle on this. I’m still hopeful that getting the blood pressure under control will reduce the frequency of the headaches. I’m willing to test that hypothesis as soon as possible! Maybe this week!