https://imgur.com/gallery/day-21-yNwKJMN
Depending on how you measure, this is the three week mark. I handled missed days in two different ways, so it is both more and less than 21 days. lol.
I hate watching myself, as we all do. But I went back and watched the second day and this day, and yeah, there’s a bit of difference. In part because there’s two different ways of walking with a walker. One is using it for every step - weight on the arms, weight on the legs, back and forth. The other I wasn’t always able to do, and probably still not able to do when I’m tired. Which is basically to walk, just pushing the walker along but mostly not using it - just for a bit of balance.
I wouldn’t trust myself walking without it yet. That kinda scares me. But then again, on that third lap, especially being down by the glass door all the way away from the wheelchair kicks up my adrenaline every single time for now - because I can feel myself getting tired, and the only solution is to sit, and the only way to sit safely and where I can get back up without help (probably calling a fire truck) is to make it back to the chair.
So yeah. That third lap is stressful right now, and harder. I’m definitely doing it every time I can, but when I’ve been a bit weaker, it definitely goes. lol.
But I think I am generally at a point where three laps with real “walking” should be pretty consistent for a while. I’ll push to 3.5 when I can.
Also, on the dialysis front: Finally got back down to my “dry” weight target today. Basically, dialysis does two things: They pull the chemicals from your blood that your kidneys normally do, and they pull fluid from your blood and body that your kidneys normally do. At the moment, most of the liquid that leaves my body is via dialysis. I’m on strict fluid limits for intake, which suck. 32oz/day is my absolute limit, and I have to try to stay as far under that as I can.
The thing that doesn’t make sense to me is - while I know there’s liquid in everything, even when I stay under that limit, they’re often needing to pull 3-5 kilos of fluid with every treatment, which is three times per week. That would be fine, and my body can tolerate that - most of the time. But not always. It’s hard on the body, and especially with congestive heart failure, which I also have.
But not pulling the fluid makes things worse, too.
Well, for the part like 5-6 weeks, I’d been having to miss around one session per week due to tummy issues. Which means only two sessions to pull fluid. We weren’t able to keep up, and I was constantly around 5+ kilos over. Which contributes to fatigue, increases chances for a heart attack, all that lovely stuff. So it has been a struggle walking in part due to that.
So I’m hoping if that has settled down for now, then perhaps I can keep at this rate and slowly increase from here.