I was having agonizing cramps almost every night while on 12500/ml 1.5% solution at night and 2500ml daytime. I have alot of RKF. My clinic eliminated my daytime exchange and the cramping improved a bit, but I still have cramps. My clinic is reluctant to lessen my PD regime but when I experiment on my own…less PD equals less cramping. The cramping happens most often at night preventing me from getting sleep, not to mention the PAIN. I know its a complicated issue balancing my blood electrolytes etc. but the cramps are making me want to … Any thoughts?
Well that is certainly a distressing situation. PD is NOT supposed to be painful !!
I have a few questions for you before I can try to make suggestions. First, are you having abdominal cramps or leg cramps? and when you say you have a lot of residual renal function, can you tell me what is your GFR (usually they tell you that it is 8 or perhaps 10 or whatever, and it may be expressed as a percent or in ml per minute)? What is your inflow volume? and how much do you usually ultrafilter each night?
The obvious solution to frequent low drain alarms is to change the volume at which the machine alarms, so for instance if it is now set at an expected drain volume of 2.5 liters, changing that to 2.3 liters may avoid future alarms. But until I understand your prescription and get some more facts, I cannot help yet.
Look forward to hearing from you again soon. Sorry I am so late replying to this but I was out of the country for a while.
Judy Bernardini