text: By raetsel - March 30, 2008
  I mentioned yesterday that I had a bit of fluid retention and you may be wondering how they monitor this. Well it's a pretty basic equation measure what fluids you have taken in and what comes out.
  Input is a matter of keeping track of how many jugs of water and cups of tea you have drunk plus any fluids in your drip (more of which anon). To get the output figure everytime you go for a wee you have to do it in a bottle, put your name on it and leave it in the bathroom, the nurses can then weigh the bottles and convert that to a volume in litres. The bottles are actually those cardboard vases so the bathroom isn't quite 'ten green bottles hanging on the wall'
  My fluid balance was +3litres at midnight Saturday and this is a bit high. I mentioned my slight breathless to the doctor and he listened to my chest and checked my ankles this was all fine but he wanted to shift that fluid balance as a precaution.
  I was weeing well ( 4.7 litres ) the problem was I had drunk a bit too much ( 5 litres ) and on top of that was 2 litres of saline in my drip to deliver drugs which I hadn't taken in to account. I knew it was important to drink plenty to help wash out the toxins and I always drink 2 or 3 litres of water a day normally but the tea trolley comes round 5 times a day too (I have one coffee and then hot water for my green tea or peppermint tea).
  So the doc said cut back a bit. They monitor kidney function with daily blood samples so they will tell me if I need to up my intake. To flush out the balance I was given an injection of fruzamide, a dieuretic. Within 10 mins I went for a wee. Then I went another 3 times over the next hour and plenty each time. So it is powerful stuff that fruzamide.
  I've cut back on the drink a bit and hopefully this will sort everything out.
  My brother Chris came to see me yesterday afternoon and we had a nice chat it was just interrupted by me popping off to the loo every 15 mins. Andy came in the evening and so I could give mom and dad the night off.
  I managed to get a nap between 16:00 and 17:30 which was nice.
  Had a bit of a disturbed night dropped off about 22:39 but my meds weren't all completely swappd over until 01:00 so I could only doze from 23:00 until then. The clocks going forward one hour meant the 06:00 blood pressure obs were efffectively an hour early. I'm a bit tired but too awake now so expect a nap this afternoon will be on the cards.