Living with Fluid Restrictions
What does it mean to be on a fluid restriction?
If your medical provider has put you (or someone you care about) on a fluid restriction, listen up! Living with a fluid restriction means that there is a limit to the total amount of liquid you can consume in a day. It seems to go against everything you’ve ever heard or been told about being healthy and well, but for fluid restricted people, that extra bottle of water is an extra spicy bad no-go.
Why?! Well, for most of us, we drink water and our bodies go straight to work absorbing it into our bloodstream. From there it helps clean our blood and carry nutrients to our bodies. Great, right?! Of course! But for some people, one of their supporting body systems isn’t working quite right and it’s causing problems. For someone with kidney problems, they may not be able to filter out the waste in their blood. Drinking more water turns their blood vessels into tight water balloons. See how that would be a problem? Over fill them and you start to get swelling all over your body. (The medical term for that is “third spacing.”)
For someone with heart problems, that extra bottle of water just became extra volume, extra work, for a heart that’s already tired. Can you see how someone with a combination of these conditions could really be harmed by sipping on that sweet tea?
Wait… sweet tea… you mean other fluids count too? It’s not just water?! Yeah, it all counts. From broth in your stew to that coffee creamer, it all counts.
Do we want these people to have some chonky blood and be dehydrated raisins - NO! Of course not. These are very serious conditions that need to be monitored by health professionals on a patient-by-patient basis to make sure they’re getting adequate hydration and filtration.
If you find yourself in the position of well-meaning family member (or friend!) of someone new to a fluid restriction, skip the invitation to grab a coffee or a beer. Find a board game shop, go on a walk, play a card game. Find some other way to spend time together. If you are in charge of making their food, use less salt! There are other seasonings you can use to flavor food that won’t make them feel so thirsty. Feeling thirsty and unable to drink is hard. Encourage them when they get discouraged. Learning to live with a fluid restriction is a difficult adjustment. Sometimes it’s a temporary intervention to give your body a boost. Sometimes it becomes your new way of life.
Taking the time to learn about this is a great way to show them you value their health.
