Hunger Strike - Kidney damage is a certain risk. Mine are.

Contact me if you need detail.  I've been unclear in past updates, unintentionally, Kidney Damage is a real risk of hunger strike(s) of substantial duration, and either mine now are permanently damaged, or slower than ever in their recovery.  Edema, swelling of the legs is one of the manifestations, pretty clearly, of at least temporary kidney disfunction, and 40 days since I ended my last major strike, my edema continues, though the improvement I'm now seeing may not be completely explained by my keeping my legs elevated during the day. 

But more alarming is major leg muscle spasms that I've had serious inklings of on prior strikes, but really went into full blossom starting several weeks ago.  Some more here, from a note to a friend I just sent -

I know you worry, so thought I'd give you an update on the  kidney stuff.  Seems pretty much like clockwork at night, about 3.5 hours after I eat - my leg and foot muscles go into a tug of war against each other, and my thumb gets in the act too, twitching away.   Suggests to me kidney dis-function, maybe temporary, maybe something else.  However, before I had any thought of managing it, the experience of and prospects for poor sleeping forever, set me up for feeling that managing it isn't so bad, a real blessing, actually.  Seems that if I manage it so that I eat around 5:45pm, work for another couple of hours, then just before I go to sleep, right in the middle of that 3.5 hour wait time, if I seriously stretch for about 20 minutes - feet, calves, thighs... then, I don't wake up at the 3.5 hour mark!  And if I can make it past that mark, I seem ok!  The edema is much reduced, though how much of that is recovered kidney function, how much the care I'm taking to keep my legs pretty elevated as I work at computer during the day, I can'tsay.  Some of each I think.

My flu symptoms are about 75% gone, thank goodness.  Had me pretty good, for a while.

xx sl