Hypokalemia and hospitalizations

Forums: Health, Potassium, Hospitals Part 800, Hypokalemia
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...and seeing an opening on the calendar, I figured after a 5 year stretch of no hospital incarceration, it would be really a great treat to visit now.

My slow deterioration in physical being was a bit worrisome. Higher and higher blood pressure (even with meds and eating changes). Numb toes (even indoors with roasting heat).

The occasional leg twitching (not a new dance)

Eventually, it took over and off to the hospital I went.

Via ambulance. (what, you wanted me to wear out my shoes walking down the stairs and to the place? 'sides which, quicker service, no waiting to be called on)

Blood work done, turned out my potassium levels were scraping the splintery floor of a mildewed cellar floor. Electrolytes in chaos.

My weakened state was tended to, then off to the land of The Honeymooners (the old t.v. show with Jackie Gleason as a bus driver from Bensonhurst Brooklyn) for a stint in a rehab to build me back.

Time frame for the stay, unknown.
Number of nasal swabs 5 so far.

Food... good and bad...

...and unrecognizable at times.

Got a window spot and an elevated train and its station across the road. Strangely (to some) this is close to a lifelong achievement of a dream. (the proximity of a train, not the medical stay)

Some shnook of an employee, tested positive for coronavirus on my second or third day here. We must now stay in our assigned room at all times.

Learned a few things. Low potassium levels have a name... Hypokalemia.

Should have stuck with that potassium supplement first given some years back.

Extra coffee can help in keeping the levels up.

...now I can check off Christmas, new year's and all of chanukah as days I've been in a medical center of some sort.

Who wants to clean my apartment while i'm away?
There's also an opportunity to paint the place.

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Type: Question • Score: 15 • Views: 3,111 • Replies: 32

Oy, take care of yourself and I hope you feel better soon and can leave
the hospital. It's not a place to be right now...best wishes!

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@Sturgis,

Extra coffee. Excellent!

Hang in there. We don't want to do without you.

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@Sturgis,

Keeping an eye out for you. Please get better soon and stay COVID-free.
Happy Chanukah and New Year too. Most importantly, have a Happy Trump-free 2021 and beyond.

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@Sturgis,

familiar with this also> Mine manifest itself by aching joints and a bit of elevating BP. It took several weeks of slow K to re-enter a sense of normality.
I take horse pill size and avoid other K because HYPER K is equally a concern. If ya ver wanna share experience at whippin it PM me.

Xmas is hardly on your list, Hannukah also. Just get K in balance

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@Sturgis,

Ooh, take care, get better, and enjoy the trains.

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@farmerman,

6 yrs ago I was introduced to the scary pills. The size was petrifying! Then I got curious and wanted to find out how long it would take to dissolve.

In water, likely a millennium or three. After that I refused to take them. As was recently pointed out for me, water is not the same as stomach area fluids. Similar to the old experiment of a slice of bologna in a glass of soda against a glass of water. Dissolved in soda, in water it just sank and went bad.
(if memory serves it was meant to educate children about how too much soda could eat a hole in the stomach. 5, 7, 10 and 12 year olds were mentally susceptible to adult 'wisdom'. Many also believed the tale of a man going to the hospital for stomach pain and a surgeon finding a huge ball of chewed and swallowed fingernails in there as the culprit)

Was wondering what about the going too far in K supplement. Good to know. Of course, this means the 4 pots of coffee each day, might not be so wise for potassium replenishment.

In the hospital I was given a powder which was past vile. Supposedly orange flavor, it was clearly not. However it brought the numbers back up some.

BP prior was running consistently along the upper 100s over the low to mid-100s. Now getting low 100s over mid-60s to low 70s. Relief. Swelling gone in the lower legs and feet as well.

I'll contact you as/if/when questions arise. Such things as how many potato skins constitute a danger zone and are red or purple safer than gold or white...

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@izzythepush,

Today the local train is bypassing the station near the window in both directions. If I was more motivated I'd look on the MTA website and find out why.

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@Sturgis,

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@Sturgis,

Probably the wrong type of snow, that’s the default excuse used by the rail networks over here.

I’ve always wondered what the railways in Israel are called, Israil?

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@Sturgis,

K pills are a mix of K Cl pellets in a "carbonate "Cement" mold. As the cement is eaten through, the KCl is released in a "Time release" pattern. Its one of the better means to accomplish gradual releaseof K into the system without dosing us all at once. Thats why grpefruit is often not recommended to prevent a decuman of K being released in an acid induced wave that can cause a bad-ass blood K titer which may induce a xhemically caused arrhythmia

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@farmerman,

Quote:

carbonate "Cement"
...Time release

Thank you for that. It helps explain why it sat so sad and dejected in the water.

As for grapefruit juice, that left my intake list around the time it was cited as having complicationings with blood pressure meds.

Seeing as how grapefruit and other citrus fruits are potassium rich, it might have turned into a not so nice interaction.

I'll stick with milk, taters and bananas...avoiding acids (including those mind curling tabs sold in parks and on street corners)

Again, my thanks.

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@Sturgis,

I seem to recall that for statin meds, grapefruit made it “too effective”. However, I can’t say I know of an interaction with BP meds, though that just could be my ignorance about interactions. Personally, due to GERD problem, grapefruit juice has been off my list for decades.

1 Reply

@Ragman,

any med with "Time release" coatings can get short circuited via grapefruit chemistry.

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@farmerman,

Heres on from Health Line that explains interactions with various medshttps://www.healthline.com/nutrition/grapefruit-and-medications#1013:-Some-anti-infection-medications

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My lunch tray arrived. I was stunned.

Lamb, asparagus, roasted red potatoes, a ton of mint jelly and a small container of rumless egg nog.

I ate the potatoes tested the nog (too mass produced and sweet), ate my salad and requested a sandwich... I got a p.b and j... on whole wheat. Whole wheat? Peanut butter and jelly belongs on soft white bread! Wasn't bad though.

I can't abide the taste of lamb usually. Only lamb ribs and mutton ain't bad either...
apologies to all sheep farmers, including our farmerman.

I do however appreciate the fact that this place made such a move for Christmas. It's the first time i've ever seen lamb in a healthcare space

Hoping to exit this facility soon.

Happy holidays everyone.

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@farmerman,

farmerman wrote:

any med with "Time release" coatings can get short circuited via grapefruit chemistry.

Duly noted. Thanks for the info.

Merry Christmas and or happy holidays to all.

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@Sturgis,

how you doing? any time guesses when youll be out and back to a reasonable state of health??

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@farmerman,

Doing decent.
Bored clean out of my mind. Combination of time of year and the ongoing world health matters which brings along forced in room isolation. I've always been one to wander the halls of these places and talked to people.

As to release, I have to locate the social worker tomorrow and make clear it is time to leave. Being stuck in a space so small is destroying my physical ability.

Plus my walking, although limited is okay.

Just have to keep my potassium and other electrolytes proper. Good thing I like black beans.

Plus I'm saving on my food bill and electric while here!

How goes it in Pennsylvania this late December? Hopefully you and the Mrs. had a good Christmas and the sheep kept varmints away!

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@Sturgis,

Christmas was quiet and somewhat sad. I lost one of my partners and a dear friend to covid.He was a "had to prove that covid was a threat". So he didnt take any precautions.

We sort of stayed home and had a Zoom family tak-a-thon.

I spend time just walking the fields and being followed by the two donkeys and our dog. They are seemingly understanding and not their usual zany selves.

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Hypokalemia and hospitalizations

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