Post by tinkerbell on Mar 2, 2009 13:38:38 GMT -5
Hi all, I've been struggling with this balance for what feels like forever.I think my sodium crashed really badly today and I was really poorly.I'm on 1 1/2 tabs florinef, 2 1/4 teaspoons salt and up until a few weeks ago I was taking around 3000mg potassium in the form of potassium chloride powder (my potassium level had been 3.4 at my last test in october 08 despite taking this amount although I plan to have things tested again soon).
A few weeks ago my sodium levels felt good-I was putting on some weight-good for me as I have a very low weight and seems for me to be an indicator of good sodium rentention when it normalizes a little, felt reasonably energetic and my bp was rising sometimes and sometimes by 10 points-was on a few occassions 110/64 sitting 120/68 standing!
I did however seem to be getting more chest pain which seems to be related to my low potassium and is really scary so two weeks ago I increased the potassium to around 4000mg and this reduced the chest pain, although didn't completely get rid of it .It also helped reduce my anxiety a little so I think the low potassium is putting a drain on my cortisol levels.Could this be the case?
Anyway over the last week or so I've had a couple of feeling lightheaded moments and not feeling as energetic and have had the urgency to go to the loo more often, particularly during the night.My bp yesterday still rose but only be one point.My appetite as also been struggling again.
This lunchtime I was with a customer at work and I suddenly went really really hot, got awful stomach cramps and went really dizzy and I thought I was goint to faint.I had to leave my customer and go and lie down in the toilets.As soon as I felt a little less dizzy I got back to my desk and drank salted water with between 1 to 2 teaspoons of salt altogether, I just drank it until I felt better.Within about 15 minutes the stomach cramps went and I started to feel better.I didn't need to take any extra hc so I think it was definitely low sodium related rather than low cortisol.Now I feel just a little tired and drained.
So I feel stuck because although I do need the potassium it seems to just push my sodium down.I've posted before about the effectiveness of the otc potassium I'm taking and I'm just not sure it's doing it for me, even though it should be quite easily absorbed in the form it's in.Is it possible that it's just hitting my system too quickly and that I'm just having too many ups and downs with it and it's pushing the sodium down because of this?
I already have some generic slow k (span-k)-all I can get hold of as I can't get a script- but I've been putting off trying this due to cost issues but I can't continue with the chest pain and the potassium chloride powder doesn't seem to be doing the job effectively.I already dose it 4 times a day and I take it with the salt to minimize ups and downs.I can't stop the florinef as the sodium is so important to me.
Yesterday I also tried adding in a little bit of medrol during the day-was going to reduce my hc a little and find a balance between the two but I now think I need to put this on hold while my sodium levels seem low as the hc seems to help me retain sodium (I've not yet reduced the hc so can easily backtrack on this).
Sorry for the length of this but I feel exasperated!
Karen
A few weeks ago my sodium levels felt good-I was putting on some weight-good for me as I have a very low weight and seems for me to be an indicator of good sodium rentention when it normalizes a little, felt reasonably energetic and my bp was rising sometimes and sometimes by 10 points-was on a few occassions 110/64 sitting 120/68 standing!
I did however seem to be getting more chest pain which seems to be related to my low potassium and is really scary so two weeks ago I increased the potassium to around 4000mg and this reduced the chest pain, although didn't completely get rid of it .It also helped reduce my anxiety a little so I think the low potassium is putting a drain on my cortisol levels.Could this be the case?
Anyway over the last week or so I've had a couple of feeling lightheaded moments and not feeling as energetic and have had the urgency to go to the loo more often, particularly during the night.My bp yesterday still rose but only be one point.My appetite as also been struggling again.
This lunchtime I was with a customer at work and I suddenly went really really hot, got awful stomach cramps and went really dizzy and I thought I was goint to faint.I had to leave my customer and go and lie down in the toilets.As soon as I felt a little less dizzy I got back to my desk and drank salted water with between 1 to 2 teaspoons of salt altogether, I just drank it until I felt better.Within about 15 minutes the stomach cramps went and I started to feel better.I didn't need to take any extra hc so I think it was definitely low sodium related rather than low cortisol.Now I feel just a little tired and drained.
So I feel stuck because although I do need the potassium it seems to just push my sodium down.I've posted before about the effectiveness of the otc potassium I'm taking and I'm just not sure it's doing it for me, even though it should be quite easily absorbed in the form it's in.Is it possible that it's just hitting my system too quickly and that I'm just having too many ups and downs with it and it's pushing the sodium down because of this?
I already have some generic slow k (span-k)-all I can get hold of as I can't get a script- but I've been putting off trying this due to cost issues but I can't continue with the chest pain and the potassium chloride powder doesn't seem to be doing the job effectively.I already dose it 4 times a day and I take it with the salt to minimize ups and downs.I can't stop the florinef as the sodium is so important to me.
Yesterday I also tried adding in a little bit of medrol during the day-was going to reduce my hc a little and find a balance between the two but I now think I need to put this on hold while my sodium levels seem low as the hc seems to help me retain sodium (I've not yet reduced the hc so can easily backtrack on this).
Sorry for the length of this but I feel exasperated!
Karen