Tag: low salt

On June 11, I was taken to the hospital because I could no longer transfer from my wheelchair to the bed, other chairs, or the toilet without falling.  I thought I’d fallen four times in 4 days, but my son said it was more like seven times in 3 days.  I had just started a new medication for neuropathy and twitching muscles (part of my disability).  I’d also just gotten one of those “I’ve fallen and I can’t get  up” buttons, so each time I fell and pressed it they called emergency services and my son.  I also called my son a few times without calling emergency services. He lives a few blocks from me. 

I was nauseated, and light headed and was pretty sure the medication was at fault.  The last time emergency services came to get me off the floor, they strongly suggested I go to the hospital.  I argued, being hard-headed and sure everything would be okay if I stopped taking the meds.  When I argued about going to the hospital, my son stepped in and said very firmly that I was going to the hospital.  He’s as hard headed as me, and now he’s bigger than me.  The next thing I knew I was being loaded into an ambulance.  

Things went a bit blurry after that.  The next thing I remember was being in an emergency room.  Then more blurriness and I was in the Intensive Care Unit.  My sodium levels had dropped to 110, and if it had dropped any lower I could have gone into a coma or died. So, thank goodness for hard headed sons.

When your salt gets that low, they can’t just flood your body with salt or it could cause you to go into shock.  So they slowly brought my salt up in the ICU, then sent me to the “step down” unit, which is a step lower than ICU, but still required a blood test every 4 hours.  

When your sodium gets so low it affects your neurological system, muscular system, and brain activity.  I could not transfer or even stand up without assistance.  I had to be strapped to a physical therapist to move from the bed to a chair.

After my salt was close enough to normal, I was transferred to a rehab facility for two weeks where the real physical therapy began.  As my salt stabilized, and therapists worked with me for 3 hours a day, I could make safe transfers, use my manual wheelchair, stand up with a grab bar, and most importantly, transfer myself to the toilet. 

I got home last Monday, July 6, have had a PT assessment, and will have a therapist coming to work with me twice a week for 2 months.

I’ve always been the envy of my over 60 for my ability to still eat as much salt as I like.  The reason is I have a tendency for hyponatremia (low salt) because I have SIADH (sigh-add). SIADH (Syndrome of Inappropriate Antidiuretic Hormone Secretion) is a condition where the body releases too much antidiuretic hormone (ADH). This causes the kidneys to retain excess water, which dilutes blood sodium levels.

It’s very rare for a medication to cause such an extreme loss of salt, and my doctor said he’d never heard of it happening before and is researching the drug and recorded reactions to it.  Maybe his research will result in a big fat warning label for people with low salt.  

Meanwhile, I’ve been very glad to be home, glad to be alive, and glad to start blogging again.  When I became conscious of what happened to me, I was figured I was still on the planet to finish up paintings I’ve been planning and postponing for years.  And write more, too.

I had such good support from my friends who visited and brought flowers, food, and encouragement.  

I was so out of it, I was unable to comprehend what doctors and nurses were saying to me.  A dear friend stayed with me and took notes to send my family and close friends so they would know what was going on.  She sent them to me too because my brain was just not retaining information.   

I was worried about how much I was forgetting and miscomprehending and unable to communicate, so I told my nurse if it continued another month, I thought I should get a test for early onset dementia.  But she said to wait.  A month seems like a long time to me.  But in healing time it’s quite short.  Give myself at least three months.  And it’s true, every day I’m feeling just a bit better, a bit more energetic, and a bit smarter.   

So, again, I’m going to try to start blogging more often, and painting more and living as fully as possible.   I’ll be salty, too.

Thanks to the doctors, the excellent nurses, and everyone who helped me through this strange medical event.  

I’m so happy to be home.

~~~

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