Text 22822, 70 rader
Skriven 2012-03-24 02:44:09 av Nancy Backus (1:261/1381.0)
  Kommentar till text 22178 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: Re: health mental 342
=============================
-=> Quoting MICHAEL LOO to NANCY BACKUS on 08 Mar 12  07:55:00 <=-

 NB>> Speaking of sodium imbalance... that's one of the things that kept my
 NB>> neighbor in the hospital longer than planned...  The doctors
 NB>> discovered after the fact that she couldn't clear all the sodium from
 NB>> the saline solution they'd been giving her pre and post surgery for the
 NB>> fracture.

 ML> When I was in the hospital, they did electrolytes at
 ML> least every day, The ion thingys are more important than
 ML> I would have thought: in Billy's case a small surplus of
 ML> potassium knocked him out for a couple days

She was pretty well bruised up from all the blood draws they were doing
by the time we left the hospital.  Apparently one can't just make a
quick return to "normal" when things are off, because that shocks the
system badly, too.  So they have to try for a slow return to where
things should be.  And it is indeed impressive how little an imbalance
of them can make things really not good... how critical balance is..

 NB>> A previous medication apparently has rendered her kidneys
 NB>> pretty much incapable of concentrating the urine to clear the sodium,
 NB>> so it was just building up in her system until they switched to
 NB>> dextrose solution and got serious about helping her body clear it...  

 ML> So kidney failure of some kind? An ugly condition. I hope
 ML> it's in some way remediable.

Not really kidney failure, precisely, just that they don't work right
for clearing out the sodium inbalance (if it should happen) in the
"normal" way.  There are meds that can help the kidneys do that
concentrating, and drinking lots of (non-salty) fluid to keep the
kidneys flushed out apparently works out fine also.
 
 NB>> I was thinking about your sodium problems at that point... ;0  We got a
 NB>> clearer picture of why she was always needing to drink so much water
 NB>> and other fluids...

 ML> Did she bloat up, never mind the incontinence?

No.  The only time I've ever seen her get fluid retention was when she
was on a med that was causing all kinds of other not-so-nice side
effects as well, and not working well for the problem at hand.

 NB>> it was the only way to keep things in balance all
 NB>> along, so even if it was contributing to incontinence problems, it was
 NB>> the lesser of evils, not the greater...  As always, I add to my medical
 NB>> knowledge every time I get stuck on hospital duty... ;/

 ML> As Nicholas says, "every day you learn something new, goddammit."

Yup.  Exactly.  ;)
 
 ML> She sees no pressing need for me to be there - but of
 ML> course she has a son (sometimes) and daughter-in-law
 ML> and two grandchildren (intermittently) and a brother
 ML> and sister-in-law (most of the time) and her book
 ML> co-author and some people from the historical society.
 ML> What I do do is keep her nourished; I guess that's my
 ML> role in life in general.

And an important one at that.  It would appear that you provide
nourishment not only bodily but also emotionally... (cf Billy as well,
etc... ).  It's an often unsung role, of course... :)

ttyl         neb

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