Health update
OK I came out of the hospital Sunday afternoon about 3ish. The final conclusion on that whole chest pain mess was that my potassium and magnesium had dropped to low causing the chest pains. I have been diagnosed as being diabetic for 3 months now. For those three months I have been taking metformin and watching my diet.
Metformin causes me severe diarrhea, all day, every day. I have called my diabetes dr and she told me to keep taking the meds, as the diarrhea will eventually subside. I asked other diabetics who also take metformin about it and they also said the same basic thing, that the diarrhea will quit. It’s hard to work when I have to stop to use the restroom every 5 minutes, but hey gotta do what I have to do so I can work.
Well all that diarrhea finally caught up with me and caused the potassium and magnesium to drop so low. Now the diabetes dr has told me to eat 2 bananas a day. I am to replace the starches in my diet with the banana, that means no bread, noodles, or rice for 30 days until I get blood tested again. Wonderful right?
Well not only do I have to eat those 2 bananas a day, but any fruit that I can find that’s high in potassium I eat that as well, potatoes are also high in potassium so that’s a good choice as well, just in limited amounts. So all is good, oh yeah I have to take a multi-vitamin once a day that does contain both magnesium and potassium, so I am getting a whole lot of potassium everyday, right?
Well my poor febble brain got to thinking about all this potassium intake. If too little potassium is a bad thing, what about too much potassium, is that a bad thing as well? I asked the dr that discharged me from the hospital if too much potassium was a bad thing and can I get into trouble with it, I was told no. I asked the diabetes dr the same question and was also told no.
Well, curiousity was killing the cat (and I needed my swagbucks for the day) so I searched for too much potassium and came up with a condition called Hypoklemia and found out that too much potassium can cause cardiac problems as well as kidney disease.
Needless to say, I am robbing Peter to pay Paul come Friday and going see my own family dr and find out what’s going on with this whole situation. I can’t be doing myself more harm than good by eating all this potassium only to make matters worse.
I am open to any and all input from someone who has dealt with the same problems before,
Thanks,
Stephanie
PS I see my family dr at 730 in the morning, I will post an update after that. Thanks!
recommend this
email
print
link to this page
Comments: 15
Most people should eat at least 2300 mg a day. I've eaten up to 7500 mg a day in the past with no problem except a drop in blood pressure. Now, however, I can't eat that much now because my blood pressure gets too low.
Please eat your 2 banana's each day. Add spinach to your sandwich or eat a small spinach salad as a snack, it's high in potassium and shouldn't cause your blood sugar to rise as high as fruit.
My brother has diabetes and ended up in the hospital twice with an irregular heartbeat and other serious complications from getting too much potassium in his diet. He is diabetic, also, and one of his medications causes him to retain too much potassium in his system. After the first trip to the hospital, he was extra careful about his potassium intake, but he still ended up getting too much in his modified diet. The doctor changed his medicine, so hopefully this won't happen to him again, but the doctor stressed the fact that he could DIE from having too much potassium. Not only could the irregular heartbeat kill him but he could also damage his liver and kidneys and have them fail. Now he has to have regular blood tests to check his levels. Perhaps your doctor could arrange for them to check your levels at least for a little while until you are comfortable with your new medicine.
I hope that things settle down for you, and you adjust well to your medicine. Wishing you all the best.