Landed in the ER with a kidney stone and dangerously low Potassium Levels

kimkel
on 4/29/11 8:52 am - Ellsworth, ME
 Well I ended up waking my husband up Monday night at around 11:30 in horrible pain.  This pain was worse then labor pain and I have had 3 kids.  He took me to the ER and they found I had a kidney stone and on top of that they said my potassium levels were dangerously low.  The ER dr said that it was a good thing I came in because I could have died.  I had to go on 2 bags of Potassium and take 4 potassium pills while I was in the ER over the night.  They did get my potassium levels up but they were still below normal.  After quite the problems trying to get the correct prescription of potassium I picked up the kind that disolves in the water.  I will be trying it in a few minutes lets hope I can stomach it.  I have and some problems that is forsure with a pouch that got extremely irrirated from stress that caused me to be in a lot of pain.  Saw Dr. Toder for that and she put me on 2 meds for my stomach.  Finally started to get my stomach feeling better when the whole Kidney Stone and Low potassium happened.  On a good note I have gone down 4 pant sizes already and I will be 7 weeks out on this coming Monday.    I am a bit frustrated with the issues that I have had.  I still can't get in much for liquids and food.  Anyways I thought I would check in with you guys. :)
        
(deactivated member)
on 4/29/11 8:59 am - Santa Cruz, CA
So sorry to hear that you're having these problems, but glad that you've lost 4 pants sizes!

Hope you feel better soon.
curvaceousdiva
on 4/29/11 9:15 am - Hyattsville, MD
I had those problems HEAVY first out. Still have stones as mine wont pass. I take potasssium citrate daily for them. I used to have to get 3 bags of that potassium in my IV burning like fire...
Babygirl got her surgery March 3rd...     She's from 339 to 200 as of 6/14/2012.. SOO proud of my bigbabygirl                                                                   
vitalady
on 4/29/11 9:27 am - Puyallup, WA
RNY on 10/05/94
Tell us about your calcium and vit D regimen?

Michelle
RNY, distal, 10/5/94 

P.S.  My year + long absence has NOTHING to do with my WLS, or my type of WLS. See my profile.

kimkel
on 4/29/11 9:33 am - Ellsworth, ME
 I take 2 calcium chews a day 600 Plus D each.  Although I did have to stop them for a little over a week because my stomach was really irritated and my surgeon told me to stop them for a bit.  I have sense started them back up.  She just told me I can start my D3 back up.  I take 5000 a day.  I was taking 10000 a day prior to surgery.

Kim
vitalady
on 4/29/11 9:45 am - Puyallup, WA
RNY on 10/05/94
So they are calcium CARBONATE or what we refer to as Stone Seeds. They MAKE kidney stones.

To fix, use calcium citrate and magnesium citrate and whatever they told you on the potassium. The 3 support each other. Your potassium prolly crashed because you had no calcium on board! It was all stored in lil balls in your kidneys.

An old wive's tale is "lemonade for stones", because it is (wait for it) CITRIC ACID. It binds the bad bad oxalates and you pee them out. With carbonate, it makes stones faster than anything. I'd bet your blood calcium level is either way high or way low.

D at 5k is prolly not enough, but at 10k, if dry may pull all of them back into balance. Give your 600 chews to your worst enemy.

Michelle
RNY, distal, 10/5/94 

P.S.  My year + long absence has NOTHING to do with my WLS, or my type of WLS. See my profile.

kimkel
on 4/29/11 10:20 am - Ellsworth, ME
Oh My gosh I was taking the kind they told me to take and I was just looking on it I am so upset I was using the Caltrate Calcuim & Vit. D Soft Chews and it says on the back it is carbonate.  I was taking the Citrate kind and they told me I can't take those so I gave them away.  Why aren't the WLS Centers more knowledgeable about the vitamines you should really be taking.  

I will have to get my labs from the hospital where they tests my levels and then post them.

Kim
vitalady
on 4/29/11 10:30 am - Puyallup, WA
RNY on 10/05/94
Really, a lot of medical ppl do not know the diff. The OTC world is not their world.

Caltrate is kind of a catchy name. I can't tell you how many bottles of it I've taken out of ppl's hands at Costco. I grab it and replace with Citracal. They stare at me open mouth and "my doc said to take CITRATE," so I flip the bottles over. They are SO surprised.

There is a guideline out now on what we shold take, but seriously, most places say, "We've been doing it this way for 10 yrs, no point in changing now".

I've been trying to get the right labs tested when I meet with docs since the year 2000! They don't know it, don't understand it and don't want to learn it. The best surgeons in the world do not want this part of it. It's nothing personal.

I've finally come to the point that I can find a doc nearly anywhere I've met who's attended these conferences. I want them to know EVERYTHING about my gut. They can attend all those classes. Leave the vites to me, or at least mine. They need to know all kinds of details, what's likely to break, best equipment. DO THAT.

Michelle
RNY, distal, 10/5/94 

P.S.  My year + long absence has NOTHING to do with my WLS, or my type of WLS. See my profile.

kimkel
on 4/29/11 10:36 am - Ellsworth, ME
 I will be going right out after work tomorrow to get the right kind of calcuim.  I just took my first dose of the disolving tablets in water that is Potassium and now I am really sick to my stomach.  There has to be something better out there that I can take. I do know that my Potasium level was just a little above 2 then they gave me 2 bags of potassium and 4 pills then it was just under the normal range.

Kim
vitalady
on 4/29/11 4:46 pm - Puyallup, WA
RNY on 10/05/94
Just before you get tempted to replace the potassium, please note that most OTC potassium comes in 500mg, which is 99mg elemental.

The lowest dose of RX potassium is 10 MEQ.

To take cheapo potassium pills from the drug store is ok when they clear you for take off, but to try to replace the rx? No. You'd need 782 OTC ones to be equal to a 10 MEQ dose.

in other words, you can't get there from here.

Follow along til you get your potassium, calcium and magnesium all humming along in harmony.

Michelle
RNY, distal, 10/5/94 

P.S.  My year + long absence has NOTHING to do with my WLS, or my type of WLS. See my profile.

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